Editor’s Note:
Terakeet sat down with Tristan Amond (Product Manager) to find out more about his experience and the tools and tips he’s picked up along the way.
Q1: What is your role and how long have you worked at Terakeet?
I’m the Product Manager at Terakeet, and I’ve been here for almost four years.
Q2: What advice would you give someone who is new to Syracuse or to Terakeet?
Terakeet is an environment of continuous learning. Your coworkers are more than happy to explain new concepts, share their technical knowledge, and provide you with a wealth of experience. It’s easy to build a broad base of knowledge here and deepen that knowledge by learning from your colleagues throughout the company.
Q3: List a quote that has helped you get through a tough time.
As cliche as it sounds, “this too shall pass.” Our priorities change a lot over the course of our lives; understanding that what feels important today may fade over time as other opportunities or situations occur helps focus on the bigger picture and respond to individual moments at the appropriate scale.
Q4: How do you unwind after a long workday?
I’ll take my dog Rico for a walk and have a beer.
Q5: If you could invite any famous businessperson or workplace guru to dinner, who would it be and why?
I’d invite Ed Catmull, a computer scientist and an early innovator in 3D animation who became a founding member of Pixar. Catmull has been able to really harness his technical skills to serve his creativity, and that balance has led him to recognition as an innovator in his field.
Q6: If you could only use 5 workplace tools or platforms, what would they be and why?
- Slack: A huge component of my job is learning how people use our software, and I’m continuously finding improvement opportunities through the questions I’m asked by users or by asking them questions.
- Trello: I use Trello to help track and prioritize work tasks, mostly a mix of kanban boards, color coding, and tagging. It’s a great way to look back at what you’ve accomplished over a month or a quarter and identify which tasks really helped move the needle.
- Medium: There are a ton of accomplished designers, product people, and entrepreneurs that share their stories on Medium. You need to take these stories with a grain of salt and make sure that the lessons you take away are relevant for your organization, but there’s a lot of information out there to help you not make other people’s mistakes.
- Jira: This tool is great for communicating with the development team and making sure we’re all aligned on new features. I’m still relatively new to Jira so I’m learning new capabilities all the time, and adjusting how I use the tool to make sure I’m communicating effectively. Jira is also a great way to get user feedback on new features they’d like to see added or bugs they’d really like to see removed.
- Dark Reader: This Chrome extension has made my browsing experience infinitely better. It automatically applies a custom dark mode to every website you visit; give it a shot, your eyes will thank you.
Q7: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received from a coworker?
Communicate in other people’s languages. I’m often working in a cross-functional team that brings a ton of expertise to the table. While it’s a great learning environment, it can sometimes make communication tricky, because everyone brings their own background knowledge and set of success criteria for a project. It’s critical to understand other perspectives, and you’ll have an easier time advocating for your own positions if you can frame the conversation in a way that aligns with the goals of your audience. Find the core of what they care about, and speak to that!
This is a continuation of our “Workplace Wisdom” series. Read the previous posts here: