Kyle Hustek, Senior Product Manager

I build products that make complex work simpler, faster, and more impactful.

Senior Product Manager with deep advertising and media experience, focused on turning complex workflows and real user needs into practical products that save time and improve how teams work.

I spent years using advertising workflows before I started building them.

That firsthand experience helps bridge the gap between users, stakeholders, and technical teams — making it easier to understand the real problem and build solutions people actually want to use.

01

2006–2022

Advertising Sales & Media Investment

02

2022–Present

Product Management in Ad Tech

03

ALWAYS

User First

HOW I SOLVE PROBLEMS

Start with the user and simplify the experience.

01

Understand

Talk to users and observe the real workflow.

02

Define

Identify the real problem worth solving.

03

Align

Bring Engineering, QA, and stakeholders into the solution.

04

Build

Turn the problem into clear requirements and a clear path to delivery.

05

Launch

Communicate early, train users, and document the change.

06

Learn

Keep the feedback loop open and continuously improve.

HOW I LEAD

Good products are built by teams that want to work together.

Create an environment where people feel valued, understand why the work matters, and have the space to do their best work.

01

Build Trust

Recognize contributions, give credit before taking it, and make everyone involved feel like part of the team. Strong trust creates stronger partnerships and more invested teams.

02

Protect the Team's Time

Keep meetings purposeful and avoid filling calendars with conversations that don't need to happen. Protect focused time for meaningful work and better decisions.

03

Create Positive Energy

Recognize wins, thank people for their work, and bring some lightheartedness into the room. Serious work can still happen in an environment people enjoy being part of.

04

Look Beyond the Backlog

Find friction, risk, and inefficiencies before they become formal requests. Take ownership beyond the boundaries of the title when there's an opportunity to make the product or organization better.

FEATURED CASE STUDIES

Product work with measurable impact.

ACTIVE DAYS

Automating Schedule Building

PROBLEM

Sales and Operations were rebuilding schedules manually whenever dayparts changed, often requiring dozens of repetitive adjustments. Losing track during line building could mean starting portions of the process over.

BEFORE

~100

Manual adjustments

AFTER

1

Streamlined action

20–40
minutes saved per WIP

OWNERSHIP

Identified the workflow problem and originated the product concept. Defined the desired experience, gathered requirements, wrote user stories and specifications, and partnered with Engineering and QA through development, testing, and launch.

SOLUTION

Created a streamlined scheduling experience that allows users to start with avails, define hiatus days or weeks, customize schedule areas, and automatically remove spots that fall outside established criteria.

IMPACT

Reduced a process that could require roughly 100 manual adjustments to a single streamlined action. Used multiple times each day by Sales and Operations, saving approximately 20–40 minutes per WIP.

POLITICAL ADVERTISING

Streamlining Political Advertising Workflows

PROBLEM

Political advertising workflows required too many manual steps and frequent trips outside the platform to gather information, creating unnecessary work for Sales and Operations.

BEFORE

Manual

& outside the platform

AFTER

Automated

& in-platform

~30%
reduction in required workforce effort

OWNERSHIP

Served as the primary product contact between stakeholders and Engineering. Translated business needs into product requirements, shaped the solution, and guided implementation from discovery through delivery.

SOLUTION

Automated multiple workflow steps, brought key information directly into the platform, prefilled data where possible, and improved status visibility throughout the process.

IMPACT

Stakeholders reported an estimated 30% reduction in required workforce effort, with expected long-term savings reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary costs across future political cycles.

PLATFORM MODERNIZATION

Application Modernization & Risk Reduction

PROBLEM

A security incident exposed a fragmented application landscape with limited visibility into what many legacy tools did, who owned them, who still used them, or whether they were still needed.

OWNERSHIP

Took ownership of much of the modernization effort by identifying legacy applications, documenting purpose and ownership, locating active users, and evaluating whether each tool should be retired, consolidated, rebuilt, or moved into the core platform.

SOLUTION

Worked with stakeholders and Engineering to preserve the functionality users still needed while rebuilding or consolidating it into a more modern, consistent, and easier-to-maintain platform experience.

IMPACT

Helped retire more than 20 applications, reducing unsupported and duplicate tooling, lowering maintenance and security risk, simplifying future support, and creating a more consistent experience across the platform.

BEFORE

Legacy

disconnected applications

AFTER

Modern

consolidated platform

20+

applications helped retire

PRODUCT PRINCIPLE

I don't treat a stakeholder request as the solution. I start with the problem, understand the user, and work with Engineering and QA to find the best outcome for the product and the company.

EXPERIENCE

Product leadership built on industry experience.

Product Management

Senior Product Manager

Aug 2025 — Present

Product Manager

Aug 2022 — Aug 2025

Lead product discovery, workflow modernization, stakeholder alignment, and delivery across advertising technology products. Regularly identify problems beyond the immediate roadmap, translate complex business needs into clear product direction, and partner closely with Engineering and QA from discovery through launch.

Introduce and champion new product ideas each year, identifying opportunities beyond incoming requests and helping turn them into actionable initiatives.

Advertising & Media Foundation

Ampersand

Account Executive

Jan 2017 — Aug 2022

UM Worldwide

Senior Investment Associate

Mar 2012 — Jan 2017

Omnicom Media Group

Media Buyer

Apr 2010 — Mar 2012

PHD USA

Assistant Media Planner / Buyer

2006 — 2009

Core Strengths

Product Strategy
Cross-Functional Leadership
Relationship Building
People/Team Collaboration
Communication
Ad Tech Domain Expertise

OUTSIDE OF WORK

Outside of work, I'm usually spending time with family, getting into a good story, trying somewhere new to eat, or learning how to build something I didn't know how to build before.

+

Family & Sports

Family is a big part of my life. I spend a lot of time with my nieces and nephews, and I especially enjoy going to my nephew's sporting events. I'm also a big baseball fan and always enjoy having a game on or finding a reason to get to the ballpark.

Food & Traditions

One of my favorite things to do is go out with my dad and try to find the best burger around. We're always looking for a new place to try, and over time it's become less about the burger and more about having something we enjoy doing together.

Movies, Games & Stories

I love getting pulled into a good story, whether that's a movie, a TV series I can binge, a video game, or an audiobook. I'm always looking for the next thing that completely grabs my attention.

Learning & Building

I'm naturally curious and like figuring out how things work. Lately, that's meant learning more about AI, building this website, and experimenting with mobile apps and new product ideas. I really enjoy going from "I have no idea how to do this" to actually creating something that works.

Travel & New Experiences

I've started traveling more and want to keep exploring. I enjoy discovering places I haven't been before, trying local food, and getting outside of my normal routine.

LET'S CONNECT

Better products. Better ways of working.

Always open to conversations about product leadership, advertising technology, workflow modernization, and opportunities to simplify complex work for the people doing it every day.