Picture Imperfect is written and maintained by Alain Breillatt, a global product management and innovation executive with more than 15 years of experience in bringing new products and services to market. He has led Product for 2 of the dominant players in multi-carrier shipping execution software that is relied upon by the top global retailers, ecommerce merchants, manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.
His previous professional lives have carried him through software product management, innovation consulting and CPG analytics at companies including Logistyx Technologies, Quadient/ProShip, Illinois Tool Works, InstallShield, Macrovision, Kuczmarski Innovation and Nielsen. As a consultant he has generated new product portfolios for Fortune 500 and smaller organizations and developed course materials on innovation for the MBA and Executive Education programs at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
His extensive experience in examining the needs of the customers in software and industrial manufacturing extends from deep ethnographic research with consumers to developing new package types to evaluating the needs for driving OEE for manufacturing product lines with well-designed end of line systems.
Alain is the Vice President Product Management for e2open’s Carrier portfolio where his global dream team of Product Managers / Product Owners are delivering parcel integration with 400+ carriers to provide the “Amazon shipping” experience.
He is an advocate for Tony Ulwick and Clayton Christensen’s methodologies for truly understanding why a customer hires you.
He also has a passion for the true Chicago hot dog and can rattle off the pros and cons of many of the local hot dog stands. His all time favorite dog comes from Portillo’s and his favorite fries came from Hot Doug’s – duck fat fries baby! (Though he could show you a number of superior “frites” stands if you were to join him in Paris, France or Bruxelles, Belgium.) As Doug Sohn says, “There are no two finer words in the English language than ‘encased meats,’ my friend.” We greatly mourned Doug’s decision to close down his restaurant and obsessively wait for his next adventure or pop-up store.
In his free time and to support his love of hot dogs dragged through the garden, you will find Alain chasing KOMs on Strava at breakneck speeds on one of his several road bikes (n+1 is the lie we all live) across the backroads and trails of northern Illinois.