CCI and Middlebury in DC are thrilled to present the latest episode of MiddVantage’s career series in technology. In this episode, David Mendelson ’00, the VP of Product Development at Wheel, a telehealthcare startup, shares his expertise on the product development process and functional roles. David’s experience spans over 20 years in the technology industry, including consumer electronics, enterprise hardware, enterprise SaaS (CRM & construction), and healthcare. Watch this fascinating episode and learn from David’s wealth of knowledge in the field.
Guest Speaker: David Mendelson ’00 (Computer Science), Vice President Product Development, Wheel
Video: 45 minutes
The content segments below indicate the approximate time marks in the recording during which the specific content is discussed. The segments include:
- At 0:35 – Dave describes his pathway from Midd to career
- At 2:20 – Introducing the software development process
- At 3:10 – Various product/R&D roles
- Engineer
- Product Manager
- UX Designer
- UI Developer
- Technical Program Manager
- Data Scientist/Data Analyst
- DevOps
- Quality Assurance (QA)/Software Developer Engineer in Test (SDET)
- At 18:20 – Non-technical Roles
- Product Marketing
- Customer Success/Operations
- Sales
- At 22:00 – Example R&D organizational structures
- At 25:00 – Planning and Building Software – Product Life Cycle (discover, commit, execute, manage)
- At 35:00 Audience Q&A
- Scrum process described
- Career advancement pathway
- How new features become defined
About the series: Within five years, there will be over 50 billion smart connected devices in the world connected to the distributed cloud. 5G and increased bandwidth will collect and transfer more data than ever, enabling advances in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT), robots, autonomous vehicles, practical blockchain, and human augmentation, creating geopolitical challenges, data privacy concerns, and cyber security demands. These are just a few of the biggest transformational dynamics that will power new frontiers in technology. This series includes interviews with many professionals who will share their vantage points on new frontiers in technology, their paths from campus to career, and career advice they would have for students interested in this career space.