The kind of PM who asks why before what.

I'm Alex Cruz-Valencia. I grew up in Salinas, California, I'm a first-generation college student and QuestBridge Scholar, and I study Computer Science and Human-Centered Design at Dartmouth.

Back home, I was a member at Digital NEST, a nonprofit in Salinas that gives young people a path into tech, and later an instructor there. Last winter I went back and proposed my own research study on why new members stall out, and one of my recommendations is now how the org talks to its members. That's still my favorite kind of work: knowing a group of people well enough to see what's actually in their way.

Today I'm the product manager for Evergreen, Dartmouth's student-built AI wellness app, backed by $5M in research funding and in testing with about 200 students. I joined as a project assistant, got promoted to PM, and led its design team through the first build. Now I lead design and engineering, and I own the parts of the AI that decide whether students trust it: what Evie can do on their behalf, and what it remembers about them.

My work sits between building and understanding. I can read a schema and I can run a user interview, and I think both belong in the room when a product decision gets made. This summer at EchoStar that meant shipping a self-serve dashboard on Snowflake and deleting a feature I'd built once I checked my assumption with the people it was for. At Youphoria it meant arguing for a social feature, Groups, and owning it all the way to launch.

The through-line is a pull toward products that help people live a little better, and a habit of testing my own assumptions before I trust them. It's why my side project, Puente, is still in validation instead of in the App Store: I'd rather find out it's the wrong idea in a conversation than after a build.

I speak English and Spanish. Outside product work, I box, play poker, sew and tailor my own clothes, and build custom keyboards.