Product Manager

LJ Kenward

Truck Driver turned Software Developer turned Product Manager: Finally found my calling. Love the practice of Product Management and I'm passionate about crafting great user experiences, in all areas of my life.

  • Currently open to a new opportunity.

Photo of LJ's Face, nice smile.

INDUSTRY

What I do

I am interested about changing the world through contributing to solutions that impact real-world problems and people. I’m passionate about Women in Technology and enabling career changers to enter the tech industry.My experience as a Software Developer before moving into Product Management has been a great pathway for learning not just about the needs of users and customers, but how important the people behind the tech are when it comes to building user friendly and successful software.As a Product Manager I:

  • Value the voice of the user and will always evaluate if a decision point needs additional user research.

  • Believe that timing and luck play a part in our success, and failures, and that what makes product practices like MVP so important. The perfect product at the wrong time will still fail.

  • Love telling the stories of users and bringing everyone along on the journey.

  • Data informed, not driven. I love product data! But I also apprecaite the anecdotal stories, the developers insight, the gut of a person with Product Sense.

  • People over process. Empathy for the users starts with the home team.

Honesty

I value honesty highly as a personal value for myself and those that I interact with. I believe that your truth is always worth voicing, and that the hard stuff to say is the stuff that will help us grow.

Equity

I believe in equality and further in equity, a fairness for all. We are all unique individuals, and many work with systemic inequalities, I don't believe in a one ways fits all approach.

VIBES OUTSIDE OF WORK

About Me

After learning first hand about burn out in 2018 I now make an effort to work smart, work hard, and enjoy my down time, and it's these things that make me happy.

  • Spending loads of time with my family. I made the move back to Perth to spend more time with my family and enjoy random evenings at my parents watching Poirot and drinking cups of tea.

  • My doggo Tedric, he keeps me active and on my toes, and warms my lap during Zoom calls.

  • The Beach Shack. The other day I heard a dolphin splashing around from inside the shack. It was a Wow moment.

  • Crafting unique holiday experiences. Can Airbnb be a hobby? I renovated a city studio apartment and am addicted thinking about the user experience for holiday makers.

  • Internet Tinkering - Remixing a Wordpress template, creating a new side project site, I like to remix and tinker.

  • Old stuff - Currently transcribing a 1800's novel for Project Gutenberg, I have a lot of old apothecary glass bottles, and don't mind a dust book or two-hundred.

Reach out

Always happy to chat, connect online and to speak about future opportunities.

© All rights reserved by LJ Kenward 2023

Branding

I owned and operated one of Australia's largest online communities for a number of years, and we hosted an annual Awards. As a passion project, with limited resources, I used Envato Marketplace to create unique branding and assets.

Although this is total cringe now, I'm still proud of what I did with limited resources, and no specific Photoshop skills aside from hacking and "remixing" my way through it all.

Websites

You know how people spend more time scrolling the Netflix titles than watching the shows?I've been doing that for years with Wordpress Themes on Theme Forest!A hobby or a problem? .... I'm still not sure the answer.

Don't judge me on the designs, like I said, not a creative! 😅