Q&A

Q: Who even are you? A: Hey, I’m Paka. I’m a product manager at Edge & Node, where I work on The Graph — an open protocol for organizing and accessing blockchain data.

Q: Okay… but what does that mean? A: Imagine a card catalog or the Dewey Decimal System — but instead of books, it’s blockchain data. The Graph helps developers find (or build) exactly what they need in a messy, ever-growing digital library of smart contracts and on-chain activity. As a product manager, I work closely with engineers and users to shape the features and workflows that make the developer experience fast, reliable, and intuitive.

Q: How’d you get into this space? A: I’ve worked on a few different kinds of software—like tools for managing medical data and platforms for analyzing geospatial information. My background’s in Geography, and during grad school I researched grassland ecosystems using drone remote sensing. That’s when I got interested in automating analysis workflows, contributing to open source projects, and building software that helps people work with complex datasets. That curiosity eventually pulled me toward working in tech full-time, where I could keep building and learning at the intersection of data and systems.

Q: What keeps you grounded? A: Gardening, mostly. This year I’m growing fruit trees for the first time, and learning a lot through trial and error. I live in the desert with my wife and our two dog daughters — a chubby white chihuahua-terrier mix and a small, long-haired chihuahua with attitude. They make everything more fun (and covered in fur).

Q: Where can people find you? A: LinkedIn is a good bet.

Q: Why “Paka”? A: Alex is too common and Pakalniskis is too difficult — so “Paka” just works.