📈 Going back to school, I was featured in The Decision Intelligence Lab podcast, and Product OR Engineers

Local Optimum: short, imperfect-yet-useful ideas - Edition #20

Welcome to a new edition of Local Optimum: a short, imperfect-yet-useful collection of ideas related to optimization, decision-making, and applied Operations Research.

Let’s dive in! 🪂

1) 🎒 Going back to school

September is traditionally the month of going back to school…

And here I am! :-)

One of the first things I did was to upgrade the Notion database with Operations Research resources adding an entire new section: use cases.

They’re useful to find inspiration from similar problems, industries, or tools.

Here you can find my announcement.

I’d also like to take advantage of this publication to say a big THANK YOU if you subscribed during August (considering I didn’t write any. single. post).

Literally, dozens of you subscribed during this past month:

Most probably, you did it because I appeared in one of my favorite podcasts.

And speaking about that…

2) 📻 I was featured in The Decision Intelligence Lab podcast

I didn’t write any single word here.

Yet I appeared in one of my favorite podcasts: The Decision Intelligence Lab podcast.

Vijay, Mike and I talked about…

• Not developing for your users.

• The importance of testing your optimization models.

• And where to start when automating decisions at any business.

(among other things)

I encourage you to subscribe to the podcast here:

And why did I appear there? Well, Vijay found my ideas around the Product OR Engineer role powerful 👇🏻

3) 💭 Product OR Engineers

Algorithms, mathematics, chasing optimal solutions…

That’s what academia teaches us.

But that’s a small part of our work to deliver value to the business. What if your focus is on…

• 🎯 Having a business impact mindset.

• 🔥 Owning problems, not just models.

• ⚖️ Balance optimality with usability.

• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Build with users, not for them.

All of that, together with writing good software, is what you need to succeed in more integrated roles within organizations.

This shift reflects the transformation in software development, where engineers are taking on responsibilities traditionally held by product managers.

Continue reading here:

📈 #70 Are Product OR Engineers the future of Operations Research?

---

A proof of the Product OR Engineer role

Next Monday, I’ll share something I saw during August: a role that’s speaking directly to those who want to make a real impact.

It’s important because I talked about the Product OR Engineer role back in April, and now it’s materializing into job offers.

I’ll dissect the job offer for you so that you’re able to identify and match its requirements with the ideal candidate.

If you want to see the role of the future, this will be useful. See you Monday!

---

And that’s it for today!

If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, consider doing any of these:

1) 🔒 Subscribe to the full version: if you aren’t already, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to the full archive, a private chat group, and 30% off new products.

2) 🤝🏻 Collaborate with Feasible. I’m always looking for great products and services that I can recommend to subscribers. Also, if you want to write an article with me, I’m open to that! If you are interested in reaching an audience of Operations Research Engineers, you may want to do that here.

3) 📤 Share the newsletter with a friend, and earn rewards in compensation. You’re just one referral away from getting The Modern OR Engineer Playbook: Mindset, methods, and metrics to deliver Optimization that matters.

If you have any comments or feedback, just respond to this email!

Have a nice day ahead ☀️

Borja.