Summary
Personable, passionate, productive, project manage everything, cars, weights, matcha, good food, gardening, sunshine, and lifelong learning!
Passions, Hobbies, Me!
I am passionate about all I do in life. If I cannot find a way to truly care about something I usually grow out of it and into better things.
I do all of my own car maintenance, repairs, gardening, landscaping, and cooking.
I currently have a small car collection of rare and fun cars:
- 1971 Vauxhall Firenza SL 2000 (all original and on the road)
- 1971 Vauxhall Firenza SL 2000 (project car – in progress)
- 2016 Scion FR-S (modified for track + street)
- 2010 Toyota Matrix (ol’reliable with almost 400k kms!)
I got married to the love of my life; Jessica Beaulieu during September 2023. We are lucky enough to live in a beautiful and highly unique spot in the country and had a small wedding taking advantage of our space and views.
Together my wife and I; often referred to as “J Squared”, keep vegetable and herb gardens, bake together, cook together, game together, and create together.
I actively participate in weightlifting, road biking, professional driver training, meditation, reading, running, and self development.
Early Life
I grew up building things. My family decided to build our own home from the ground up which was a major part of my childhood, and who I am today. We started with buying a severed farm/bean field and over time turned it into a well landscaped property with a house, garage, multiple sheds and landscape features. During this time I learned many unique skills both in project management as well as physical building/construction/DIY. This is an incredibly proud part of my life and something I view as a unique experience compared to those with similar career paths.
Early Education
During High School I was a Student Council member, KEY Club (Kiwanis) President, Anti-Bullying initiative student representative, and actively participated in powerlifting/bodybuilding.
Early Work Experience
I worked mainly at home in our own family construction most of my life but I spent time helping on family farms until I was old enough to formally work. Once I was old enough I started volunteering at our local library as a student page, and managed to take an opportunity to become the CAP student as a formal paid role. CAP was a program that focused on creating and delivering educational courses for all ages, marketing the library locally, and providing IT support to our library alongside any local libraries in need of support. This was incredibly valuable as my first experience both in course design/delivery and IT support at a very young age. I worked here until I started University and it inspired me to choose my Major.
University
I started in the Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), Business Administration & Computer Science program as a dual major inspired by how technology solves problems, and treating technology as a business allows it to have a massive impact. My grades provided me a notable academic scholarship that supported my learning and lifestyle. I focused any special topics courses on: AI Product Management, Macro-Economics, and Entrepreneurship. I worked as a consultant for the University during my time studying focusing on new enrollment metrics. I graduated on the Dean’s List and had taken the opportunity to work with research teams to research, proof, invent, and iterate on what become my first startup attempt.
First Startup
During my opportunity to lead a research team during my entrepreneurship courses I focused the team on better understanding a simple question: “What stops homeowners from starting and/or finishing DIY projects most prevalently”. We conducted hundreds of interviews with homeowners of various levels of interest as well as local builders and educators summarizing our strategic interviews into core metrics and reports. This allowed us to isolate a problem in the market shared by almost all interviewees; “There are many steps where uncertainty creates concern leading to failed attempts to start or complete projects” with an outcome that homeowners in these cases would simply outsource the projects leading to less internal competency and increased cost to completion. I started work on designing a solution.
Operating as the Founder of HanDIY we started bringing to market a simple solution of connecting skilled individuals with DIY enthusiasts in real-time video chats. This creates a new revenue stream from skilled individuals such as educators, retirees, workers in the off-season, and simply local experts. This also creates a new learning resource for any DIY enthusiast by providing them with direct access to experts in real-time. The biggest use cases are: Project planning, Project kick-off, Problem-solving, Project completion. This technology went through many iterations from my time in Incubators, to the University of Waterloo Velocity Garage, business competitions, grants, and a soft-release. Ultimately I was left with a difficult decision given I was mostly self-funded and also dealing with University debt: Either give up a notable portion of the company, or vision for funding, or wrap it up and try it again when I had more experience and money. I took an opportunity to join D2L Inc, when making this decision and ultimately put the entire startup attempt on hold.
Industry Experience
I worked at various roles such as marketing for LG television division and Technology Supervisor for Staples Canada before getting my first true industry role as a Business Development Representative (BDR) at D2L Inc. I had notable success as a BDR implementing innovating outbound sales tactics leading to over-achieving my team and personal goals. During this time I was inspired to rejoin product development and took an opportunity to help create and grow a newly formed partners division as D2L’s Integration Operations Specialist treating it as a product offering. Even after notable success in launching, pivoting, and growing our partners offering, limited internal opportunities to join Product Management lead me to seek jobs externally eventually joining Shinydocs as a Technical Product Manager, later to become a Product Manager with great success in data product management and new release offerings.
My resume (please contact me @ jessedennissheather@gmail.com) and LinkedIn profile are best to explain my notable experience and success in these roles.
Extended Education
I am currently enrolled with Productschool.com of Silicon Valley to receive education and complete my PMC (Product Management Certification), PLC (Product Leader Certification), and a specialized AIPC (Artificial Intelligence for Product Management) to continue my growth and learn from high-profile FAANG and industry product professionals!
I obtained my Professional Scrum Master PSM1 certification from Scrum.org in 2023 with direct mentorship and training from Matt Grierson and Dave Dame.
I have taken and completed many Communitech courses on a variety of subjects.
I have started taking the occasional LinkedIn course and/or certification.
Today
Today I am looking for an opportunity to manage products for an innovative technology company where I can contribute to the goals and growth both of the product itself and the product team/culture. I am willing to work in roles from forming a product division to joining a large product team depending on the opportunity. I look to stay focused on Education Technology, planning/collaboration technology, automotive technology, or utilize my skills and experience in big-data management and innovation.
I have been impacted by mass tech layoffs that laid off my entire team among others.
The journey only just started, and continues onward!
Jesse Dennis Sheather 