Product Operating Systems
Tessera brings together Silicon Valley Product Group principles, battle-tested operational playbooks, and native AI integration — systematically — so your product org operates like a system, not a collection of projects.
Dave Hoffman spent two decades as a product executive at Micros, Upserve, and Shift4 — building product organizations, installing discovery practices, and steering product strategy. Tessera isn't a framework borrowed from a book. It's what works, refined across real companies facing real pressure.
Former VP Product at Micros (acquired by Oracle), Head of Product at Upserve, and Product Leadership at Shift4. Built and scaled product teams through hyper-growth, acquisition, and market pivots. Now advising software companies that want to stop improvising and start operating.
The operating system
Each piece is deliberate. Together, they form something greater than any individual component — like a tessera in a mosaic.
Grounded in Silicon Valley Product Group thinking — empowered teams, structured discovery, and honest product strategy. Not a slide deck. A way of operating.
Systematic, repeatable models for installing a product operating system. Not theory — the actual mechanics of how strong product organizations run, documented and adaptable to your context.
AI woven into discovery, strategy, and team workflows — not as a gimmick, but as a genuine productivity multiplier. Native to your operating model, not bolted on.
Who it's for
If your product org is running hard but not moving forward — lots of sprints, no real momentum — you're not a team problem. You're a system problem. Tessera is for companies that are ready to operationalize a real product model.
Post-product-market-fit, post-hunting-phase. Ready to build a real product engine.
Teams that can ship but can't articulate strategy. The roadmap is full but the direction is blurry.
Founders, CPOs, and VPs who know the chaos approach has run out of road.
You understand that process and systems aren't overhead — they're leverage.
How we work
Understand your current state — how decisions get made, how discovery happens, how the org is structured. Find the pressure points, not the symptoms.
Build the operating model — the principles, playbooks, and AI integrations that fit your company and your people. Not borrowed from a template; designed for your context.
Implement alongside your team. Run the rituals, train the people, embed the workflows. We stay until it's working — not until the contract ends.
Ready to operate?
No pitch deck. No vendor checklist. Just a direct conversation about where you are, where you want to be, and whether Tessera is the right fit.
Let's talkOr reach out directly: dave@tesserapartners.com