Find the drivers that work for you.
How long have you been in the same company? Meet Alexandra! She has been employed in Jayway by Devoteam since 2013. We had a chat with her to figure out how she keeps a positive spirit and passion about her job in the same company after 7 years when you juggle work/life balance with 3 kids at home.
Why do I do what I do?
I have fun every day. That is my main motivation. I need to enjoy what I do, to do it! Ticking off boxes of actions is really satisfying. I also enjoy having the responsibility to change direction if I see that it can lead to a better outcome. I have fun when I can see a new decision leads to a positive change. Then I feel like I am making a direct impact.
For me, it is very important to feel like I am working in close connection with people. I need to feel like I work with a client, and not just for a client.
How do I do it?
My main task is to narrow the focus of the client goals and make sure that developers and designers have a clear roadmap of what we are doing ahead of time. The closest 3-4 months is set. I continuously have meetings with the client to prioritise the work. Quite often we change focus totally because we have done a workshop where the outcome is then prioritised and split into goals.
Design and development practices are very different – and so is the work of our client. Therefore, It’s so much easier for us to deliver on a long-term vision if we all have the same knowledge about the product and have common goals along the way. When we establish those, it is a lot easier to feel like we are “in it together”, that we are moving forward and that we are creating it in collaboration. As soon as we work together, we have a much better possibility to deliver good value.
I also make sure that we have “Feedback Fika” every week (feedback & cake). Here, the design team talks through the latest design with the client and the developers. In that way, we synchronize both on the technical aspects of the work, along with the business goals.
What do I do?
I am an agile project manager, and currently, I work in a long-term collaboration with the company “Gleerups”. But, I am more than just a regular project manager. I work with product ownership as a big part of my role. I help our client to research and prioritise upcoming features. We typically do that by having workshops together with the client. We drive product-ownership and concept development and the client provides us with the domain knowledge and a focus on what kind of features gives real value to the users in the end.
Besides planning, prioritization and organizing demos I am also in the code-deck and do testing. I am basically part of the everyday work, together with the team.
How do I stay motivated?
The most important thing for me is working with people. I need to have great people around me! Both within the team but also in the whole workplace. I get energy from others and it keeps me motivated to talk to different people.
The top-3 values for choosing my workplace?
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I appreciate a workplace where there are expectations of what I should deliver. That pushes me to my best, but I must have freedom with the responsibilities. I like that my managers have confidence in the fact that I will deliver. Then I can do it my way, but there is a trust in me, that it will be done.
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I enjoy having close management and flat structure. In that way, I feel like I can have an open discussion across the whole organisation with anyone. In Jayway, I enjoy that people feel like they have the confidence and option to provide their opinion without consequences.
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I need the flexibility to combine work and everyday life. I have 3 kids at the ages 4-8! It is quite important to me that I can juggle that, and that I have room for changes in my every-day life.
