I began my career as a software engineer at Gemcom Software. I was hired to implement a sub-level caving module for Gems. It was a pilot project in partnership with SRK Consulting to create a one-stop-shop solution to design and production schedule a sub-level cave mine. I remember my boss telling me on my first day that this was going to be my baby. And he gave complete freedom over it. Now, a number of years later, I am incredibly thankful for being given this opportunity. I could spend as much time as I wanted with a potential user, and this is how the product started. And I strongly believe this is why it was so successful – it started with the user. We spent a lot of time together, sitting next to each other for a few months, throwing ideas together, iterating, discussing. I was learning about mining engineering and he was learning about software engineering. The first version did not work, so we reiterated and implemented the second version. This was when I realized that it is incredibly important to understand that most of the ideas are not going to work and it is going to take several iterations to find a solution. This product is now called PCSLC.

After it was implemented, there came time to market it. Naturally I was sent to several mine sites to present it. PCSLC was very well received, and sales went well. I began my travels to various mine sites worldwide training mining engineer and setting up their projects for them. I took pride in establishing close working relationships with many people during my consulting work and realized that when trust was established, ideas flowed. I wanted to continue to be involved in development, but my focus would shift to working with users to identify their pain points, what they were struggling with, figuring out solutions, feasibility of developing those solutions. Watching users use the software was invaluable as I could recommend better workflows right on the spot. Also, being a developer, I was able to make minor code changes immediately. Our team did not have a formal Product Manager at the time, but I was the informal one.

This brings me to my current chapter. After exploring a few different possibilities, I have decided to continue my career in Product Management. I feel my ability to establish rapport and trust with users, allowing them to disclose many pain points that may seemed irrelevant to them, but very important to software engineers and business stakeholders, is vital to becoming a successful Product Manager. I have completed a Product Management Certification from the University of Alberta. While transitioning, I realized that my business skills may be lacking. I also needed to add structure to my Product Management skills. So, for the last 2 years, I have been continuously taking courses in business and product management.

My first job after leaving Dassault was at Carlson (coal mining software company), where I was hired to revamp their software to make it more marketable to metal mining clients. I evaluated what they had, wrote a comprehensive report on why what they had was not working and what they needed to change. We crafted the vision and strategy with the mining engineering team. I developed the roadmap, converted it to user stories, then to requirements for the engineers to implement.

I was very excited to be recruited by Orica Digital (drilling and blasting company) on a contract basis to assist in integrating Orica’s newly purchased start-up company OREPro 3D. Its release was 4 months behind schedule when I started due to many different stakeholders with conflicting priorities. They needed a clear and concise roadmap. I worked with all stakeholder to understand their priorities and the reasonings behind those priorities. I then determined the product map to manage the evolution and rollout. It was released 5 months after I started.