Interview Shauni - Analyst and Product Owner at Tailr

Who am I interviewing? Can you please introduce yourself?

As you already know, my name is Shauni. I am 23 years old and started working at Tailr August 16, 2022, which is not that long ago. I would describe myself as a perfectionist who often dares to underestimate herself, but also as a go-getter. I am someone who does not give up easily and can get stuck into something until progression is visible.

Before your job at Tailr, you were studying. Can you tell more about your education?

True, I indeed walked straight from school into Tailr. I did a bachelor's degree in Applied Computer Science at HoGent, where I had chosen mobile app development. I finished my studies and realized that programming was not really for me and I got more satisfaction from the analyses that preceded a project. Because of this, I actually took the postgraduate degree in IT Management at HoGent, in order to have a less technical view on IT and to be able to empathize better on a business level.

What is your role and your duties within Tailr?

I have been hired to take on the role of analyst/product owner. Before/during the development of a project a thorough analysis needs to be done to see what is possible and what is not, how this should be done and whether some processes can be made easier. To set this up, workshops are often organized with me, the customer, tech lead, ...

Furthermore, I will put processes into BPMN flows in order to outline points of improvement and discuss them with the customer. These findings and written out analyses can then be discussed/validated during the workshops. So there is room to spar on how to approach certain issues and to start sharing our technical knowledge.

Once analyses are approved by the customer and this is technically feasible, I break down the tasks into manageable Jira tickets (can be imagined as a post-it). I complete these tickets with the info from the analysis so the developers know what to implement. Once those tickets are reviewed by the tech lead and there is a time estimate, I can divide them into sprints (per 2 weeks). When a ticket is ready and thus has been de-veloped, it is passed back to me so I can test whether it works properly. Furthermore, I also provide a release schedule to outline to the customer when they can expect which finished part. I also provide a test plan to be able to go through each release and say with certainty that everything works.

How did you get to know Tailr?

I got to know Tailr through someone who is also now working as an analyst/product owner at Tailr and who at the time took the Applied Computer Science course with me. I was a bit worried at the time that I would not find a human company and then she told me Tailr's approach which was totally different from what I was used to (in a positive sense of course).

How do you like it so far? If I'm not mistaken, you started in August.

I have been working at Tailr for about 3 months now and see progress every day, both in terms of hard and soft skills. I was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning with the combination of new people, a lot of new information, new mindset, new way of working, etc. This was handled very well by both my 'godmother' (supervisor) and the PM and the rest of the team. I was always asked if I had a positive or negative feeling about certain things and how we could address this and must say that this really helped tremendously. Today I am really a lot more positive already! Of course there are always days that go a little less smoothly, but when I look back at the end of the week I always step into the weekend with a good feeling.

What do you like most about your job?

I like it best when something is delivered by the developers and it really becomes visible. Although I no longer program myself, as an analyst/product owner you do have the feeling that you have contributed to this. It is so satisfying when you and the developers can be enthusiastic and proud when a part is finished. I also like the fact that social contacts are still made through the meetings and workshops with the customer.

What are currently your assignments within Tailr? Do you already have projects you can work on?

At the moment I am mainly working on the Zangersheide project. This is a site where you can view stallions, order semen, attend live and online auctions, bid on an auction horse,...etc. It is immediately a fairly large project, but that way you also learn the most immediately. I myself have already had the opportunity to attend a live auction on site in order to map the process in a BPMN flow. Furthermore, I am also being quietly drawn into the Pizza Hut & Hiking story.

Who is your mentor? What is your mentoring like within the team?

My mentor is Nathalie De Martin. From day one, she guided me tremendously and made sure my concerns were addressed.

In addition to her guidance, I can always count on the PM of the project, Wim Pierson. Every week we have two moments where I can express my concerns, uncertainties and questions so that they can get me back on track. Without the guidance of these two people, I would not make any progress and would make the same mistakes over and over again. I really see them as my support wall who believe in me, will tell me when I'm doing it wrong and most importantly: tell me how to do it.

The rest of the team also understands when something is not 100% correct from the first time because I am still learning. Furthermore, they are always ready to help where needed and answer questions.

What challenges/challenges have you encountered so far?

Currently I see everything as a challenge because everything is new to me. Creating a ticket in Jira? Challenge. Preparing a sprint? Challenge. Giving a demo to the customer? Challenge. Daring to propose things yourself? Challenge. What skills would you like to develop in the coming months? Besides the hard skills (tickets, analyzing, ...) I would also like to develop my soft skills. I aim to appear more confident towards the customer. I also think that this will go hand in hand (totally into Zangersheide haha) with the development of my hard skills because the more knowledge you have about something, the easier it is to start a conversation about it.

Anything you want to say before we wrap up?

Tailr is a very human company where they value you as a person and don't just see you as a number. Positive vibes!

From this interview, we can tell that you are a good fit at Tailr. We wish you a lot of success with your projects, but with your positive attitude we see that this will certainly be alright!