Hi, I’m Christopher Cummings

A bit about me

Whether I’m solving a problem at work, finding an unexpected lesson in a movie or comic book, wrestling with questions of faith, or telling a good story, I keep coming back to the same question: What actually matters?

That’s part of what led me to write Sam Vale: The Sword of Truth. I wanted to see more stories for young people (especially young men!) that were exciting and entertaining while still taking on things like truth, courage, faith, family, and what it means to become the person you’re meant to be. Instead of just wishing there were more of those stories, I decided to try writing one myself.

The result was a supernatural adventure about a teenage artist whose drawings can tear reality apart. It has monsters, danger, and some pretty dark places. But at its heart, it’s a story about discovering what’s really real and deciding what to do with it.

My product career has revolved around one simple question: How do you make something people want to use and actually enjoy? I started out asking it about mobile apps and loyalty programs. Now I ask it at Precisely, where I lead a team of product managers building an enterprise customer communications platform used across banking, insurers, and other highly regulated industries. I also write Product Management Meets Pop Culture, where I use movies, comics, music, and whatever else catches my attention to share what I’ve learned about product management.

I attend GracePoint Community Church, where I’m part of the teaching team. You can find recordings of my sermons on my Faith page. How a skeptical product manager ended up in a church is its own story; I explained that journey here if you’re interested.

And because apparently books, product management, and sermon prep weren’t keeping me busy enough, I also created the iMessage sticker pack Pup Trio. I did this partially a) to see if I could and b) because sometimes the best way to say something is with a very expressive pug.

Writing & conversations

Here are a few places I’ve shared insights on product management and customer experience beyond this site.

• Gartner Product Management Peer Community
  Ambassador
  Guide discussions, share real-world product experience, and model best practices
• The Elusive Omni-Channel Advantage
  Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, Henry Stewart Publications
  An article exploring why true omnichannel customer experience remains so difficult to achieve, and what organizations can do about it.
• Conversations on the Creek
  Guest on Duck Creek Technologies’ podcast
  A conversation about personalized interactive video and creating better customer experiences in insurance.

Explore the site