Building Eighty Six Strategies: A product experimentation lab that bridges strategy and technical execution through hands-on learning and systematic problem-solving.
After more than a decade inside complex healthcare organizations — CVS Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island, and RxBenefits — I developed a strong instinct for diagnosing operational problems. I could quickly identify where processes broke down, where teams misaligned, and where small structural changes could unlock meaningful outcomes.
What I could not do was build the solution myself. Turning ideas into reality meant handing them off to analysts, developers, or external vendors. Those handoffs introduced friction: context was lost, priorities shifted, and the final product often solved the specification rather than the underlying problem.
The gap between diagnosis and execution was the bottleneck.
Launched Eighty Six Strategies as an experimentation lab to develop hands-on fluency with modern development workflows. Intentionally narrow initial scope: landing pages, automated lead funnels, and operational dashboards. Curiosity drove the rest—each project exposed new constraints that pulled deeper into the systems behind the tools.
Instead of following a traditional curriculum, the stack expanded organically through the friction of building real solutions for real problems.
Each build reinforced the same principle: when the person diagnosing the problem can also prototype the solution, iteration speeds up dramatically. This shifted thinking from recommendations to systems—things that can be built, tested, and improved in real time.
Identified the core gap: strategy expertise without execution capability. Mapped every friction point in the handoff between diagnosis and implementation — lost context, shifted priorities, solutions that addressed specs rather than root problems.
Created Eighty Six Strategies as a hands-on lab. Started with landing pages and lead funnels, then expanded organically — each project surfaced new constraints that pulled deeper into web development, AI-assisted workflows, and automation infrastructure.
Compounded each iteration. Skills from one project accelerated the next. What started as basic page builds evolved into full-stack systems — automated pipelines, data dashboards, and AI-driven qualification workflows that run autonomously.
Component-based sites built for conversion, speed, and organic visibility
Intent-based content architecture that compounds organic traffic over time
SMS + CRM workflows that qualify leads and trigger follow-ups autonomously
Operational reporting that transforms raw data into executive-ready narratives
Developed practical competency in web development, AI-assisted workflows, and automation systems through project-driven learning.
Removed the feedback loop lag between strategy and execution. Ideas can now be prototyped, tested, and refined in days rather than weeks or months.
Shifted from pure strategy work to systems thinking. Now approaches product marketing, go-to-market strategy, and operational problem-solving as buildable, testable systems.
The best strategic decisions come from hands-on understanding of systems. When you're responsible for both diagnosis and implementation, the quality of thinking improves. Friction is eliminated. Iteration becomes immediate. This shift — from pure strategist to strategist-builder — is becoming the foundation of how value is created in complex environments.
Skills Demonstrated