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To contact us, please send mail to: info@eigenworks.com

About Us

Alan Armstrong

Founder, Managing Partner, Eigenworks Inc.

Years in Product Management: 15.

Years developing software products: 19

First few paying jobs: Cutting lawns at age 7 (!) , with a continuous employment record that included paper delivery, landscaping, painting (disastrous), and bussing tables.

Worst job: Painting. I hate painting and to find that out I made a total mess of my first client’s house exterior. I was about 16.

Ideal Job: Stand-up comedian and itinerant speaker.

Favourite Book: Huckleberry Finn

Well designed products I use regularly: Bose headphones Shure e530 and iMac MacBook Pro.

Advice for other Product Managers: Consider a few years in sales. There’s more money in it, and less hassle.

Ethan Henry

Years in Product Management: 8.

Years doing other things before being a Product Manager: 5

First paying job: Delivering newspapers

Worst job: Overnight inventory flunkie.

Square Root of the Age of my House: 10

Favourite Book: I hate having favourites. Really. There were 206,000 books published in the UK in 2005. I wouldn’t even be able to chose a ranking basis for the millions of books out there, much less rank them. But I know one thing about favourites.

Advice for other Product Managers: Product Management is not a job about what you want. It’s about what other people want. Figuring out what other people want is 90% of the job.

Saeed Khan

Years in Product Management: 12. Seems much longer.

Years doing other things before being a Product Manager: at least 10. Does childhood count?

First paying job: Delivering the Toronto Telegram when I was 7

Worst job: Working in a photocopy shop. Too many paper cuts.

Ideal Job: Travel writer and photographer. A blend of 3 things I really enjoy.

Favourite Book: Toss up between The Hobbit (loved it when I read it) and The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (a great book and has a title character named Saeed)

Favourite Author: Stanislaw Lem. Great works of serious science fiction (Return from the Stars), mixed with really funny humourous works (The Star Diaries, The Futurological Congress).

A well designed product I use regularly: Dyson vacuum cleaner. Seriously. Read the blog entry.

A fact most people are not aware of: The first recorded, controlled and manned glider flight occurred in 875 AD by Abbas ibn Firnas.

Advice for other Product Managers: If you want to make money, go into sales. If you want to make friends, go into marketing. If you want to be a great CEO, spend time in Product Management.