My passion plus my degree in mechanical engineering have taken me on a wild ride through the automotive and trucking world. I have "cradle to grave experience" in automotive and truck design, test, and manufacture as well as significant experience in vehicle diagnostics. I currently work in Software and Hardware Product Management for a major truck manufacturer.

I just completed the University of Washington Extension program in Software Product Management. I'm passionate about spreading the word on this excellent program. Every class taught me something I could apply directly to my work the next day.

I take an enthusiastic approach to solving difficult problems in unique and original ways. I'm constantly inventing ways that technology can improve, enhance and enrich the daily grind for truckers, small businesses, and artists.

I'm passionate about how social media and teaching others how and when to use and apply it to their own lives.

Still here? I want to meet you and learn how we can help make the world a better place through invention & technology!

Matches

Matched on: Social media and Agile
Matched on: product management and Agile
Matched on: product development and Agile
Matched on: Agile
Matched on: Social media, product marketing, product management, host, and Agile

On The Web

Conversations

All
Group
Oct 12
"My Dearest Volunteers - Thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Speaking on behalf of the entire planning team: Without you, dear volunteers, Product Camp would not have been able to go on. Everyone shouldered enough work that it wasn't a huge burden on any one person. You amazed the planning team with your energy, enthusiasm, and willingness to help out any where you could. We s..."
All
Group
Oct 10
"Tough questions on how to improve sales, eh? Hmm... that deserves a good think. Sounds like an excellent session Alan."
All
Group
Oct 9
"Hi y'all! Whrrl has kindly featured us on their main page! >>> Check it out <<< http://whrrl.com/experience/story/18528766 What is Whrrl? Its a way we can all share photos as a "story". Think of it as collaborative storytelling online. There are 3 roles. 1) Editor: add photos 2) Commentator: comment on existing photos 3) Consumer: just watch all the photos How do you become an ..."
All
Group
Oct 9
"The planning team decided it is best that all the volunteers arrive at 8AM to sign in & get prepped on details needed for the day. We'll have a sign-in sheet at the registration area (main lobby). Look forward to seeing you there!"
All
Group
Oct 9
"Karen - just confirming you got my direct message via Pathable. If not, please send me DM on Twitter (@gyldenege) or direct message here.Marielle - you need to get in touch with Irina Menn. She's leading the food efforts. She's @stempm on twitter."
All
Group
Oct 6
"Aww, shucks guys. Thanks!"
All
Group
Oct 6
"Thank you for suggesting this Jim! You're right we'll all want go back and dig out the tweets post event. It will be much easier to resurrect them if the session number is associated with it.We could get it all together by #04pcs09 or #15pcs09 that way, everyone get's 132 characters rather than 131. Another option is letters #Apcs09. We'll confer amongst the planning team and provide an upd..."
All
Group
Oct 6
"Ok guys - I added a proposal called "Six What? ..." that I'm suggesting be a round table discussion about Six Sigma & Product Management."
All
Group
Oct 6
"Hey Karen - We're really excited to have "newbies" like you. I'm really glad you asked. Dave's exactly right. Besides proposing a session, another form of participation is active engagement in the sessions. If engaging with the discussions is way out of your comfort zone...you can volunteer. However, many volunteers are also folks who are proposing sessions. So, what this really is about i..."
All
Group
Oct 6
"Agreed! Deborah, I'm intrigued. Love to dig into this further and learn more."
All
Group
Oct 6
"You know what would be cool? If we polled the attendees to get a sampling. If we have a minimum of 30 people - we could get a decent spread. Anyone up for creating a survey?"
All
Group
Oct 6
"There are now 200 attendees. My, oh, my! Attendees to Volunteers ratio = 200 : 25That means... we have either a) 175 people preparing to present on Saturdayb) people who are unfamiliar with the "no bystanders" rulec) people who aren't sure they're attending yetd) people who are curious, but don't know where to start.We invite everyone to donate an hour of their time as a way to be a participan..."
All
Group
Oct 6
"That's right! You are the focus of this event! This is your chance to shine. Ladies & Gentlemen! Step right up to the plate my friends. Don't be shy. The majority of the people attending may have never attended a product camp and don't have a CLUE what to expect. The P-Camp junkies will be there to offer guidance and help point you in the right direction. And I say junkies with affectio..."
All
Group
Oct 4
"Thanks for the shout out, Haig! It would be really interesting to see how many product managers have used Six Sigma techniques to design products or solve problems found with products. Some may have participated in things like QFD, or 5S techniques intentionally. While I'm guessing others use Six Sigma techniques without even knowing it. Who else out there has dabbled in or been on a Six Sig..."
All
Group
Sep 27
"Hello all you amazing and exciting people!We are a volunteer-driven event. That means we need everyone's help!In order to help keep the event free, we ask that you volunteer 1 hour of your time on the day of the event. We need everyone to pitch in and help out. Please sign-up via our survey. After you've taken the survey, I will contact you with more details by 10/3/09.**Sign-up**: http://w..."
All
Group
Sep 27
"Filiberto - that presentation was really interesting. How exciting to get an inside look at a company like Netflix. I had no idea that those were the values driving them. It gets me thinking... While it is important that we align with our own values, it is also important to align with company values. I wonder how many people really feel aligned? And, do people align themselves for short pe..."
All
Group
Sep 27
"This sounds interesting. It would be nice to walk away from this with an understanding on how to set expectations in the beginning or to discuss whether that's even possible when working with a "free" product."
All
Group
Sep 27
"We'll definitely miss having you, Paula. I can see many of us were looking forward to your anthropology & product management chat. I hope you have a great weekend with your son!"
All
Group
Sep 27
"*Note*: this is intended for those new to twitter & hashtags. Please chime in if you've experienced twitter streams at a major event (pre & post)Twitter. Everyone's a flutter over twitter. Even people who are planning to attend product camp!If you haven't joined twitter yet, #pcs09 is a great opportunity for you to try it out. You can follow @prodcampsea and get started learning about one w..."
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Sep 27
"Filiberto - "observations" sounds fascinating! Not only do we learn by watching others, but we learn by the act of doing and trying techniques. Jim - great idea! "Where the Wild Things Are" sounds like a fantastic title for a session. Filiberto/Jim - would both of you be willing to be part of a mini-panel with me? I think it would be really interesting if the three of us started a conversati..."
All
Group
Sep 18
"And please, please, please add a photo to your profile! We are all excited to meet you. Yes, you! Everyone of you is important. That's why this event is taking place as an UN-conference.Seeing who you are associated with what things you're talking about on this site ahead of the event will allow everyone to recognize your lovely face. It makes networking so much faster."
All
Group
Sep 17
"I love meeting new people. Count me in!!! Plus, this is an excellent opportunity for everyone to practice their "elevator pitch". If you find attention is waning, just wait... you'll have another opportunity in just a few minutes. I would really like to make use of an opportunity to engage with other intelligent and amazing people while putting myself under the pressure to hone in my "pitch" ..."
All
Group
Sep 17
"Wow! David, this is such a well written premise, you've hooked me. I'll vote for this one!"
All
Group
Sep 17
"I can't WAIT to try this! I love challenges like this. And how fun will it be to laugh at ourselves and learn from our mistakes or goof-ups? I know I'll be the first to laugh at myself. It'll be fun to see how each person approaches this technique. Fascinating.It would be excellent to set the expectation that the audience "be supportive" so that everyone feels "safe" to try. What do you t..."
All
Group
Sep 17
"This sounds excellent & timely, Dave. Everyone I talk with is undergoing some form of re-evaluating their values. I see this as one of the positive outcomes of our recent economic crisis. While the last year has been very trying and emotionally draining, it has forced everyone to reconsider what we truly value and to pull back in. Pair "core values alignment" with confidence and faith in you..."
All
Group
Sep 17
"Remember - there are no bystanders at Product Camp. If you're not sure about presenting, you can add value by volunteering!Hooray! Nine - that's ... 9 volunteers so far! Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!(I'm laughing like the Sesame Street Count, you just can't hear it, yet...)"
All
Group
Sep 17
"I've never been to burning man, but have experienced the joy of the fire chimney's as a friend was one of the designers. I'm so excited to hear more and see some fun pictures to illustrate your points!"
All
Group
Sep 12
"Are you interested in helping out the day before or the day of the event?If so, take our Volunteer survey to be sorted onto teams. This is a new approach to gathering volunteers, so I'm super excited to get your feedback.Once you take the survey, I will have visibility into your responses and be able to quickly sort you into an appropriate house or team. I hope reading the survey makes you la..."
All
Group
Sep 10
"Having worked with an off-shore dev team, I'd really like to discuss the additional considerations a product manager needs to account for when working with an off-shore team. How do the country culture, off-shore business culture, and time-zone impact your product success? What are the cautions and preliminary considerations a product manager needs to take? How does integrating an off-shore ..."
All
Group
Sep 10
"This is a very valuable topic. Every organization struggles with this chimney effect (build up the walls to protect). Outside the role of Product Management, I've seen the "us" vs. "them" in the form of division or even department interaction. I really would like to hear more about how we, as product managers, can facilitate more effective collaboration and cohesiveness! What I really like ..."
All
Group
Sep 10
"I think this would be a fascinating discussion!What would be interesting is to have some folks who have fought those battles and learned from them. - How did they finally succeed in finding support? - Who helped them? - What changed? Them? Their team? Training? Daily discussions with people on value? Taking a risk?- When do you choose to take a stand, when do you choose to go with the flow?Wh..."
All
Group
Sep 10
"The more I learn about product management, the more I see how deeply anthropology should be incorporated. In fact, learning more about why a decision is made is something I'm very curious about. It brings to mind the example of the Ford Focus; It was designed for the young consumer (early 20's), but was most sought after by the middle-aged crowd. Many products find a completely different nic..."
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Sep 8
"Neicole - you're right. The session length will be 45 min in length. I think a basic strategy for marketing with Twitter would be interesting. What would be even more interesting is when to NOT use Twitter for marketing. Is there a time? Is there a particular product? Other questions running through my mind are: * When would using it for marketing "turn off" a customer? * How do you best craf..."
All
Group
Sep 8
"I'd be interested in learning more about that. While you're specifying marketing, it could also be a broader topic of: "how to successfully working with remote colleagues" or "how to be a successful remote office". I think this way of interacting is typical and worthy of more discussion. Are you thinking of presenting your challenges & ways of over coming them? Or how about the biggest learn..."
All
Group
Sep 8
"I'd love to learn about your fuzzy problem solving method. Do you have pictures or memory tricks? What about your example, could you update it to a hot topic? Maybe something yet to be solved that the group could solve?"
Tag_blue
Sep 8
"It sounds like you could kick off an excellent round table discussion on social media from the Exec perspective. I wonder if a product manager, an exec and a customer perspective panel would be a good fit?* Blaine's showing that there is upper management/decision maker need to know "how" to get started. * Barry's got the "who" part of getting started.* Brenda's interested in "when".* Jim want..."
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Aug 20
"How much interest is there in Social Media for Product Managers?I've been thinking of several possible topics, which could be hosted by other people or by multiple people. What's on my mind is: 1. Setting up Employee Guidelines for Social Media Use (personal & professional)2. Success stories & Pitfalls of companies who are using social media3. Customer Service and Social Media: Is it successfu..."
All
Group
Aug 17
"We're really glad you're going to make the trek to Product Camp Seattle, David. Your fellow #prodmgmt tweeters are excited to meet you and continue conversations in more than 160 characters! You know, we're all even more excited to see what types of discussions you'll initiate or spark purely on your passion. Welcome to the party, my friend."
Tag_blue
Aug 16
"This sounds fascinating. It's always interesting to hear the side of the story the media isn't touting. What's especially interesting is how it applies to the product adoption cycle. Why, absolutely it's another impact on our products. I'm looking forward to hearing more!"
All
Group
Aug 6
"I think you could spend a whole session discussing opportunity: how to identify & apply market opportunities to your product. Tying opportunity throughout product life-cycle leads me into thinking about metrics. Likewise, I could see a whole session on converting opportunities into an actual product using key requirements. Do you have an interesting or unique way of identifying requirements ..."

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