Everyone calls me Q.

I don't manage products.
I architect experiences.

Developer turned product director. 25+ years of building things people actually feel — from enterprise data platforms to the teams that ship them.

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If you need someone to manage an existing backlog, I'm probably not your person — and I'd rather tell you that now than waste both our time. I know people I can refer you to.

If you're building something that doesn't exist yet, entering a market you've never touched, or standing up a product suite from scratch — that's where I do my best work. I bring the strategic vision, the cross-functional leadership, and the technical credibility to do it right.

Nicholas Blackwood

The Story Behind the Work

I wrote my first line of code in 1981 — BASIC, on hardware that most people my age remember as a curiosity. I created my first game later that year - as simple as it was. That wasn't an assignment. That was just what I wanted to do. By the time I got formal training at Troy State in the late nineties, I had been designing websites and online experiences for three years. I already knew how I thought about software. The coursework gave me structure; the years before it gave me instinct. I kept adding languages after school too — taught myself C# in the mid-2000s, long after I needed to. Old habits.

Over 25 years that developer instinct grew into something broader. I moved from writing software to leading the people and strategy that shape it — across healthcare, automotive, heavy-duty trucking, public safety, and enterprise SaaS. The industries changed. The core question didn't: what does this feel like for the person on the other end?

That's what I mean when I say "architect of experiences." It's not a job title. It's a way of approaching the work. Every roadmap decision, every team conversation, every launch is a chance to shape how someone experiences your product. I don't take that lightly.

I also came up through the code, which means I know what it costs to build what I'm asking for. I've led the architecture meetings and the 2am debugging sessions. I've been onsite writing code overnight because the specs we were provided weren't corrent. That history makes me a better partner to the engineers on my teams — and a harder person to hand a vague requirement to.

Experience

  • Director of Product Management
    automotiveMastermind — an S&P Global Company
    09/2023 – Present
    Leading Data as a Service strategy — turning S&P Global Mobility, TransUnion, and Neustar datasets into actionable intelligence for dealers and OEMs.
  • Director of Dealer Services
    FIXD Automotive
    03/2022 – 06/2023
    Owned the product vision for CarRx — dashboard, campaign manager, and consumer mobile app. Earned a top industry award in year one.
  • Senior Product Manager
    Karmak Inc.
    11/1999 – 03/2022
    Built the API portal for heavy-duty trucking from zero. Hit 10 million transactions per month in its first year.
  • Product Management Director
    CDK Global — ELEAD CRM
    08/1996 – 11/1999
    Led product and UX across sales, service, marketing, integrations, and the Fortellis platform initiative.
  • Earlier Roles
    COO, Product/Dev Manager, Software Developer
    20+ years
    The foundation: I built software before I managed it. That background lives in every decision I make.

How I Think About the Work

Most product managers optimize for delivery. I optimize for resonance. There's a real difference between a product that works and a product that's felt — and I've led teams that shipped both. I know which one people remember. I know which one they come back to.

My approach starts from the outside in. What is the human experience we're building toward? What does it feel like on day one, day thirty, day three hundred? Work backwards from that to the architecture, the roadmap, the team structure. Build the systems that make the experience possible — and the culture that keeps it honest.

I don't follow frameworks religiously. I use them the way a craftsperson uses tools: pick the right one for the job, put it down when it stops helping. Twenty-seven years in this field taught me that the playbook is a starting point, not a ceiling.

"Out of all of my accomplishments, I am most proud of the teams I have mentored." — Nicholas Blackwood

What I Bring

Not a checklist. A point of view.

Stakeholders are people. Engage them that way.
Stakeholder Engagement
UX isn't a phase. It's the whole point.
User Experience
Metrics that connect effort to outcome, not activity to activity.
OKR, KPI & OGTM
Ship software like a craftsperson, not a factory.
Software Development Lifecycle
Every product has a lifecycle. Know when to build, when to scale, when to move on.
Product Lifecycle Management
Agile as a tool, not a religion.
Agile Transformation
Protect the team's ability to do great work.
Capacity Management
Risk isn't something to avoid. It's something to understand.
Risk Management
Build the team first. The roadmap follows.
Team Building & Development
Developers are users too. Build your platform like it.
Platform Product Strategy
The hardest product to ship is the first one. I've done it thirteen times.
Zero-to-One Product Development
The best investment in a product org isn't the roadmap. It's the people reading it.
PM Mentorship & Development

Ready to build something that lasts?

Let's talk about the work — where your product is, where it needs to go, and how to build the team that gets it there.

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