Nov03

New role at Adobe

11:25 pm on Nov 3rd 2009 Andrew Shorten

Over the last couple of years I’ve had the pleasure of being part of the Platform Evangelism team at Adobe – a smart, diverse and unique group of people who care passionately about Flash and who genuinely like helping others learn about new technology.

A big part of that role has been spending time out on the road talking about the Flash Platform and showing how to use Flex, Flash Catalyst and Flash Builder to create rich Internet applications. An equally important part of being an evangelist is listening to feedback, suggestions and constructive criticism from designers, developers, technical architects, press & analysts and channeling that information back into the product teams so that we can fix bugs, add new features and improve workflow between tools.

I’m hoping to use some of that experience, gained from talking with many of you, in my new role at Adobe, as Senior Product Manager for Flash Builder.

I’m really excited about taking on this new position – there are lots of great additions in the upcoming version of Flash Builder 4 (currently in beta), including the data centric development tools, the network monitor, support for Flash Catalyst projects and enhancements to core code editing, refactoring and debugging features. But there is a whole lot more that we can do to enhance developer productivity, enable a more fluid design/develop workflow and, with the availability of Flash Player on smart phones and the upcoming mobile version of the Flex framework, to support multi-screen application development.

Whilst the engineering team continues working hard on completing Flash Builder 4 for a release in the first half of 2010, I’ll be joining with more of a view on future versions of Flash Builder and be part of the team planning out what’s important to developers building applications on the Flash Platform.

If you are interested in some of the directions that we’re thinking about and didn’t attend MAX, I’d encourage you to watch the Flash Platform Tooling & Framework Roadmap presentation on Adobe TV.

I’ll be relocating to San Francisco with my family in the New Year and am looking forward to the many new experiences that will come from living in California. I will of course miss being in Europe (although maybe not the winter weather so much), working with all my friends on the European evangelism, PR and marketing teams and being close to the many people I’ve met at conferences, user group meetings, Flash Camps and other local events. I do hope however that I’ll be back during the year to support some of the European events/conferences and to get feedback on our plans for future versions of Flash Builder.

I’m going to do my best to continue blogging here, I’ll continue to be on Twitter and more than ever I welcome your comments and thoughts on how you’d like to see us develop Flash Builder.

Cheers,

Andrew

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37 Comments »Adobe, Flex, Personal

37 Responses to “New role at Adobe”

  1. Rick Williams Nov 3rd 2009 at 11:38 pm 1

    Congratulations Andrew!

    Great news and exciting times ahead. Best of luck on your move and work in the future.

  2. Richard Leggett Nov 3rd 2009 at 11:42 pm 2

    Congratulations, wow SF! All the best, hope you keep us up to date on the blog/twitter.

  3. Raymond Camden Nov 3rd 2009 at 11:47 pm 3

    Nothing really constructive to say but congrats!

  4. uberVU - social comments Nov 3rd 2009 at 11:50 pm 4

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by monkchips: RT @ashorten new role at Adobe – Senior Product Manager for Flash Builder: http://bit.ly/1b1lT3 [whoa! Big! good luck andrew, enjoy SF]…

  5. Liz Myers Nov 3rd 2009 at 11:59 pm 5

    Congratulations Andrew! That’s very exciting and well deserved. Best of luck in your new role.

  6. ian morton Nov 4th 2009 at 12:12 am 6

    Thanks for your efforts in the past and in the future. Good luck in SF, sounds great.

  7. Big Mad Kev Nov 4th 2009 at 12:28 am 7

    Congrats Dude!!!! All the best your will be missed by the SOTR Team!

  8. Jamie Krug Nov 4th 2009 at 12:49 am 8

    Congratulations on your exciting new role! I won’t waste any time in asking my #1 question ;-) In one word: Linux? If you haven’t taken the opportunity to read some of the many pleas, you can start here:
    http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FB-19053

    I won’t repeat the many important points made in the comments of the above issue. I’m just one of the many who would really love to see Flash Builder on Linux made available. For now, my would-be Adobe business has gone to IntelliJ IDEA. Worse, however, is the fact that the adoption of Flex itself will be greatly inhibited if Linux developers are forced to seek alternatives simply due to non-support by the primary IDE.

    Sorry to ping you with a tough question your “first day on a new job” ;-) It’s been a long time of reading community feedback and hearing absolutely zero response from Adobe, so I can’t help but ask! Best wishes on your new gig. Cheers!

  9. Savvas Malamas Nov 4th 2009 at 01:01 am 9

    WOW THATS HUGE!!!

    Congrats Andrew or should I say.. Product Manager of Flash Builder??
    CONGRATS!!
    Great news!

  10. simon gladman Nov 4th 2009 at 01:07 am 10

    Congratulations on the new job and I hope you and your family love San Francisco.

  11. creacog Nov 4th 2009 at 01:21 am 11

    Congratulations and good luck

  12. Peter Andreas Moelgaard Nov 4th 2009 at 01:26 am 12

    Congratulations Andrew… Exciting news !

  13. Mihai Corlan Nov 4th 2009 at 01:27 am 13

    You’ll be my favorite PM from Adobe, that’s for sure! :)

  14. Imarkahann Nov 4th 2009 at 01:28 am 14

    Congratulations Mr Shorten !

  15. Gilles Guillemin Nov 4th 2009 at 01:47 am 15

    Wow, that’s pretty cool! Congrats Andrew!

  16. Peter Nov 4th 2009 at 01:50 am 16

    Great news Andrew, congratulations! All the best in your new role and with the move to San Francisco. I do also hope we still get to see you over in Europe once in a while for the conferences.

  17. John Dalziel Nov 4th 2009 at 01:56 am 17

    Great news Andrew, good luck in San Francisco :)

  18. Gilles Guillemin Nov 4th 2009 at 01:58 am 18

    Too bad I couldn’t make it too FOTB this year. Looks like I missed the one opportunity we had to meet in the flesh.

  19. James Whittaker Nov 4th 2009 at 02:32 am 19

    Congratulations Andrew on the new role. It’s been great working with you over the past few years within the Adobe community.

    I’m sure you will really enjoy your new role and the Flash Builder product & development teams will gain from your ideas and experience no end.

  20. Nate Beck Nov 4th 2009 at 02:34 am 20

    Congrats Andrew! Best of luck on the move!

  21. jinni Nov 4th 2009 at 08:25 am 21

    Congratulations from your fellow in China R&D. :p

  22. Zerlot Nov 4th 2009 at 10:37 am 22

    Congrats and Good Luck!
    My pleasure to work with you last year and thanks for your huge support to China Team!

  23. Tom Kordys Nov 4th 2009 at 06:53 pm 23

    Congratulations,
    I am so jealous of the weather you are gonna have there…

  24. Matt Gifford Nov 4th 2009 at 07:17 pm 24

    Congratulations Andrew! Awesome news.

  25. Abdul Qabiz Nov 4th 2009 at 07:37 pm 25

    Congratulations Andrew. Really looking forward to see you in action as Platform Evangelist.

    -abdul

  26. Andrew Shorten » Want to join the Platform Evangelism team? Nov 5th 2009 at 12:14 am 26

    [...] my post yesterday about my new role as a Product Manager for Flash Builder, my departure from the Platform Evangelism team opens up an opportunity for us to hire a new [...]

  27. Jackie Crook Nov 5th 2009 at 01:45 am 27

    Hi Andrew many congratulations

  28. web Nov 5th 2009 at 03:08 am 28

    Impressive

  29. Adrian Parr Nov 5th 2009 at 04:12 am 29

    Congratulation Andrew, That sounds like a fantastic opportunity. Good luck with the move to the US with your family.

  30. Ryan Stewart Nov 5th 2009 at 05:15 am 30

    I realized I hadn’t officially commented on my congrats. Looking forward to seeing more of you and hopefully you’ll get a chance to bring the family up to Seattle.

    The only downside is that you’ll regret moving to San Francisco after you come to Seattle :)

    =Ryan
    ryan@adobe.com

  31. Dion Almaer Nov 5th 2009 at 08:32 am 31

    Andrew,

    Awesome news! Will be great to have another brit invasion in the bay area :)

    Cheers,

    Dion

  32. Life As An Evangelist » Want to join the Platform Evangelism team? Nov 5th 2009 at 08:41 am 32

    [...] my post yesterday about my new role as a Product Manager for Flash Builder, my departure from the Platform Evangelism team opens up an opportunity for us to hire a new [...]

  33. Aseem Srivastava Nov 7th 2009 at 06:09 am 33

    Congratulations…Andrew

  34. Sebastian Nov 9th 2009 at 09:27 pm 34

    Congratulations! Good luck with your new role in San Francisco!

  35. David Mendels Nov 13th 2009 at 05:01 am 35

    Congratulations Andrew! Nice move.

  36. Rodislav Moldovan Nov 21st 2009 at 10:06 am 36

    Hi! :) so.. what about linux version !?

  37. Dave Gamez Nov 22nd 2009 at 03:38 am 37

    Congratulations on your new role Andrew !!!