Maxwell (Max) Davidoff
He/Him/His
MIIPS, 2027
This is how to say my name:
Why MIIPS?
MIIPS sits at the intersection of design, engineering, and business, the same intersection where I want to build my career. My background in architecture taught me to think deeply about users and design, while my experience in computer science and product management pushed me toward building and launching real products. MIIPS gives me the opportunity to deepen those capabilities through interdisciplinary, hands-on product work.The program’s philosophy that effective products require all three disciplines working together strongly resonates with me. It also offers a launchpad for creating my own products entrepreneurially, while grounding that learning in real-world work with commercial partners. What better way to build applicable experience while accelerating the growth this rapidly changing product landscape demands?
Education
B.A. in Architecture, minor in C.S. from the University of Pennsylvania
Experience
Product Management Intern at Zonda
What career achievement are you most proud of?
I am especially proud of my contributions and impact working as a PM intern at Zonda, a property tech company (recently acquired by CoStar). At Zonda, I worked across the company’s portfolio of B2B and B2C platforms: think satellite imagery used to map development in real time, to listing sites used to track consumer trends.
As a PM intern, I was prompted with the ambiguous task to improve data capture across their platforms whilst not compromising the user experience- an unassumingly difficult balance to strike. I approached this by conducting market research and analyzing backend data from their sites, eventually formalizing potential development opportunities. To demonstrate and test these new software changes, I defined the software logic while creating functional UI/UX mockups.
My final product solution fulfilled the task while supporting Zonda’s enterprise business model of aggregating proprietary data across their platforms. In doing so, the additional data would be used to inform the development of AI tools and workflows across Zonda’s enterprise and consumer facing platforms!
My work at Zonda was not only a success in demonstrating product strategy and turning it into tangible product solutions, but also in practicing efficient product management: doing more with less and extracting useful data with minimal additional development resources.
What type of role are you looking to obtain after you graduate?
I am planning on working in a product management/development role in the consumer facing tech space (either software or software + hardware). I am also highly interested in early stage startups and building out products from the ground up!