Customer engagement data platform

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Interview with Russ Bennett, General Manager at Plexure

Plexure

_From dreaming of becoming an astronaut to falling in love with computer games, Mohammad Kashem, Team Lead at Plexure is pretty happy about the backup career option he found as an alternative to exploring space._

_We caught up with Mohammad to learn more about what initially sparked his interest to pursue a career in tech, what his day-to-day role entails, some common misconceptions about the role of Team Lead, as well as some sage career advice he has picked up along the way._ 

_Thanks for sharing your story, Mohammad._

> “I make apps for grown-ups!” 

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five-year-old what it is you do?**

I make apps for grown-ups! This is not entirely true, but it helps conversation going with 5-year-olds and creates interest amongst them regarding technology behind apps.

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

My day-to-day activity is a mixed bag between:

* enabling the team to continue with their current stream of work and assisting them where necessary
* project management in terms of prioritising work and managing stakeholders
* helping my team to grow and have satisfaction with their work, while focusing on deliverables
* maintaining/creating our work backlog
* a little bit of people management
* a bit of coding
* a lot of catch-ups

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working as an Engineering Team Lead?**

A common misconception is that I manage a team of engineers. My role is to enable the team to self-manage, guide them for self-improvement and enable them to work on exciting technical challenges.

> “Eventually, I learned you can play games on it and the rest is history.” 

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?**

As a kid, I always wanted to be an astronaut (I know it is very cliché and still want to). The next best thing that happened around the mid-90s was the introduction of personal computers. My uncle had one and he would write programs on an old DOS machine. Eventually, I learned you can play games on it and the rest is history.

> “We would like people who can share their battle stories and collaboratively improve each other.” 

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Plexure?**

My career started off in the payment industry as a developer working in a payment provider and then a bank. I have acquired knowledge and had access to very niche payment-related technologies.

During this time, I have also gained skills for software development in commercial settings and was involved big projects where I got to use the latest tech stacks for API development.

Two factors led me to apply for my initial role as a software engineer here at Plexure, a similar tech stack and coupled with the fact Plexure operates in a high scale environment (100s billions of API calls annually).

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?**

Never settle, always keep moving and improving!

**What are the core skills required to be good in your role?**

As a team lead, empathy goes a long way in understanding individual capacity and needs. As mentioned Plexure operates in a high scale environment therefore understanding distributed computing, cloud computing and their nuances goes a long way.

As we are writing code a keen eye on writing optimized code is crucial for performance (enables consumers to have a better experience and saves platform cost) in a high load environment.

**Lastly, as Plexure continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?**

We need people of all walks who are interested in enabling our clients to engage with their consumers. As this industry evolves, naturally Plexure will need people who are open-minded which will enable them to tackle upcoming challenges. We would like people who can share their battle stories and collaboratively improve each other.

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Mohammad  Kashem, Engineering Team Lead at Plexure 

The person in the family that everyone went to when their computer broke, Summer Ren, QA Practice Lead at [Plexure](https://www.plexure.com/) was destined to end up in tech.

We caught up with Summer to learn more about her career journey into tech, what a day-in-the-life of someone working in QA looks like, as well as some of the common misconceptions. Thanks for sharing your story, Summer.

> “I was the guy in the family everyone went to when their computer broke.” 

**How would you explain to five year old what it is you do?**

I’m an engineer responsible for finding defects or bugs in software.

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

* I usually check my email in the early morning, if no urgent task has been leftover yesterday.
* There usually are 2-3 meetings per day after our daily standup meetings with different people to discuss testing related work.
* Most of the time, I have support tickets or performance testing I have to work on.
* This always take me really long time and I will raise ticket to the domain team after investigation (this week has four performance testing sessions on the list )
* Catch up with people who have issues or questions.

That seems like almost my day 

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working in QA?**

* QA is the person who only uses a mouse or finger to click buttons on the webpage.
* QA is the person who racks his brain to crash the app

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?**

* Yes, most of my life I would relate to computers and technology, it fascinated me. I was the person in the family everyone went to when their computer broke.

> “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Plexure?**

My career journey is not that complex. I worked in a big company after I graduated from university. I joined as a developer initially and moved to QA since my manager was seeking someone who could be SDET about 14 years ago.

I then worked in the MS Cosmos team, I learned lots of QA skills during that time and I still remember I have been asked to update a test plan more than eleven times. After my family moved to NZ, Plexure was my first perm job. I enjoy working here.

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?**

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

**What are the core skills required to be good in your role?**

* Firstly, I will say self-learning. This goes for all IT-related work, since the tech is being updated every day.
* Second, be customer-focused. Customer impact issues can lead to a big failure.
* Third, self and relationship management. We have to work close to the developers and team.

**Lastly, as Plexure continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?**

Plexurers are all friendly and magnanimous. I appreciate working and learning with these people.

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Summer Ren, QA Practice lead @ Plexure 

From dreaming of becoming an architect to figuring out how to make sense of billions of data points. Caroline Izzard, Head of Data and Insights at Plexure has found a space working in tech that allows her to apply same skills and thinking that initially appealed to her about architecture. 

We caught up with Caroline to learn more about what her role entails, what she loves about working in the data space as well as some great advice about getting behind decisions once they are made. Thanks for sharing your story, Caroline.

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five year old what it is you do?**

We measure and record information about what people do, then use this information to understand why they do it and what things we might be able to do to help them or better meet their needs.

> “Asking questions like, what does this really mean, what is sitting behind this, how will this help drive tangible value back into the client’s businesses.” 

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

In a month we will capture billions of data points on what our clients’ customers are doing. My job is to help structure this information into something that can help add value to their business and their customers' lives. 

Translating the meaningless mass of data into a range of tools and information sets that help guide their decisions, understand what is working, and drive superior customer experiences that increase both engagement and loyalty from their customers. 

I don’t really have a typical day. My days vary greatly depending on the business and client areas of focus and what opportunities we are working on at any time. But across each and every piece of work, I would typically be playing the role of inquisitor and devil's advocate. 

Asking questions like, what does this really mean, what is sitting behind this, how will this help drive tangible value back into the client’s businesses.

> “The opportunities it offers for us to learn new things, find new connections, and create new ways of engaging with people is almost limitless.” 

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working in data and insights?**

That it’s all technology, databases, and data lakes, and therefore must be a bit boring. But in my mind data is super dynamic and creative. The opportunities it offers for us to learn new things, find new connections, and create new ways of engaging with people is almost limitless. 

What I enjoy most about my role, is the scope it delivers me to be inquisitive and creative, while still delivering tangible things to our customers and clients.

> “ ..I actually wanted to be an architect” 

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what was?**

No, I actually wanted to be an architect. But I have been surprised by how working in data allows me to apply many of the same skills and thinking that initially appealed to me about being an architect.

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and ultimately about how you ended up working at Plexure?** 

I have always worked with data or information in one way shape or form, but in a variety of roles touching on it from almost all angles. 

I worked in roles that produced data, that consulted on its uses to third-party clients, I’ve worked in commercial data roles, insights roles, and now in big data and AI roles. 

There are so many different ways you can approach using information to guide businesses in their decisioning and marketing activities, and with each role I’ve rounded out my knowledge and expertise. 

At Plexure, I feel like I’m getting the opportunity to bring all these pieces together. Pulling on experience and tools I’ve learned in the past, to meet the broad range of challenges and needs our clients are facing in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

> “Don’t go around only half supporting it, or undermining the work in the background.” 

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?** 

It relates to always making sure that you are fully on the bus and fully moving in the same direction as the business. 

Simply put, when we are in the ideation phase, all ideas are welcome and should be debated. But once a decision has been reached, and a course set, regardless of whether it was my preferred choice, I needed to be onboard and back it 100%. 

Don’t go around only half supporting it, or undermining the work in the background. This ability and willingness to debate, but move forward quickly and support delivery regardless, has treated me well while working in numerous fast moving roles and businesses in my career.

**What are the core skills required to be good in your role?**

Be curious. Have a good ability to make connections and join the dots. Excellent translation skills. Being able to connect the things we see in data with what they mean in the real work and how they can positively impact a client’s business. 

**Lastly, as Plexure continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and characteristics of people that will be well placed to work there?**

Smart, interested people. People who like to work with others, and share ideas and accountability. There is little room for ‘owning territory’ at Plexure. Your good ideas are welcomed, and nurtured, regardless of your job title or role, and you need to be happy to return that in kind to others.

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Caroline Izzard, Head of Data and Insights at Plexure

_From flight attendant for the US Military to helping individuals and teams improve the way they work together, Tanya Colvin has had an interesting jounrey into tech!_

_As someone that prides herself on staying calm in the midst of chaos, Tanya has built a broad toolkit acrross her career that translates well into a high-paced tech environment._

_We caught up with her to learn more about her current role at Plexure, where Tanya shared more about the importance she places on values alignment which made Plexure an easy choice and much more!_

_Thanks for sharing your story, Tanya._

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five year old what it is you do?**

I’m a coach. I help individuals, teams (and the company as a whole) improve the way
they work together. I help them notice and remove problems that get in their way so
they can perform at their best. This helps them build trust and enjoy working together
and that results in higher performance and a stronger company culture.

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

There are a lot of meetings to be sure. I usually start off the day with my own team’s
standup then I join in the team standups for the teams that I coach. The rest of the day
is a mix of 1:1 coaching sessions, team agile events (such as sprint planning, refinement meetings, reviews and retrospectives), training/ teaching, and facilitating workshops and other events as needed.

An Agile Coach differs from a professional coach in that we don’t purely remain in the
coaching stance. To be effective, Agile Coaches must be able to read the room and move seamlessly between many different stances depending on the need. 

These stances include coaching, serving, guiding learning (teaching &amp; mentoring), facilitating, advising, leading, transforming (guiding organisational design and change), and being an Agile/Lean Practitioner with deep knowledge of Agile frameworks and practices.

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working in your role?**

Some believe Agile equals Scrum and think of Agile Coaches as Scrum Masters who are there to facilitate Agile events and help the team remove blockers. That is only a small part of what an Agile Coach actually does. 

Our purpose is to cultivate a learning organisation, enabling business agility and to build high performing teams and organisations by partnering with and coaching leaders at all levels in the business.

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what
was?** 

Not really, although the Jetsons was my favourite cartoon, because I loved the
futuristic technology and day-dreamed of a future world where technology enriched our lives and made so many tedious chores easy. Flash forward more than a few years and much of the Jetsons’ tech is part of our daily lives now. When I was a child, I wanted to be an architect and build amazing buildings. Now I’m committed to helping build amazing teams and organisations!

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and, ultimately, about how
you ended up working at Plexure?** 

My career journey has most definitely not been a linear or direct path. It has been a meandering trek full of interesting twists and turns guided by a sense of adventure and eagerness to learn and try new and different things.

I started my journey as a flight attendant for the US Military, flying to remote and often
quite dangerous locations all over the world. Through that experience, I learned that I
had so much more to learn from the rest of the world, and to have empathy and see
things from others’ perspectives. 

I also learned how to choose courage over comfort every day. Later I became a Yoga, Pilates and Meditation teacher and did that while my daughter was very young. This was perfect as I could also be a stay at home Mum and teach my classes in the evenings and weekends when my husband was home. 

With this experience, I learned to love and value myself and how to stay calm in the midst of chaos which helps me keep a level-head. I then went to work for ACC where I had a number of roles including Serious Injury Support Coordinator, Injury Prevention and Management Consultant and Business Customer Relationship Manager. 

Here I learned so much about New Zealand culture, business, mental health and disability. I left ACC to join a start-up, The Accessibility Tick, as Programme Lead. This was my fist introduction to Agile and after working for a Government Department where nothing moves fast, I loved the nimbleness of the start-up culture. To this day I am incredibly proud of what my team built and the legacy that lives on.

From there I went to The Warehouse Group as Head of Team Member Wellbeing, where I looked after injury management and return to work plans (for injured employees or those with chronic health, mental health and disability-related challenges), wellbeing strategy and wellbeing response through Covid as well as leading Accessibility and Diversity and Inclusion for the Warehouse Group. 

When The Warehouse Group decided to go Agile, I threw my hat in the ring for an Agile Coach role and there has been no turning back! I first went through an intensive 3-month training programme with McKinsey &amp; Co and I was also mentored by experienced Agile Coaches before being released into the wild where the real learning began. After several years at The Warehouse Group, I was open to a change and I was introduced to Plexure. 

I immediately connected with Plexure’s friendly and authentic recruitment team and keeping with the theme of being guided by a sense of adventure and an eagerness to learn and try new and different things, this role at Plexure just felt right. I’m so glad I once again chose courage over comfort as I am very happy to be part of the Plexure team!

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?**

It is hard to choose one so here are a couple:
1. Always assume positive intent, listen more and stay curious longer.
2. Humility and confidence are not mutually exclusive. A good leader needs to be both at the same time.
3. It’s hard for anything to matter to someone who doesn’t feel that they matter.
4. As a leader, speak last- after hearing from everyone else.
**
What are the core skills required to be good in your role?**

Humility, genuine care for the people and teams you support, courage, growth mindset, eagerness to learn and good self and social awareness and flexibility (e.g. the ability to read the room and pivot when necessary).

**Lastly, as Plexure continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and
characteristics of people who will be well-placed to work there?**

As Plexure grows, we want to maintain our amazing culture and we need people who
share and live our values in order to do this.

Here they are with my take on each:

1. Be Authentic (No mask wearing here. This requires vulnerability, which takes
courage!)
2. Stronger Together (No politics or individual kingdom-building. We are one team and
we support and help each other, always).
3. Respect for all (We value and respect each other and this is evident in our behaviour,
the way we interact with each other and the way we collaborate and work together. We
are a diverse and inclusive workplace where every person is respected, matters and we hope feels a strong sense of belonging).
4. Better each day (We are a learning organisation made up of smart people who are
eager to learn and improve every day. We don’t aim for perfection. We aim for better
each day as individuals and as teams in all that we do. This means we must have a
growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. We are learners who are empowered to test and learn so we can improve in all that we do).

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Tanya Colvin, Agile Lead Coach at Plexure

_Too short to be an astronaut, but with some Star Wars and Lego analogies to describe working in product that anyone would be proud of, we loved learning more about Hannah Jamieson, Data Product Manager at Plexure's career journey._

_We caught up with her hear more about her current role at Plexure, where Hannah helps Plexure provide customer's with products that give them value and also gives teams building the products everything they need to do their best work!_

_Thanks for sharing your story, Hannah._

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five year old what it is you do?**

It was best described to me as engineering works out ‘how’ to do things and product the ‘why’. So, while engineers are responsible for working out how to build the Lego Death Star, product managers are more concerned with why we want to build it in the first place. 

Sometimes the answer is ‘because it’s super cool’, and other times you have to say ‘Mum doesn’t want us to build a Lego death star for her birthday, we should bake a cake instead’. But the end result is always great because, well, cake!

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

I like to think about success, and for me that’s providing the customer with products and capability that give them value BUT also making sure I’m giving teams building the products everything they need to do their best work. Day to day, it’s a lot of meetings, process and synthesising information.

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working in your role?**

That product owners or product managers aren’t necessary or get in the way. Bad
product managers definitely make things harder, but the good ones? You won’t even
know they’re there.

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not what
was?**

I’m still a kid at heart. Over the years, I wanted to be an astronaut (too short), then a theoretical physicist (too hard), and then a data scientist (did that). Now, I dream of being a writer. I don’t think tech should be a dream or an end goal for kids, but it’s a
great place to be for a time in your life.

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and, ultimately, about how
you ended up working at Plexure?**

So, back to being a theoretical physicist – I went to uni studying physics only to flunk
out in my second year. I enrolled in statistics instead, which turned out to be the better
personality fit (I found interpreting and analysing everyday data much more interesting
than the hard theoreticals of the universe). 

I started as a grad at Xero, riding the data science wave just as it was becoming hot and sexy, but my interests kept bringing me
back to customer problems and the ‘why’ rather than the solutions (I felt like a lousy data scientist a lot of the time!). 

I ended up spending eight years working at SAAS companies in the product data space. I wasn’t expecting to apply for a Data Product
Manager position, but I'm so glad I did. While it is a big learning curve, it feels like the right fit.

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?**

In the meeting room, you are the expert. It doesn’t matter if there is a more senior data scientist in the office or in the world, all that matters is in that room — and in that room, your opinion matters.

**What are the core skills required to be good in your role?**

To be good, it has to be what you enjoy doing. It's skill as much as personality. It requires an affinity for 'why' over 'how'. It would help if you were compassionate, understanding and flexible. 

If you can't understand other people's points of view or pivot on new information, the job will be more challenging than rewarding.

**Lastly, as Plexure continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and
characteristics of people who will be well-placed to work there?**

Kindness. Patience. Ownership. There's an opportunity to take charge and make an impact, but also in understanding we’re all humans working together.

Hannah Jamieson, Data Product Manager at Plexure

The dream of becoming a professional football player didn't quite pan out; however, luckily for Maikel Penz, his love for computers from an early age has led him on a really interesting path in tech.

We caught up with Maikel to learn more about what set him off on the software engineering path, what a typical day-in-the-life of a Data Engineering Manager looks like and what he loves about working for Plexure. 

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Maikel.

**Firstly, how would you explain to a five-year-old what it is you do?**

I lead a group of people, called engineers, and we work together to make data available to everyone that needs access to it, like the people we work with and to our customers.

But it’s not just any data, I am talking of large amounts of data that needs a lot of work
before we make it available. 

Think of it as a messy room where we bring dirty and broken toys; we tidy them up before inviting people to play with them. I hope I haven’t lost my 5-year-old audience.

**And for the adults, what does that translate to in regards to your day-to-day?**

In my daily work, I wear several hats. I take on the responsibility of fostering the
professional growth of individuals within the team, offering support to team leads, and
engineers to ensure their success in their respective roles.

On the engineering side, I actively contribute to shaping the technical strategy of the
data space. This involves aligning our engineering efforts with business goals, ensuring our team builds high-quality products and adheres to best engineering practices.

Additionally, there's a significant focus on strategic thinking and collaboration. This
includes hiring and building teams with the right skillset and working closely with the
product team to ensure we are working on the right initiatives at the right time.

**What are some of the common misconceptions about working as a Data Engineering Manager?**

People might think management is there to tell people what and how to do things, and
this is a big misconception. 

The role of an Engineering Manager focuses on supporting teams, empowering them, and creating opportunities. The goal is to provide team members with the necessary context and skills, empowering them to make informed decisions when solving technical problems.

Also, if you believe my week is primarily filled with meetings, you're not entirely correct, though you're not entirely wrong either. The ability to handle context-switching is a key skill in this role.

**Was working in tech something you dreamed about doing as a kid, if not, what
was?**

When I was a kid, I dreamt of being a football player. But, while I'm not terrible at it, I
am also not good enough for the competitive scene. Plus, my knees wouldn't have made it through a single full season!

So, if not football, it's all about computers for me. I practically lived in front of a
computer screen growing up, playing games. Eventually, I got into coding and building
stuff.

**Tell us a little bit more about your career journey and, ultimately, about how
you ended up working at Plexure?**

I am originally from Brazil and my journey began with an IT technician course during
high school, followed by a Bachelor of Information Systems. 

At the age of 17, I started my career as a software developer for a small business in Brazil. My professional path then led me into the data space, where I’ve been working since.

In 2015, I travelled to New Zealand to study English, instantly falling in love with the
country. I decided to stay and began my Kiwi career at Trade Me as a Database
Administrator. 

As my interests evolved and opportunities appeared, I transitioned to Data
Engineering within the same company. After nearly five years, I embraced a new
challenge at Spidertracks, where I worked as a Senior Data Engineer. Here, my
responsibilities expanded, and I discovered a taste for leadership.

Then an opportunity at Plexure caught my eye. A chance to be part of a New Zealand
business dealing with Big Data and to take on a leadership role. Since joining Plexure,
my journey has seen growth from leading a small team to overseeing a larger one. 

While I'm now in the Engineering Manager role, managing multiple teams with distinct focuses, I still remain closely connected to their day-to-day.

**What is the best piece of career advice you have ever received?**

The best career advice I got is simple: go with what feels right for you. Technology and people change, so your career doesn't have to be a straight line. Look for exciting
opportunities and work with good people – that's what makes a great career.

**What are the core skills required to be good in your role?**

EMs usually start in engineering, so having a background in it is super important to
support the teams and get their challenges. On top of that, you'll need patience, solid
communication, and forward thinking.

**Lastly, as Plexure continues to grow and evolve, what are the key traits and
characteristics of people who will be well-placed to work there?**

Those with a passion for learning, a drive for growth and to challenge the status quo.
Someone who can contribute to fostering a positive team culture.

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Maikel Penz, Data Engineering Manager

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