A new year, a new challenge

It has been one year since I started my new job at Award Force. We make software for managing award programs, competitions, industry recognition, recruitment, grants and more. It’s a great industry to work in because we get to see all that is great about human achievement.

Humans love to receive recognition for a job well done; it’s a basic human need to feel our efforts are noticed and well-received. Seeing people rewarded in this way is good for all of us because celebrating  human achievement elevates and inspires us all.

I am now going to be taking on a new role at Award Force as our first product manager. This is especially exciting for me because I’ve always been fascinated by how humans interact with software. Why do some people have problems doing something as simple as resetting a password? How do we best manage changes to the user interface without alienating half our user base? How do you balance user feature requests with the long-term vision for the product?

A product manager helps to steer the direction of the product and works closely with engineering, commercial, marketing, and client success. I have been working closely with users for more than five years now and that’s not going to change. The most important part of a product manager role is to understand your users and in this spirit I’ll continue working closely with ours.

But first, we’re hiring a replacement for me. If you’d like to join a supportive, friendly, compassionate, and growing company, in a feel-good industry, then we’re looking for a bilingual client success Jedi in Europe.