Get to know the people behind Transparency-One! Today we spoke with our Product Manager, Julien Durand, who based in our Paris office.
1. Where are you from?
I’ve been living in Paris for a while, but I grew up in rainy Brittany, west of France. This region is home to a lot of great food that all share a characteristic: a heavy use of salted butter (never try to feed a Breton with unsalted butter…)!
2. What exactly does a Product Manager do?
My mission is to gather insights from customers and prospects, in order to identify how the product needs to change. I then work with the development team to build the product evolutions, and make sure that Marketing, Sales and Project Managers can communicate and leverage these improvements.
3. What does a typical day look like for you? What teams do you work with?
I would say that I don’t have any “typical” day, but since our projects and team are global, a lot of days start early with calls with China or India, and finish late with discussions with the US!
4. What’s one of the favorite parts of your job?
Releasing a new version of the software is always an exciting time: you’ve been working for a while on a new feature, and this is the time where it becomes available for the people who enabled you to have the idea, and (hopefully) it’s making their lives better! It’s like when one of your kids grows up and leaves the house, except that we release a new version every month!
5. What’s one of the biggest challenges about your job?
Since each customer is different, my main challenge is to make sure the product brings value to all customers, even if they have different needs! This requires a lot of analysis. Taking a step back, looking at other feedback on similar topics, asking “why?” many times, and then you have enough material to identify the bigger picture, draw a vision and define a plan
6. Latest accomplishment in your job?
I’m really proud of the development team, they keep impressing me with the quality and the pace at which they release new versions.
Two things of note recently:
- In 30 days, we managed to bring a blockchain option to our customers
- We are releasing a new analytics features that brings great insights into supply chains!
7. Where can we find you when you’re not in the office?
I love the indie music scene in Paris, so you can probably find at some concert at La Maroquinerie or La Cigale. Exercising is a must after a night with a couple of beers listening to music, so I would go for a swim, or for a run along the river Seine or the canal Saint Martin!
I also find it exciting to learn new languages, I’ve been learning German for a few years now. Chinese is definitely up next!
