Introducing Jason, Director of Product

 

Jason McDowall, director of product at Nimble

Who: Jason McDowall

Role: Director of Product

How you might know him: Director of Product for the mobile team at Salesforce, built the Salesforce Chatter Mobile app

Contact: @mcdowall, [email protected]

About Jason:

I’m coming to Nimble from Salesforce.com, where I was a director of product for the mobile team.  There I was able to work with a talented team and earned recognition for building the award-winning Chatter Mobile application, which was selected by Apple as a top business app for 2011.  We’ve also won 2010 and 2011 Codie awards for our mobile apps and helped Salesforce elevate the influence of mobile enterprise software.

Including my time at Salesforce, I have five years in cloud computing and seven years in mobile product management and strategy. Prior to Salesforce, this experience was gained as a co-founder and/or head of product for a few SaaS and mobile technology startups.  I also served in the US Air Force where I separated as a Captain.

Today I am excited to be joining Jon, Gilles, and the rest of the Nimble team.  This is a group of exceptional individuals on a mission to improve the lives of our customers by helping them build deeper relationships.

The first business book I had ever read was Dale Carnegie’s book, How To Win Friends and Influence People.  In it, Dale Carnegie highlights the profound value of communicating and connecting with people on an honest and personal level.  My mom, as a highly regarded real estate broker, lived and breathed the lessons in this book.  She built relationships and life-long clients with honesty, integrity, and a personal touch.  She got to know people face-to-face, in her office or in their homes.  She found a way to connect and became a trusted friend and advisor who helped people through one of the most exciting and stressful times in their lives.

Of all of the products I’ve helped to build, this is the easiest to explain to her.  A rolodex is not a relationship.  A relationship is a shared connection; it’s built on mutual interest and grows into mutual respect.  Within the best business relationships, you’re able to open up to a trusted friend or advisor, share problems and pains, and find good solutions.  Businesses are built on relationships, and relationships are inherently social.

I had the fortune of spending more than three years at Salesforce.com.  It is an excellent company, which brought about profound change in enterprise software.  But I found my way to Nimble because it is poised to disrupt the market in a different way.  Nimble is not just another web-based database of contacts.  It’s a powerful tool that leverages modern technologies and social platforms to help customers build and nurture their relationships and their businesses to be the most fruitful they can be.  At its core, Nimble unifies all of our communications, contacts, and activities and provides actionable insights into our relationships.

I believe small businesses are the driving force of our economy and pillars of our communities; we need to support and celebrate them.  Nimble recognizes that relationships are the lifeblood of every business, and by helping people nurture them, we can enrich the lives of our customers.

You can find me on twitter @mcdowall or at [email protected].

Cheers,

Jason