In the latest instalment of this series we‚’re getting to know Marc, one of the newest members of the SoCrowd team. Read on to find out more about the pivotal role that Marc plays in delivering fantastic social media software for our customers, as well as what Marc’s speciality dish is!
What’s your role at SoCrowd?
My title is Head of Product, but I actually have several roles within that. The first is that I take ownership of our product roadmap by taking our business strategy and translating it into product goals. Secondly, it’s so important to me that I represent the voice of the customer, building our product goals around the needs of customers.
Lastly, as a product owner, I work as part of our agile scrum team to champion our customers when it comes to working on the user stories for the features of the software.
What does your typical working day look like?
That’s a tricky one to answer because my days are incredibly varied, which is what makes Product management so exciting!
But having said, that there are a couple of ceremonies or meetings we do follow. For example, we have a daily stand up meeting with the rest of the development team to discuss what everyone is working on that day, what they achieved yesterday, and anything that’s impeding their progress.
After that, I might be refining the backlog, which is the technical term used for the list of all software development work such as features and bugs. Refining the backlog means both prioritising the list, as well as adding detail to it to ensure the development team know what the work will entail.
Another significant part of my day is spent analysing how our customers are actually using the SoCrowd platform, to help us understand which areas of software are working well, and which parts could potentially be improved. These analytics are always really exciting to see when we have just released new features and we can see our users making the most of them!
Alongside this, I love hosting workshops and user interviews to really understand anything we can do better, or to discuss ideas and designs for future features.
What’s the best part of your day?
When the team show me the latest feature they have completed – I always get a kick out of seeing our ideas become reality!
So, you’ve spent the last few weeks meeting clients and discussing how they use SoCrowd, what are the key things you’ve learnt so far?
The first thing is that we have genuinely engaged customers who really love SoCrowd – both the product and the people. From a purely product perspective, it’s extremely interesting to unpick some of the common sticking points that our users face when handling social media for their organisations. I’m very confident that these will be addressed soon to make the software even more valuable to our users.
What do you think the secret to building great software is?
Lots of factors contribute to success in developing software including great process, validation, analytics, research, and market awareness. And of course, having a skilled development team who can quickly release new software by iterating and improving on existing work helps a lot.
However, the single most important thing to remember is that we build software to make our users’ lives better. Therefore, it’s putting the user at the heart of everything that we’re doing, starting with the problem we’re trying to solve.
What do you get up to outside work?
I‚’ve got a young family, so my time is mainly spent at soft play, kid’s parties or in the park. But when I do get a moment to myself I like to cycle and run!
Finally, tell us a fun fact that few people know about you
I’m actually a pretty good cook. I will give anything a bash, but I’m quite renowned for my curries!
