This week will be my last week at FreeAgent.
The past 18 months has been a real education in a fast moving startup. I’ve been extremely lucky to see FreeAgent go through an IPO, agreed a significant partnership with RBS, but also help Roan Lavery (Chief Product Officer) grow the product management function here.
It’s a bittersweet moment. There are so many people that I’ve loved working with and learnt so much from. Specifically, I want to thank Roan, Maria, Paddy, Ceri, TJ, Anup, Rike and Danae (Comms) for their wisdom and advice during my time here.
From a product management perspective, it’s been eye-opening too. Having the chance to experience and experiment with the new tools and ways of thinking (HEART Framework, OKRs, Jobs to be Done, Example Mapping, Story Mapping), has taught me a lot more about understanding how to help manage a complex, mature product, as well as the success metrics required for a Software as a Service (SAAS) business model.
But it was the right time to move on.
My new role is Head of Technical Data Products at Sainsbury’s Bank: driving the vision and strategy for their Data Platform and related products. I’ll be working under Mark Hunter, Chief Data Officer, and will still be based in Edinburgh.
I’m super charged about the new challenge. My PhD research was looking at requirements work for large scale, distributed data platforms. Having spent most of my 20s investigating at how we can effectively understand the requirements for data mining and visualisation tools for scientists, it’s very exciting to have a chance to return to data driven products again.
In the meantime, I’m committed more than ever to help build a community of Product Managers and Product Owners inside Edinburgh. Having ran ProductCamp in June, I’m looking to running a few more product management related meetups. Watch this space.
Kate Ho 