AI Product & Project Leader
Nick Bernon
I am a Senior Product Leader and Project Manager based in Wicklow, Ireland, specialising in AI product development and taking complex technical projects from conception to launch.
Brands Worked With
Building digital products and platforms for global brands and national institutions:
Technical Focus
With a background spanning computer science, management, and product design, I bridge the gap between engineering squads, UX designers, and business stakeholders. I advocate for a high-velocity prototyping philosophy, driving internal AI transformation and scaling AI-augmented workflows across live client portals to streamline requirements scoping and modernise product delivery.
Beyond the Code
Outside of work, I enjoy heading outdoors or spending time on personal interests:
- Freediving & Spearfishing: I am a spearfisher and freediver who spent years diving in Sydney and continues to dive off the Irish coast.
- Travel: I have lived in Australia, Ireland, and France, and travelled across many parts of the world before returning home to the Wicklow Hills.
- Other Interests: I love tennis & football, listen to all music, and remain the unofficial Dublin Mario Kart 64 Champion 2018.
Education / Gamified
Mental Maths
Mental Maths is a cognitive lab and calculation gym designed to expand short-term working memory span and teach powerful mental maths techniques through interactive gaming protocols.
Core Training Protocols
- The Chain: A sequence of rapid, flashing operations. Players must calculate the running total in their heads without writing anything down, testing pure cognitive retention.
- Decomposition Lab: Breaks down complex multi-digit arithmetic into modular steps. Features a unique "Brain Cache" with memory slots that slowly fade away to train temporary storage.
- Technique Academy: An interactive shortcut library teaching tricks like double & halve, multiplying by 11, and squaring numbers ending in 5 with step-by-step trace explanations.
Gamified Progression
Includes cognitive level tracking (Lv. 1–99), XP advancement, streak fire metrics, and dynamic badge achievements stored locally.
Play Mental Maths
Slack App / Game
Slack Lemmings
Slack Lemmings is an interactive, crowd-psychology game built for Slack workspaces, themed after the classic 1991 Amiga/DOS game by DMA Design. Workspace members answer survey questions and compete not by being "correct," but by matching the most popular responses of the herd.
Core Features
- AI Semantic Answer Grouping: Integrates Anthropic's Claude API to group player answers semantically (e.g., merging "football," "soccer," and "footy") so players are scored fairly regardless of phrasing or spelling differences.
- Dramatic Timed Reveal Engine: A custom asynchronous sequencer in TypeScript that posts timed, suspense-building reveal messages in the Slack channel, counting down from least popular to most popular answers.
- Interactive Slack Modals: Built with the Slack Bolt SDK and Socket Mode, allowing private submission dialogs for players to enter responses in secret.
- Local CSV Triage Pipeline: Writes AI-grouped responses to a local CSV file, allowing game hosts to review and audit groupings in Excel before running the final reveal.
Architecture & Tech Stack
Built with Node.js, TypeScript, Slack Bolt, and SQLite (via better-sqlite3) for lightweight game-state storage. Deployed on Railway with pixel-art imagery generated via DALL-E 3.
Multiplayer Game
Knockers
Knockers is a tactical, turn-based physics board game built around crowd-control and momentum, where two opposing factions (the Hero Rock Team vs. the Evil Rock Team) battle to knock each other off a suspended board into "the ether."
Core Mechanics
- Dynamic Upgrade System: Both teams start with 8 light rocks. Upgrades are earned dynamically: knocking 2 opponents into the ether upgrades your character to a medium rock, and knocking a total of 4 opponents promotes it to a heavy, large rock.
- 360° Rotation & Launch Vector: Players select a rock on their turn, drag to rotate its trajectory indicator a full 360 degrees, and hold the charge bar to set launch speed.
- Risk-Reward Stall System: Holding the charge button longer yields greater kinetic force, but charging past the "Stall Point" causes a stall, forfeiting the player's turn.
- Snooker-style Physics: Implements realistic elastic collisions factoring in rock weights, friction deceleration, and bounce coefficients, complete with a visual shrink-and-fall effect when rocks plunge into the dark ether.
Custom Admin Sandbox
Includes a dedicated physics configuration dashboard, allowing administrators to modify friction rates, individual rock weights, rotation sensitivities, turn timers, and stall thresholds in real time.
AI / Productivity
Digital Personal Assistant
Internally code-named Betty, this is a privacy-first, local-first personal assistant designed to replace traditional kanban task management boards (like Trello or Jira) with a revolutionary, gesture-driven "Anti-Board" interface.
Core Features
- Task Autopilot & Action Execution: Integrates an autonomous agent engine capable of executing tasks on the user's behalf (e.g., conducting web research or scraping recommendations) and dispatching external triggers (sending WhatsApp messages or emails) under strict local safety guardrails.
- Morphing Command Bar (ActionAnchor): A dynamic input bar powered by framer-motion that morphs from a voice-recording node (Web Speech API) into a text command console for rapid task capture.
- Local-First Markdown Store: Zero-knowledge architecture storing tasks as raw Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, bridged to the UI via a lightweight Node.js Express server.
- Swipe Triage Feed: An intuitive task feed featuring horizontal swipe gestures: swipe right for optimistic completion, and swipe left to defer tasks to temporal buckets (Today, Tomorrow, Someday).
- Calendar Aggregator: A local ICS parser (node-ical) that dynamically imports and overlays calendar events with custom gradient watermark graphics.
Architecture & Hosting
Built with React, Vite, Tailwind CSS, and Node.js. Hosted locally on a Raspberry Pi server and securely tunnelled to mobile using ngrok tunnels with basic auth for secure, off-grid task control.
Proptech / Web
Dublish.ie
Dublish.ie is a high-performance property valuation and research platform for the Dublin housing market. It aggregates and cleanses records for over 200,000+ real estate transactions from the national Property Price Register (PPR), helping home buyers know what a property is actually worth before bidding.
Core Features
- Advanced Geospatial Search: A lightning-fast instant search engine indexing Dublin addresses, districts, and streets with automatic location suggestions.
- Financial Calculators Suite: Integrated mortgage tools including Affordability checks, Rent vs. Buy analysis, and government scheme calculators.
- Market Analytics & Trends: Side-by-side district comparison grids plotting median sale prices, YoY capital growth percentages, energy ratings, and area-specific velocity trends.
- Astro-Optimised Performance: Engineered for sub-second static loads and high SEO scores using server-side rendering (SSR), Astro component architectures, and responsive dark mode support.
Data Ecosystem
Syncs raw public transaction histories with custom database indexers, enabling user accounts to bookmark favourites, track market alerts, and compare localised property transactions.
Visit Dublish.ie
