Meet The Team

We have done it all and seen it all. We have worked at large companies and full-service consultancies, leading digital product transformation for some of the most well-known brands in the world.

Because we’ve walked in your shoes, we know what it takes to reach the summit. We’re committed to building services that fit your needs and are focused on consistent and durable KPI growth.

Founder

Brian Cahak

Brian is a creator, strategist, and business builder at heart. He has spent over 25 years building teams, building customer-centric companies, and helping humans achieve their highest potential at work.

Founder

Jared Bauer

Jared has an entrepreneurial spirit and is passionate about leveraging quantitative and qualitative data to create great customer experiences and drive measurable business results

Growth Strategy

Jin Wei Ni

Jin Wei is a creative and tenacious problem solver. She is passionate about product, strategy, and quantitative/qualitative research to enable business growth. She is also zealous about people/teams, inclusiveness and change management!

Growth Strategy

Sam Wettling

Sam’s core belief is that people are ultimately what solve problems, not technology on its own. He has spent over fifteen years bringing teams together and breaking down silos to help them achieve more than they ever thought possible.

Data & Analytics

Tyler Theofilos

Tyler is an analytics expert with a decade-plus track record of using business data to uncover statistical insights about the customer experience, all in the service of helping customers achieve their goals.

Experimentation & Personalization

Keith Swiderski

Keith is a Digital and e-commerce leader with a proven track record of success in leading direct-to-consumer Digital, Experimentation and Analytics strategy for major brands across healthcare, financial services, travel, and consumer electronics industries with innovative solutions to grow company KPIs.

Engineering

Haniel Lopez

Haniel has over 13 years of experience building full-stack solutions, leading talented teams, and driving innovation. He is passionate about optimizing client experiences through experimentation and web app performance improvements.

Research

Sarah Bowlin

Sarah has 11 years of experience as a mixed methods user experience researcher, leading research ops for large tech companies and building the research discipline at small startups. She believes every organization makes better decisions with qualitative and quantitative data from real people using their product or service.

Growth Strategy

Erik Sheehan

Erik is an accomplished and dedicated digital leader with a focus on enabling product and innovation growth through data activation and decision making. He holds a firm belief that leveraging data to inform the problem solving process that is the core to Product Management is what separates industry leading brands from their peers. He has spent over 15 years developing the experience and skillset to help organizations flex these muscles to drive meaningful growth on the KPIs that matter to both your business and your customers.

We’re Innovators. Strategists. Builders. Operators.

Every organization is familiar with the various functional areas within its structure. It's common knowledge. However, consider this: when was the last time all these teams worked in harmony, sharing the same objectives, employing the same methodology, and measuring success with the same KPIs? When such alignment occurs, it's nothing short of transformative.

As former business leaders and operators ourselves, we walk alongside you—teaching, doing, building, and executing—so you can lead your business on the path to consistent, durable growth.

Categories - how Zilker Trail Consulting accelerates your ability to transform insights to action to consistent growth

"We’ll focus on the process. Focus on the work. Focus on each other. Focus on winning for our clients and partners – those who’ve taken a material chance on us. This focus is what brings joy. Winning is a game of inches driven by curiosity, empathy, deep focus on problems and solutions and teamwork. When we do this right – the inch by inch work – the fruit will be the human journey (ZTer’s, clients and partners), the opportunity to build true craft in our practice areas, and the opportunity to lead the quality life that craft excellence enables us to lead. The real fruit is not the destination and is not in the ego stroking pats on the back you will receive by many well-meaning friends when we “finish”. We’re convinced the focus on the destination and the deep desires of the human ego to be recognized for this journey are, in fact, the toxins that kill its real joy and, frankly, ruin lives. We’re convinced the mountaintop is far less fulfilling than the journey of 1,000 miles to get there. We’re convinced the joy is in the struggle of building something great. Let’s go on this journey. Together. "

Brian Cahak, Founder