Ports and Utilities Product Growth Manager
“One thing I do is I always like to push to make something better. There is a tendency sometimes to want to say, ‘Look, you know, we have something. It's ready to go.’ Well, great, but what's the next thing? How do we make it better and better?”
I joined about 3 years ago and started in product management. Now I work in a Product Growth Manager role.
In product management, we talked a lot to customers to understand what it is that they need and why they need it. We wanted to understand the client’s business on a technical level, how they are using their simulator, and what features are most important to them.
Now that I work on the marketing front, I’m shifting my focus to identify growth opportunities. To do that, I have to know what our customers need. I have to know their pain points. My Product Management background has given me valuable experience and insights that I am leveraging in this new role.
There have been some pretty big initiatives at CM Labs over the last few years. Intellia was definitely one of them. Making sure that we were all aligned to launch Intellia and adding it into the ports product line was a huge achievement that I was happy to be a part of. It was such a rewarding project to work on because it was so cutting edge.
I also really enjoyed working on the remote operator station with Spohn + Burkhardt. To be able to expand on a product that we had and take it even further with hardware from a vendor like that was really fun.
Being a part of our Quayside Chats is also something that I’m proud to have worked on. We see how successful they’ve become both as live events and in our on-demand format. They attract a thoughtful, engaged audience that has been a pleasure to connect with. I genuinely look forward to each one we do.
I advocate on behalf of the products and the product lines, which includes making sure we have the right resources and that we’re a part of key organizations. Going to more and more events, and trying to find new and innovative ways to get our message out there are also some of my priorities. I work hard to try to make as many people as possible aware of all the benefits we’re bringing to the table.
Beyond that, I work on monitoring what’s happening in the market and what our competitors are doing to keep us ahead of the curve.
I would say what’s really unique about CM Labs is that we have access to a lot of universities in Montreal, which has been a tremendous resource when conducting research. I’ve never seen a company with access to people with such technical knowledge.
We also do a lot of custom work for government, research organizations, and OEMs. That custom work is extremely demanding. But the benefit is that every time we take on these challenges, our team learns, and the improvements we make feed back into our physics engine. That means the demanding work not only sets CM Labs apart from competitors, but it also makes our core platform stronger and enhances our portfolio of training products.
For me, going to trade shows is number one. Attending important speaker sessions helps me see what’s going on, what people are talking about, and what they are concerned about. There are also industry publications that we contribute to, and I make a point of reading them to stay on top of the latest conversations. When something becomes newsworthy, we want to look into it a little deeper. I also talk to our various partners.
The biggest source of knowledge that we have, of course, is our clients. And so we really end up having these very open-ended conversations about how we can come up with something that suits their needs.
Unlike some of our competitors, we have an engineering background as well as an academic one. We built this physics engine from the ground up, and that’s part of the reason we are where we are today. It also ensures that we can do things that some other companies cannot. Whenever we see a unique opportunity or a different way of doing things, we can actually do it because we have full control over our platform. We have an incredible ability and flexibility within the platform that we use to build our products.
Culturally, it’s quite unique. Montreal is a diverse city, and so when we discuss a problem, we get to cover all angles with people coming at it from different backgrounds.
Our company culture is also pretty constructive and collaborative. Whenever I sit in a meeting, I know I’m going to get strong opinions because we’re working with very smart people. And so ideas get challenged, but the best ideas always rise to the top. I’ve always felt that CM Labs was a very warm and welcoming place. I think everybody respects each other. Even though you might see it from a completely different angle, that’s fine. We’ll debate it and then let the ideas go from there.
Everybody has a role to play, and everybody’s job is important. You feel this team connection because if you don’t do your job, you know that you may be blocking somebody else.
The other thing that I really like is going into the back room at the office, where we have our big, high immersion simulators. Looking at them, you know we’re building some pretty cool stuff.
There’s nothing controversial about training people to be safer and faster. You know you’re doing a good thing. You’re seeing the growth, and you’re a part of it. I mean, what more motivation could you want from a job?
Right now at CM Labs, we’re at a point where we’re seeing things really come together. At every company, I find that growth happens in leaps and bounds. We do simulation really well, and we’ve brought on Intellia. We’ve added walkaround inspections, and we’re also looking at what other things we can do in that learning space.
We’ve created a world-class simulation platform, and now we’re creating all kinds of exciting new features for instructors and trainees. We can come out with a lot of new offerings that are very interesting and are going to contribute to our growth in a fairly short period of time. We’re also exploring AI’s potential and how we can integrate it into our solutions for an even better training experience. The sky is the limit.