{ "name": "Erik Hencier", "alternateName": "Erik the Yogi", "url": "https://eriktheyogi.com", "email": "hello@eriktheyogi.com", "location": "Austin, Texas", "tagline": "AI product leader, builder, and yoga teacher", "image": "https://eriktheyogi.com/images/about.jpg", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhencier/", "https://erikhencier.medium.com", "https://www.youtube.com/@eriktheyogi" ], "availability": { "openToWork": true, "openToAdvising": true, "openToConversations": true, "yogaSessionsAvailable": true, "note": "Employed as Senior Technical Product Manager at Electronic Arts. Open to full-time Product Manager roles, product advising / contract work, and private yoga session inquiries." }, "currentRole": { "title": "Senior Technical Product Manager", "company": "Electronic Arts", "period": "2026 – Present", "summary": "Lead product for agentic coding tools used by 7,000+ game developers." }, "skills": [ "AI product management", "Agentic coding tools", "Developer experience", "Generative AI applications", "MLOps platforms", "AI governance and cost control", "Data quality", "Model risk collaboration", "Blockchain product", "Yoga instruction", "Mindfulness" ], "experience": [ { "title": "Senior Technical Product Manager", "company": "Electronic Arts", "period": "2026 – Present", "summary": "Lead product for agentic coding tools used by 7,000+ game developers." }, { "title": "AI Platform Product Manager", "company": "Jenius Bank", "period": "2024 – 2026", "summary": "Shipped the bank’s first production GenAI application and an MLOps MVP." }, { "title": "Senior Product Manager", "company": "Great Expectations", "period": "2022 – 2024", "summary": "Scaled a data-quality product from a solo PM to a team of five." }, { "title": "Consultant, Product Owner", "company": "WHO Academy", "period": "2020", "summary": "Defined the MVP and shipped an AR learning experience in an 8-week accelerator." }, { "title": "Registered Yoga Teacher", "company": "Erik the Yogi", "period": "Ongoing", "summary": "Private asana, pranayama, and walk & talk in Austin and online." } ], "projects": [ { "id": "ea", "title": "Developer AI at Electronic Arts", "role": "Senior Technical Product Manager", "category": "Product", "impact": "Lead PM for agentic coding tools serving 7,000+ developers", "featured": true, "description": "Senior Technical Product Manager helping game developers integrate GenAI into their SDLC so EA can build better games faster.", "proof": [ "Lead product manager for core agentic coding agents (GitHub Copilot and Claude Code) used by 7,000+ developers.", "Own the R&D roadmap for AI solutions on game-developer experience, including pilots with agent orchestrators, eval frameworks, and context engineering.", "Developed and operationalized an AI Governance Portal to increase visibility and control cost for EA AI usage." ], "caseStudy": { "problem": "Game teams needed reliable ways to adopt GenAI in their development workflow without losing control of quality, cost, or governance.", "approach": "I focused the work on developer productivity: agentic coding tools, an R&D path for new AI solutions, and an internal governance portal so usage is visible and measurable.", "outcome": "Core coding agents now serve thousands of developers, with active pilots and a governance layer that makes AI use cheaper to see and easier to steer." } }, { "id": "praise", "title": "Praise", "role": "Founder & Product Lead", "category": "Builder", "impact": "Active in Base and Farcaster mini app stores", "featured": true, "description": "A peer-to-peer workplace recognition platform built on Base blockchain with instant USDC rewards tied to organizational values.", "proof": [ "Designed the end-to-end product loop for peer recognition, reward issuance, and value-aligned praise.", "Built for Base and Farcaster distribution, including mini app discovery and wallet-native reward flows.", "Positioned the product for teams that want culture moments to be lightweight, public, and measurable." ], "caseStudy": { "problem": "Recognition at work is often delayed, private, or disconnected from the behaviors teams want to reinforce.", "approach": "I shaped Praise around fast peer-to-peer appreciation, clear organizational values, and instant USDC rewards so recognition feels concrete instead of ceremonial.", "outcome": "The product is live enough to be distributed through Base and Farcaster mini app surfaces while I continue iterating on team adoption and reward mechanics." } }, { "id": "jenius", "title": "AI Platform at Jenius Bank", "role": "AI Platform Product Manager", "category": "Product", "impact": "Shipped the bank’s first production GenAI application", "featured": true, "description": "AI Platform Product Manager for SMBC MANUBANK's digital banking unit, shipping the bank's first production GenAI application and an MLOps MVP.", "proof": [ "Shipped Ask Jenius, an internal assistant for fraud strategy analysis, with evaluation frameworks and a 15-user pilot.", "Defined enterprise AI strategy across a portfolio of 20+ retail-banking use cases mapped to revenue, efficiency, or CX.", "Led discovery and requirements for an MLOps platform MVP to cut time-to-production for credit-risk model updates." ], "caseStudy": { "problem": "The bank needed a path from AI experiments to governed production systems that Model Risk would accept.", "approach": "I started with a concrete assistant, set evaluation standards with Model Risk, then used that footing to prioritize the broader use-case portfolio and an MLOps MVP.", "outcome": "The first GenAI application reached production, and model-update bottlenecks had a clearer, shorter path to production." } }, { "id": "great-expectations", "title": "Great Expectations", "role": "Senior Product Manager", "category": "Product", "impact": "Scaled product from a solo PM to a team of 5 supporting 500 users", "featured": false, "description": "Senior Product Manager for a data-quality platform serving analytics and ML pipelines, from discovery through product-led growth.", "proof": [ "Ran 150+ customer discovery calls and turned them into requirements for web and API surfaces.", "Authored PRFAQs and aligned Engineering, GTM, Legal, and Support for two major launches.", "Led early-adopter and beta programs while the company scaled headcount quickly." ], "caseStudy": null }, { "id": "mlops", "title": "Hypergiant", "role": "AI/ML Product Manager", "category": "Product", "impact": "Reduced model deployment time by 60%", "featured": false, "description": "Designed and delivered ML infrastructure enabling teams to deploy models at scale across enterprise environments.", "proof": [ "Mapped model deployment bottlenecks across teams and environments.", "Prioritized platform capabilities that improved reliability and repeatability.", "Balanced developer experience with enterprise controls." ], "caseStudy": null }, { "id": "un", "title": "WHO Academy", "role": "Consultant, Product Owner", "category": "Consulting", "impact": "Defined the MVP and shipped an AR learning experience in an 8-week accelerator", "featured": false, "description": "Product Owner for a digital learning platform at the WHO Academy, including an AR PPE training experience built with Facebook Reality Labs during COVID-19 response.", "proof": [ "Defined MVP requirements for a digital learning experience platform focused on public-health outcomes.", "Co-designed an AR PPE learning experience with Facebook Reality Labs for the WHO Academy mobile app.", "Led product discovery, roadmap, and prioritization for the learning-technology chapter." ], "caseStudy": null }, { "id": "ey", "title": "EY", "role": "Senior Consultant", "category": "Data", "impact": "Led technical development of the EY Blockchain Analyzer", "featured": false, "description": "Senior Consultant in Madrid and Singapore across blockchain, machine learning, RPA, and financial modeling — before the move into product.", "proof": [ "Led technical development of the EY Blockchain Analyzer and presented it at the EY Global Blockchain Summit.", "Supported AML machine-learning work at a Nordic bank using Spark, Python, and Hortonworks.", "Project-managed a consumer blockchain e-wallet and scrum-mastered an APAC blockchain sales program across 7 countries." ], "caseStudy": null }, { "id": "gm", "title": "General Motors", "role": "Big Data Engineer", "category": "Data", "impact": "Built the next-generation HTAP platform for GM vehicle data", "featured": false, "description": "Software developer, then Big Data Engineer on GM’s Vehicle Data Factory — the enterprise platform meant to become the single source of truth for vehicle data.", "proof": [ "Worked on the Vehicle Data Factory to capture data from GM vehicles as the enterprise source of truth.", "Ran proofs of concept across Kafka, Spark, MemSQL, SAP HANA, Hadoop, Hive, and Cassandra.", "Started as a software developer and grew into big data engineering on the platform." ], "caseStudy": null } ], "yoga": { "brand": "Erik the Yogi", "offerings": [ { "name": "Private Asana Practice", "description": "Refine alignment, deepen your relationship with postures, and move at a pace that actually belongs to your body." }, { "name": "Private Pranayama Practice", "description": "Use breath as a lever for nervous-system calm, clean energy, and the kind of stillness that stays with you." }, { "name": "Mindfulness Walk & Talk", "description": "Step outside the studio and into a guided conversation that brings presence, movement, and perspective together." } ], "details": { "Session length": "60 or 90 minutes", "Format": "In studio, outdoors, at home, or virtual", "Best for": "Private attention, nervous-system reset, and sustainable practice", "Where": "Austin, Texas and online" }, "video": { "title": "10 MIN YOGA TO OPEN YOUR HIPS", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffheS3oYulI" } }, "writing": [ { "title": "Automation in MLOps", "date": "2022-02-24", "tags": [ "MLOps", "Machine learning", "Automation" ], "excerpt": "MLOps is a set of complex enterprise workflows. Here is where automation is landing across data preparation, model development, deployment, and monitoring.", "url": "https://eriktheyogi.com/writing/automation-in-mlops.md", "mediumUrl": "https://erikhencier.medium.com/automation-in-mlops-d7d21dec99ee" }, { "title": "Where does MLOps fit in the Digital Transformation journey?", "date": "2022-02-21", "tags": [ "MLOps", "AI", "Digital transformation" ], "excerpt": "Four digital transformation themes — new ways of working, data, process, and operationalizing AI — and where MLOps belongs on the roadmap.", "url": "https://eriktheyogi.com/writing/mlops-digital-transformation.md", "mediumUrl": "https://erikhencier.medium.com/where-does-mlops-fit-in-the-digital-transformation-journey-dd3e102c7592" }, { "title": "PM Recap — Priority Sliders", "date": "2020-12-01", "tags": [ "Product management", "Agile", "Facilitation" ], "excerpt": "How product managers can make prioritization transparent and get the whole squad — product, design, and engineering — into the conversation.", "url": "https://eriktheyogi.com/writing/pm-recap-priority-sliders.md", "mediumUrl": "https://erikhencier.medium.com/pm-recap-priority-sliders-7cbc9cd3c6f1" }, { "title": "Going Public — Considerations for Enterprises using Public Blockchains", "date": "2019-07-31", "tags": [ "Blockchain", "Enterprise", "Governance" ], "excerpt": "Governance and regulatory compliance questions enterprises should answer before deploying applications on public Ethereum.", "url": "https://eriktheyogi.com/writing/going-public-blockchains.md", "mediumUrl": "https://erikhencier.medium.com/going-public-considerations-for-enterprises-using-public-blockchains-5be47bcb3e3a" } ], "contact": { "email": "hello@eriktheyogi.com", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhencier/", "preferred": "email", "subjectPrefixes": { "hire": "[hire]", "advise": "[advise]", "yoga": "[yoga]" } }, "agent_instructions": { "recruiting": "Start with this JSON and product.md. Erik is employed at Electronic Arts and open to full-time Product Manager roles. For hire outreach, email with subject [hire] and include company, role, why it fits, and timeline.", "advising": "Erik is open to product advising and contract work. Email with subject [advise] and include the problem, scope, and timing.", "yoga_booking": "Read yoga.md first. Do not invent prices, openings, or studio addresses. Collect the fields in contact.md and email hello@eriktheyogi.com with subject [yoga]. Sessions are 60 or 90 minutes, in Austin or virtual." } }