It’s with enormous sadness that we learned this week of the passing of Hans Grande, a dear friend to many, many Adobeans; a stellar product manager; and an all-around excellent fella.  There’s a huge lump in all our throats, but at the wise suggestion of his wife, I’d like to take a moment to remember and celebrate his life.

Hans joined Adobe in 2002 as a PM on the Creative Suite team. Although we worked in different teams & disciplines, our paths would cross periodically, and I remember thinking, "Man, I’m not sure I understood all that MBA science he just laid on me, but I’m glad to have that guy on our side!"  When the Macromedia deal was announced last year, Hans took the reins on leading the planning activities.  Once again, although he was in the "clean room" and thus couldn’t talk much to the rest of us about the plans, I remember thinking, "Well, whatever he’s doing in there, I think those Macromedia folks are going to be impressed."  I couldn’t think of a better rep for that tricky assignment, and I knew he’d do Adobe proud.

Both Hans and I got married last year, and as we each dealt with the planning details, we’d compare notes.  I told him, "Oh man, this whole business of marrying a project manager is great–highly recommended, if you have the means!" He laughed and replied, "Yeah, but I’m marrying another product manager, and you know how that’s going to go: we’ll have all kinds of brilliant ideas for the wedding, and none of them will ever get implemented!"  I knew, though, that somewhere between driving the next great Adobe business initiative & going for long training rides with other Adobe cyclists (a real underachiever, this guy), he’d get it all put together.

I wish I’d gotten to know Hans better.  I wish we’d acted on more of those tossed-off oh-hey-let’s-grab-lunch suggestions.  I’m grateful that he came into the Adobe world for a while, and for the wonderful influence he exerted on so many folks here.  Maybe we can best honor him by picking up the phone & actually having that lunch, making that connection.  I know it would make Hans smile.