Strategy and craft, working together.

I'm Matt Silva, a creative technologist and fractional product leader who asks hard questions, builds alongside you, and stays engaged until you achieve your goals.

Get in touch

Built for the long arc.

After a decade working in high-growth startups, reaching Head of Product and Director levels, I started Northlight Studios to build more intentionally alongside mission-driven founders.

Northlight is steady and diffused; the kind of light that reveals things clearly without distorting them. That's the quality behind this work: patient inquiry, thoughtful making, and genuine investment in what you're building. Meaningful change happens through iteration, across many hands, often in ways you don't expect. That's the kind of work I think matters.

Health and wellness is my comfort zone. But what I really care about is helping people change: how they live, how they eat, how they move, and how they express themselves.

How we work together.

i.

You get my full attention

I take on one or two engagements at a time. I'm genuinely invested in the work, alongside the team, in the details with you.

ii.

We build for the long haul

Meaningful products take time to get right. I work in extended engagements, long enough to build real trust and ship something that lasts, short enough that we both stay honest about why we're here.

iii.

We think and make together

I think through the problem and help build the solution. Thinking and making stay connected, so strategy stays grounded in reality.

iv.

We work across borders

Remote and timezone-flexible. I work with teams in the US and Europe, overlapping mornings or evenings with wherever you are.

Sounds like a fit? Get in touch

Selected Work.

Health

Health Tech Startup

A French health startup was struggling to find product-market fit. I helped them navigate a pivot, doing the research and strategy work to identify a new direction while sustaining the existing product. That work led them to focus on blood pressure monitoring using a smartphone camera. I prototyped the new product, turning the strategy into something the team could see and react to. The result was a working demo that clarified the vision internally and opened up conversations with investors and stakeholders.

Civic

Nonprofit Think Tank

A nonprofit think tank was looking to deepen its relationship with key stakeholders and grow its audience. I helped them clarify who they were trying to reach, rebranded their main content product, and added features to help them stay connected with an early audience. Working closely with their team, we built a rhythm of shipping steadily while staying thoughtful about what to prioritize. The work gave them both a stronger public face and a product process they could sustain on their own.

Health

Zero Longevity Science

Zero Longevity Science is on a mission to change how people relate to food and their own health. As Head of Product, I led the evolution of the app from a simple fasting tracker into a holistic health platform, expanding what the product could mean for people trying to take control of their long-term wellbeing. We launched Zero Plus, a premium subscription that helped the company grow from pre-revenue to millions in ARR. I built and led the product team, setting the strategy and working alongside them to execute it.

Security

Physical Security Startup

A physical security startup building tech to help retailers prevent theft and vandalism needed help scaling. I've simplified the product, streamlined operations, implemented automations, and reduced compliance overhead. In a recent compliance renewal project, I used AI to reduce policy volume by 70% and evidence burden by 50%, letting a lean team punch above its weight.

Health

Fitbit

Fitbit built a category around a simple but powerful idea: that movement is also exercise. That reframing changed how millions of people thought about their own health. As people moved more, Fitbit introduced more experiences around exercise to help them achieve their goals. I led the development of SmartTrack, Fitbit's automatic exercise detection feature that removed the friction of manual logging and made exercise tracking effortless. It was the first of its kind, beating Apple to market. The experience taught me a lot about using tech to drive meaningful behavior change.

Interested in working together? Get in touch

Words from the work.

Matt helped us think through our strategy during a pivot, and built prototypes that brought the new direction to life. His contribution at both levels resulted in a clearer product vision that was easier to communicate to stakeholders and investors.

Benoît Georis · CEO, i-Virtual

Matt helped us launch our first product from scratch, wearing whatever hat the moment required: PM, strategist, sounding board. He stayed close to the work, not just the roadmap, and brought a rhythm to shipping that made the team faster and more thoughtful at the same time.

Sebastian Sogamoso · Engineer, Sendas

Matt was good at pulling us out of the detail and asking why. And then helping with well-thought-out frameworks to tackle the problem at hand.

Tara Louise Reddy · Chief Product Officer, ROLI

If you're doing work that matters, I'd like to hear about it.

I take on one or two new engagements a year. If you'd like to explore working together, tell me about what you're building.