Coworking is a weekly segment where we spotlight Tech Brew readers who work with emerging technologies. Click here if you’d like a chance to be featured.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in tech?
To people not involved in product development and product management, I like to draw the following parallel: In 1960, President John F. Kennedy said we would put a man on the moon. That was the vision and the goal. He never explained how.
My job is to take that vision/program and translate into discrete products and their requirements. To identify the individual products, I talk to all kinds of engineers, astronomers, biologists, etc. With their input, I build specifications for each product (e.g., the rocket, the fuel for the rocket) and what the road map looks like (which product we deliver when). Then, each product team starts executing on their product. During this phase, I make sure that things stay on track, designs don’t change without communication to dependent teams, and that the products meet their quality goals. Once a product is ready for field testing, I keep track of how well it’s doing, what stakeholders like or don’t like about it, and plan updates or entirely new designs based on the feedback.
What’s the most compelling tech project you’ve worked on, and why?
I worked on quite a few interesting projects in my career. At Microsoft, I was part of the team that shipped Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD). Then, my manager and I “invented” the idea of MSIX app attach. Both projects were green fields, and I wasn’t bound by existing constraints. This allowed me to be creative and solve problems that few people have faced.
What technologies are you most optimistic about? Least? And why?
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I don’t think it will come as a surprise that I am optimistic about artificial intelligence. Right now, we are getting a sneak peek into what the different flavors of AI can do. I am looking forward to the day when someone like me can spend most of their time on value-added activities and less time on mundane, repetitive tasks.
At the same time, I am concerned about the impact of deepfakes. While the technologies powering this capability have some positive uses, like in filmmaking or content creation, they also have potential for misuse, such as spreading disinformation.
What’s the best tech-related media you read/watch/listen to?
I like to learn information from many sources. I have signed up for quite a few newsletters and user groups around Azure and AVD. Also, I watch YouTube channels from the likes of Azure Academy, John Savill’s Technical Training, and the 5 bytes podcast. I also find Twitter (X) and LinkedIn to be good ways to gather information.
What’s something about you we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?
I rarely skip a day at the gym, and when I do, the next day I go for a double workout. The time in the gym gives me the opportunity to relax, refocus, and reflect.
What do you think about when you’re not thinking about tech?
Outside of tech, I like to spend my time with friends and family. I look for ways to stay engaged with my friends and what fun and slightly mischievous activities my two boys and I can get involved in. When it comes to relaxing, I love building Lego models. Right now, I’m working on a five-story clock tower that is actually a museum of Lego weapons from different themes.