JOHN HILMES
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Consumer Aviation 0→1 — 2020–24

KinectAir.

Point-to-point private aviation across 5,000+ FAA airfields — a new product category taken from service design to launch.

Role
Chief Product Officer
Folio

Led the product from early service design through launch — Director of Experience → Head of Product → CPO — connecting customer booking, flight operations, aircraft availability, and pricing in one point-to-point experience. No precedent to copy, so every decision was a first-principles call validated against real users.

Built the product organization from scratch: research practice, prototyping cadence, usability testing loop, and a feedback system connecting support directly to product priorities.

The work ran wider than the app: Nodal, a ground-network concept for point-to-point terminals; and Open Access, the world's first NFT airline loyalty program, built with a team of designers, illustrators, and developers.

FIG. 01 — Point-to-point booking across 5,000+ FAA airfields
FIG. 01 — Point-to-point booking across 5,000+ FAA airfields
FIG. 02 — Route view — New York to Vineyard Haven
FIG. 02 — Route view — New York to Vineyard Haven
FIG. 03 — Departure-time slider, fly.kinectair.com
FIG. 03 — Departure-time slider, fly.kinectair.com
FIG. 04 — Nodal — ground-network terminal concept
FIG. 04 — Nodal — ground-network terminal concept
FIG. 05 — Nodal — terminal terrace
FIG. 05 — Nodal — terminal terrace
FIG. 06 — The Future of Flying — category roadmap
FIG. 06 — The Future of Flying — category roadmap
FIG. 07 — Open Access series — Pilatus PC-12
FIG. 07 — Open Access series — Pilatus PC-12
FIG. 08 — Open Access series — Cirrus
FIG. 08 — Open Access series — Cirrus