Jon La Plante

To start, I’m an American citizen but have spent the last 15 years living in Prague, Czechia (my Czech wife and our 4 Czech kiddos help). Sometimes it boggles my mind that I could have been here this long, but when I wander through the old town or venture up to the castle grounds, it all makes perfect sense. I used to love movies, reading, gaming, history, food (still guilty), and travel. Now I have the aforementioned family and that’s fine, because I love them even more. When I’m not front-and-center with my family, I have a side gig creating Agility and Product Management courses for PluralSight. I also enjoy public speaking and am trying to do more of it.

I’ve spent my career developing products, as an engineer, then a people manager (up to VP of Technology for Monster.com), and ultimately falling in love with product management. I’ve worked in huge corporate environments (MSD/Merck was 69,000 employees when I left), and small companies. I particularly enjoyed founding my own SaaS startup, which I grew to >3,000 customers before I had to shut it down.

I’ve spent a long time in the web/software industry (I don’t want to think about how long. It will remind me of my age and that will remind me of my own mortality, and it’s all downhill from there), across a variety of competencies and roles. My Product Management prowess is enough that I can confidently teach, coach, and mentor others in PM principles and Agility.

So…why do I want to be a product professional and leader? Breaking this down further, why do I want to be in Product Management? I’m not always sure I do. It can be thankless. The “influence without authority” thing adds a layer of nuance and diplomacy to getting many things done. For all of our strategizing and planning, external factors (looking your direction, 3rd party APIs) can trigger a reactive cycle that can be hard to get out of.

Yet I still find myself here, again and again. I love solving complex problems. I love the detective work involved in sussing out what those complex problems are. I love collaborating with folks from all corners of the business to make something that has the potential to change lives.

“Passion” is a cliché. It’s also a truth that very much matters when it comes to Product work. I am one passionate dude, and you will see that passion in my craft and in my work.