Files, Burgers, Plants and Trucks: My Product Management Evolution

My Product Management Journey

Each time I've changed industries as a product manager, I've had to relearn what I thought I knew. What works in one context often needs significant adaptation in another, and these transitions taught me valuable lessons about flexibility and humility.

IBM: Learning Enterprise Foundations

At IBM, I worked on enterprise file transfer software—a critical but often overlooked infrastructure component. The complexity surprised me; what seemed straightforward was actually layered with technical constraints and regulatory requirements I hadn't anticipated. I spent months learning from customers who patiently explained their challenges. Their insights, not my previous experience, became the foundation for improvements that addressed long-standing pain points.

Burger King: From Technology to Consumer Psychology

Moving to Burger King revealed how little my enterprise background had prepared me for consumer products. The metrics were completely different—instead of system uptime, I was suddenly tracking seconds at the drive-thru and pennies on food cost. I had to humble myself by spending time in kitchens, watching how staff actually prepared food rather than how our manuals said they should. The franchisees taught me that theoretical improvements mean nothing if they can't be consistently executed in a busy restaurant environment.

3 Ridge Technologies: Shedding Corporate Structure

The startup world at 3 Ridge Technologies stripped away everything I'd come to rely on. Without dedicated researchers, designers, or engineers at my disposal, I discovered both limitations and new capabilities. The biggest adjustment was speed—decisions that took weeks at larger companies now happened in hours. I found myself making mistakes more frequently but learning from them faster, with nowhere to hide when features didn't perform as expected.

Transfix: Bridging Different Worlds

Transfix showed me how technology and traditional industries often speak entirely different languages. Truck drivers would describe problems in ways our engineers couldn't translate into technical requirements. I spent days riding in trucks, surprised by how much the logistics industry ran on relationships and trust rather than algorithms. The challenge wasn't just building technology, but creating systems that acknowledged the human elements I'd initially overlooked.

Vibe Coding: Balancing Art and Science

At Vibe Coding, I've faced the unfamiliar territory of balancing technical constraints with creative vision. Coming from logistics, I was accustomed to optimization problems with clear metrics. Here, success often includes subjective elements I can't easily quantify. I've had to become comfortable with ambiguity and learn from designers and creative directors whose perspectives challenge my data-driven tendencies.

Skills Evolution: What Each Role Taught Me

Rather than portraying myself as mastering each environment, I'd like to share what each role taught me that I couldn't have learned elsewhere:

• IBM taught me patience with complex systems and stakeholders
• Burger King showed me the importance of operational simplicity
• 3 Ridge revealed how resourcefulness can sometimes outperform process
• Transfix demonstrated that technology must adapt to human needs, not vice versa
• Vibe Coding is teaching me to balance analytical and creative thinking

This journey hasn't been about conquering each industry as much as it's been about remaining open to new perspectives. The most valuable skill I've developed isn't industry-specific expertise but rather the willingness to listen, adapt, and recognize when my existing assumptions don't apply.