Rob Christensen Bay Area Event Radar ↗
Rob Christensen · Making · Shipping · Repeating

Building products
for what comes next.

I lead product teams that build tools for millions, but I've never stopped being a maker. Right now, AI is rewriting the rules of what software can do—both on the screen and in the physical world. From my work leading Lightroom at Adobe to my own hands-on prototyping with physical AI and robotics, my focus is on finding the exact point where cutting-edge technology becomes a simple, indispensable part of the human experience.

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Rob Christensen
Rob Christensen Bay Area, 2026
§ About

Outside of work, I mentor product managers—with a particular focus on recent business school graduates—and volunteer with the Pacific Beach Coalition. My leadership philosophy is rooted in staying hands-on, particularly as AI expands into the physical realm. I spend my free time exploring edge-deployed AI models, building connected devices with ESP32 and sensors, and leveraging 3D printing to bring hardware ideas to life. For me, the best way to understand the future of intelligent systems and robotics is to build them yourself.

§ Along the way
Kindle Paperwhite
#1 Bestseller
Kindle Paperwhite on Amazon Electronics
 Apple Mac App Store App of the Year 2024
App of the Year
Apple Mac App Store, 2024 — Adobe Lightroom
 Lightroom Mobile — Editor's Choice
Editor's Choice
Apple App Store and Google Play — Lightroom Mobile
 GoPro HERO5
Red Dot Award
Best of the Best: Product Design 2017 — GoPro HERO5
§ A working life

I've been fortunate to arrive early at technologies that shaped what came next — IoT, AI, now physical AI — and to build products around them that people genuinely rely on.

Mar 2022 — Now

Sr. Director of Product Management, Lightroom

Adobe

Leading cross-functional product teams driving Adobe’s photography products—including Lightroom and Photoshop’s ACR. I am currently spearheading the integration of generative AI (Adobe Firefly) and advanced machine learning models (AI masking, Denoise) into intuitive, high-performance consumer workflows at global scale. Apple Mac App Store App of the Year, 2024; Lightroom Mobile featured as App of the Day.

Mar 2017 — Mar 2022

Sr. Director of Product Management, Service Cloud

Salesforce

Grew Service Cloud messaging to 100M+ customer interactions per month across thousands of global enterprises.

2016 — 2017

Director of Product Management

GoPro

Led product across the full software stack for the HERO5 Black and Session ecosystem — firmware, multiple mobile apps, desktop software, AI/ML features, and cloud services.

2014 — 2016

Sr. Director of Product Management & Strategy

Samsung Electronics

Worked on early-stage product bets in AI, IoT, robotics, and digital health at Samsung’s advanced R&D group.

2011 — 2015

Principal Product Manager, Kindle

Amazon Lab126

Lead software PM for the 1st generation Kindle Paperwhite (rated 9/10 by Wired and The Verge). Launched the 2nd generation Paperwhite featuring Goodreads integration. Oversaw the expansion of Kindle into new international markets, including China, Japan, and India.

§ Speaking

I've presented at Adobe MAX, Dreamforce, and Google on the products I've had the privilege of leading.

Adobe MAX
Adobe's annual creativity conference — presenting Lightroom's latest features to photographers and creatives.
Dreamforce
Salesforce's flagship conference — talking through how Service Cloud messaging was handling 100M+ customer interactions per month.
Google
Invited speaker on Adobe products and technology.
§ Writing

A few examples of posts I've written recently during my time at Adobe. More original content coming soon.

§ Projects
Personal Tool · Web

Bay Area Events Radar

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A personal event aggregator for Bay Area robotics, AI, hardware, astronomy, and science events. Checks 10+ sources, scores events by interest, and updates three times daily. Includes map view, subject filters, and interest scoring.

May 2026 · Web · Personal · Updated Daily
Mac App · Education

Pi Visualizer

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Launched in January 2026 to celebrate Pi and push my modern development stack. Built natively in Swift, the app transforms Pi's digits—calculated via the Bounded Spigot algorithm—into rich visual experiences like color-coded heatmaps and frequency distributions. Version 2.0 leverages Metal for GPU-accelerated pattern detection, and Version 3.0 is currently in active development.
Jan 2026 · macOS · Free · App Store · GitHub ↗
Open Source · Web Tool

EV Charging Calculator

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A free tool for estimating home EV and plug-in hybrid charging costs. Compare start times, utility rate plans, and charging speeds to find the cheapest time to plug in. Covers 30+ vehicles and 17 US utility presets. No account, no install — runs entirely in the browser.

Apr 2026 · Web · Open Source · GitHub
Open Source · Windows

Storage Tree

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A small open source project I built to learn Claude Code — and to solve a real problem: helping Windows users understand what's actually taking up space on their hard drives. Tree views, treemaps, largest-file breakdowns, and a cleanup assistant, all in one local tool.

Apr 2026 · Windows · Open Source · GitHub
§ Patents
US 10,885,079 · Jan 5, 2021
Voice-activated events management system
US 10,423,703 · Sep 24, 2019
Detection and rendering of endnotes in digital content
US USD810165S1
Design Patent: Multimedia Terminal ("Buddy")
US USD809040S1
Design Patent: Multimedia Terminal ("Otto")
§ Get in touch

Whether you're working on something interesting, want to talk product, or just say hello — LinkedIn is the best place to reach me.

Connect on LinkedIn