Anthony Catacchio: Two Years with PI
Product Insight is proud to celebrate Anthony Catacchio’s two-year anniversary. Hired as Director of Engineering in 2021, he was recently promoted to the Vice President of Engineering as the team has grown from 3 to 30 engineers in the past 2 years. Before joining PI, Anthony most recently spent 5 years leading project teams at Farm Design where he focused on medical device and industrial robotics programs. He gained significant experience assembling and leading interdisciplinary teams, planning large projects, and driving system-level development. While he was there, he grew several programs from initial small scope concepts into $1M+ long term projects.
In 2021, Anthony was looking to take the next step in his career. His search focused on independent companies with a design focus, and a desire to build out their engineering business. It was important to him that design services was at the core of the company, and that everything could be optimized around that focus. He wanted to join an established company where he could build upon an existing foundation of user-centered design and grow an engineering team in that mold. It just so happened that Product Insight, a design forward product development company, was looking for someone to do just that.
“This was a very important position for PI as it was pivotal for implementing our strategy and growth plans. We knew this would require someone with top-tier engineering ability and the right experience of course, but also energy, drive, and strong team-building skills. I knew from our first meeting that Anthony was the right person for the job.”
Jim Varney, CEO of Product Insight
Anthony’s role at Product Insight leverages the skills he has built over the last decade in the industry. He was pleasantly surprised with how many old contacts resurfaced when they learned he had joined PI, this helped to fuel the growth of the engineering department. His worries about growing too big too fast were completely unnecessary as it seemed that he couldn’t grow the team fast enough. He continues to search for talented engineers to come on board as word gets out about PI’s abilities.
The scope of the projects PI is hired to take on often require the entire life cycle of a product, starting with the initial proposal, research, and planning, as well as development of prototypes through to manufacturing. Anthony is in his words, “an engineer first.” He has lived the entire process, taking special consideration of the design conscious mentality that he acquired throughout his career and is so important to the life cycle of projects here at Product Insight. He speaks the language of researchers, designers, and engineers, enabling him to push the unification of these disciplines at every stage of development.
When asked how he thinks his role fits into the Product Insight system Anthony said, “I think what I brought to the team was a different perspective. Jim and Bryan (Product Insight’s CEO and President) had been the primary on every single project that came through PI. At some point, as we got bigger, that was going to become impossible. I was able to draw on the systems and skills I acquired from my previous positions to make it possible for us to take on the large-scale projects we have worked on over that last couple of years.”
Anthony also spoke a lot about the culture he wanted to maintain and elevate when coming on board. Product Insight’s philosophy has always been to build a company that is also a product. “While the needs of our clients are why we do what we do, the people who work here are the first users of PI as a product. We put a lot of emphasis on the engagement, development, and general morale of our team.” When the people who work for you are engaged without being overwhelmed, have opportunities to learn and grow, and are free from a cutthroat competitive atmosphere, they do their best work. Walking through the office you can see Anthony’s influence perpetuated into practice. Senior engineers are available to the Juniors and Co-ops, no questions asked. Sharing their tips and tricks without hesitation and making the whole team stronger for it.
Prior to joining Product Insight, Anthony has spent the last 10 years working as a mechanical engineer and team leader. He has taken that experience and built upon a thriving company to make it that much better. His innovation and leadership skills have been invaluable to the growing PI team and made his presence immeasurable.
Check out Anthony on LinkedIn to see more about his past experience.
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