As more and more dev teams have integrated DevOps into their SDLC over the last few years, their package management requirements have changed and expanded. In response, MyGet has continued to respond to community requests for new/updated features and new package types. The maturity of the MyGet product and recent growth of the MyGet community has finally reached a point where we needed to bring someone on board who could dedicate their full time and effort to managing MyGet’s product vision and propel MyGet into the new decade.

It is with great excitement and anticipation that we announce MyGet’s newest team member and first ever Product Manager: Luka Oniani.

Luka could not have joined the team at a more opportune time. Though he has been working almost non-stop since he started in January—diving into conversations with team members and users alike, combing through your feedback and requests, and drafting the roadmap for the upcoming year—we were able to sneak in a quick Q&A with him earlier this week. Read on to learn a little more about Luka, what brought him to MyGet, and what MyGet users have in store for future development!

MyGet Team: What is your name?
Luka Oniani

MT: Where do you call home?
LO: There is no place like 127.0.0.1 :-)

MT: Mac, Windows, Linux?
LO:

• Mac - when I wear a suit and a tie, meeting business stakeholders;
• Linux - sudo apt-get install <awesome assembla> - when I (rarely) want to go nerdy;
• Windows - current environment at the moment. Windows has evolved into a decent product, especially with .Net Core and Windows Subsystem for Linux.

MT: What were you up to before joining MyGet?
LO: Before Assembla/MyGet, I was a de-facto co-founder of a custom software development agency. Together, we managed to scale the team from 3 geeks to a fully-fledged company. The team later merged with another (larger) agency, which gave me the chance to pursue opportunities to make an impact on software products that serve a more global audience like Assembla and MyGet.

MT: Any highlights of the first month at MyGet?
LO: AWESOME TEAM. All caps! :-) The teams at MyGet, Assembla, and the whole Idera DevOps organization as a whole have an enormous capacity to push the boundaries of our DevOps product line to infinity and beyond!

MT: Any pleasant surprises so far that you weren’t expecting?
LO: I did not expect the internal structure of our team to be this linear. That structure has made it easy to reach out to decision-makers for daily discussions as needed without formal meeting requests.

MT: What are you excited about around MyGet?
LO: The history of MyGet is really exciting. It was started by two stellar developers who later went on to become MVP Microsoft employees, and at that time it was one of the first private, cloud-hosted package management solutions. As we near MyGet’s 10th anniversary, there is a lot of room to double down on what has worked well while looking forward to what problems we can solve for the community in the next decade. Speaking both personally and professionally, it is very exciting to work on reinvigorating every layer of the product.

MT: What do you anticipate being the biggest challenges in your role?
LO: The first step to rejuvenating MyGet requires developing an extensive product roadmap. To keep a roadmap realistic, it should be evidence-based and in close alignment with users’ needs. The creation of such a plan requires a lot of quantitative and qualitative research in close collaboration with teammates and users. While designing the roadmap is a pleasantly creative process, its execution is the biggest challenge of my role as Product Manager. However, I am confident that we will ace the mission and help our community manage their application dependencies, adopt DevOps, and ship awesome software more easily than ever before!

MT: Any teasers from the upcoming roadmap you can share with the MyGet community?
LO: Sure! There is a lot in the pipeline, from upgrading MyGet’s backend stack (e.g. revamping build services) to adding new features (e.g. improved CI/CD integrations) and new package types (e.g. containers). We have been closely analyzing the suggestions and requests that users have submitted via our UserVoice feature request board, customer support channels, and the 2019 MyGet Community Survey, with a focus on prioritizing the most-requested feature sets to deliver this year. Stay tuned and be in touch with us on UserVoice and Twitter.

MT: Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
LO: Dark chocolate with black coffee :)

MT: What is one thing that all of your friends/familiars would say about you?
LO: I am detail-oriented and caring. (They wouldn’t be able to say just one thing :-))

MT: What is one thing that no one knows about you?
LO: I can cook!

MT: What advice would you give to a young product manager who wants to grow into this position?
LO: Work hard and don’t be afraid to make mistakes in the early stages of your career. Take responsibility for your mistakes and learn from them. Hard times will help you grow faster.

You can stay in touch with Luka and the whole MyGet Team by following us on Twitter or LinkedIn:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Have an idea for a feature or improvement you’d like to see in MyGet? Let us know by adding your vote or submitting a new idea on MyGet’s refreshed UserVoice feature request forum!

Happy packaging!