John Costello - Product Leader

About Me

Designing the next generation of product organisations - AI-enabled, outcome-driven, built to scale. Previously Head of Product for a €27M ARR platform, where I led a full organisational turnaround. Now exploring VP/CPO roles with mission-driven SaaS companies.

I have spent my career helping product organisations move from reactive delivery to intentional, outcome-driven systems. The next stage of that work is AI-assisted product leadership. Not as a novelty, but as a way to improve clarity, accelerate learning, and strengthen decisions across teams. My focus is on building the structure, culture, and delivery rhythm that allows teams to adopt AI without losing craft, curiosity, or judgement. The goal is not to replace product thinking. It is to amplify it.

Most recently, I served as Head of Product at Provet Cloud (Nordhealth), where I led the turnaround of the Product, Design, and UX organisation. In 16 months, we moved from a fragmented, reactive setup to a focused and scalable product operation with clear strategy, accountable triads, a unified design system, and AI-enabled delivery. That work resulted in stronger customer adoption, renewed enterprise confidence, and the successful launch of the company’s first Clinical AI product. Before Nordhealth, I delivered global product outcomes at Zendesk, HubSpot, and other high-growth SaaS companies. This included launching enterprise reporting capabilities, scaling AI-powered search experiences, co-authoring a US patent, and co-founding ProductTank Dublin, now more than 4,000 members. The common thread throughout these roles has been the same. I build product organisations that scale with clarity rather than chaos.

What I Do Best

  • Build and stabilise product organisations during scale, turnaround, or ambiguity
  • Shift teams from feature output to outcome ownership
  • Bring AI into product practice—not just as features, but as operating leverage
  • Design Voice of Customer systems that drive roadmap, not just dashboards
  • Turn strategy into delivery with pace, focus, and accountability

My Leadership Philosophy

Speed matters, but clarity is what makes speed sustainable.
Speed matters, but clarity is what makes speed sustainable. I lead with structure, empathy, and expectation-setting—not noise or theatrics. My job is to create the conditions where smart people can deliver meaningful work at pace, without burning out or guessing what "good" looks like.

What I'm Working On Now

I am now preparing for my next executive role, ideally as VP or CPO within a mission-driven SaaS company where calm leadership, product-led growth, and a modern approach to AI are part of the operating culture rather than an afterthought.

Quick Profile

Based in Ireland
Former Head of Product, Provet Cloud
20+ years in SaaS product leadership
AI-first transformation + VoC specialist
Speaker, coach, system-level thinker

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Access my complete curriculum vitae with detailed experience, case studies, and transformation outcomes.

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Want to Connect?

Speaking, advisory, or collaboration opportunities. Mission-driven SaaS and product-led scale-ups preferred.

Contact Me

Core Expertise

• Build & stabilise product organisations
• AI-first strategy implementation
• Voice of Customer programmes
• Output → outcome transformation
• Strategic roadmap development
• Clarity over chaos leadership

Featured Case Studies

Transformation outcomes from AI-first product leadership

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Agentic AI Leadership Programme

To support the company’s pivot to an AI-first strategy, the organisation needed more than AI features — it needed product teams who could *think, desi...

Case Study
Transformation outcomes & insights
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1 min read

Triads with Clear Ownership Model

Ownership was spread across functions, not outcomes. Teams worked the same areas without knowing who owned what.

Case Study
Transformation outcomes & insights
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1 min read

How I turned a leading Vet SAAS R&D Into a Scalable, AI-Led Product Organisation

Provet Cloud was a €27M ARR veterinary SaaS platform growing quickly into enterprise markets — but the product organisation wasn’t built to scale with...

Case Study
Transformation outcomes & insights
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Ready for Your Next Executive Role?

I'm preparing for my next executive role in 2026, focusing on mission-driven SaaS and product-led scale-ups. Let's connect if you're building something that values clarity over chaos.