Andrea didn’t set out to become a product manager. Like many technically trained students, he originally imagined himself as a software engineer.

While studying computer science and building early solutions, he realised something unexpected: what excited him most wasn’t just making systems work, but shaping how people interacted with them — and then convincing customers that those solutions were worth using.

Running his own startup during his studies made this even clearer. There was no separation between “building” and “selling.” If the product didn’t land with customers, there was no safety net. That experience — owning everything end to end — stayed with him long after he moved into larger organisations.

Looking back, he describes product management less as a role he chose, and more as a space he naturally grew into.

One of Andrea’s most consistent themes throughout the conversation was simple, but uncompromising: If nobody uses your product, it doesn’t matter how good the technology is.

He spoke about being involved early in the rise of design sprints, and why that approach resonated with him. What he liked wasn’t the framework itself, but the discipline it forced: build something tangible quickly, put it in front of users, and be willing to kill it if it doesn’t work.

That mindset still shapes how he leads products today. Not everything needs perfect scalability on day one — but everything needs a clear reason to exist.

For many aspiring PMs, product management is still imagined as a largely software-centric role: writing requirements, collaborating with engineers and designers, and shipping features through a CI/CD pipeline.

Andrea offered a more grounded view. In large, decentralised organisations like Heineken, product success often hinges on things that don’t show up neatly on a roadmap: business process differences across markets, change management, adoption challenges, and trust with local teams.

When Andrea travels across APAC, those trips are rarely about pixel-level user testing. Instead, they focus on understanding how work actually happens on the ground, and whether the product truly supports that reality.

A product that only covers 30–40% of a team’s workflow might technically “work,” but it won’t be adopted. On the other hand, if a solution covers most of the process — even imperfectly — it creates momentum, buy-in, and a sense of shared ownership.

At the same time, he’s clear about one constraint PMs can’t ignore: scalability. Customising a product for every market may feel empathetic in the short term, but it makes long-term maintenance and growth impossible. The real challenge is finding the balance.

When asked what makes a good product manager, Andrea didn’t point to frameworks or tools. Instead, he kept returning to a few human qualities.

Curiosity came up first. Without it, PMs default to tools, templates, or whatever worked last time — even when the context has changed. Curiosity is what pushes someone to ask better questions and explore unfamiliar problem spaces.

Then there’s what he calls your “core.” Everyone has something they’re naturally strong at — whether it’s user experience, systems thinking, or business analysis. The mistake early PMs make is trying to be good at everything at once, instead of leaning into that core and expanding outward from it.

And finally, empathy. Not as a buzzword, but as the emotional fuel that keeps you going. Product work is rarely smooth. If you don’t genuinely care about the people or problems you’re solving for, it’s hard to sustain motivation when things get political, slow, or messy.

Some of the most honest moments in the episode came when Andrea talked about stopping work — not starting it.

As PMs, it’s easy to get attached to ideas, especially ones we’ve invested time and energy into. But not every initiative deserves to live forever. Some features or parts of an ecosystem may have made sense initially, but later become distractions or drains on limited resources.

Recognising when to stop — and bringing stakeholders along in that decision — is uncomfortable, but necessary. Waiting too long often makes things worse, not better.

During the Jenga game segment, Andrea was asked what PM superpower he’d want. His answer wasn’t speed or foresight — it was clarity!

The ability to truly understand what customers mean when they say something. To cut through assumptions, cultural differences, and indirect communication. To know not just what users are asking for, but what they actually need — and that being the reality of things. 

It’s a reminder that many product failures aren’t technical, but they’re misunderstandings.

Andrea doesn’t believe product management is reaching a saturation point, but he does think the role will evolve.

With GenAI, PMs now have access to tools that can generate prototypes, mockups, and drafts faster than ever. That lowers the barrier to execution — but it doesn’t remove the need for judgment.

Speed without direction still leads to wasted effort. The fundamentals — problem understanding, prioritisation, and empathy — are what make new tools powerful rather than overwhelming.

If Andrea had to boil his advice down to a few practical starting points, it would be these:

1. Learn how to prioritise, because your time and attention are always limited.

2. Get familiar with Design Sprint as a way to structure discovery and validation.

3. And most importantly — do the work. Try things, ship imperfectly, and learn from real outcomes rather than staying in theory forever.