People who care are my favourite.
You know the people I mean. Those that actually care about their impact on the world and people around them. Even knowing them is fun and rewarding. Now I’m not just talking about the big things, like saving the planet or charity work, but also the small things; such as really listening or actually doing what they said they would. It’s the people who care enough to give their best, without office politics or looking for personal gain, that are the best.
Hopefully you have friends like that. You may be lucky enough to have work colleagues like that. Perhaps you are even fortunate enough to work in an environment that encourages it.
I am that fortunate, and am very grateful for it.
This was really confirmed for me at a recent presentation from the wonderful Vegware, who are managing to make the business of food packaging both fun and interesting! They do great things by adhering closely to their values and consciously building their team culture. Vegware is a wonderful and inspiring company, with an impressive growth rate and amazing product range. However, I found myself less surprised with their success than some other presentation attendees.
That was, of course, because I have experienced the same care for values and excellence within SK Chase.
Working with a team that cares about themselves and their clients inspires me to bring my best care and attention too. In this context the thing that I care about is our product. Using my knowledge and experience to further improve our systems and processes to continuously improve the product that underpins the SK Chase service. It’s a fun challenge that requires juggling lots of different input, while managing a finite budget, limited time constraints and maintaining high quality standards.
For example, before deciding what new features to add to the product it is important to consider:
- The needs of those who are using the application: this, in itself, encompasses a number of different view points, ranging from our client hotel’s management, IT, marketing and front desk staff, through to the buyers & recipients of the gift vouchers
- The technology: finding the best way to plan and implement changes to the application in a way that does not increase unacceptable complexity or risk of causing problems in the future
- SK Chase itself: delivering the most effective use of our budget and time, while only bringing positive changes to everyone’s work day
Plus, of course, all of this changes over time, so we need to be agile enough to stay constantly “on the ball” and ensure our product continues to be the best.
The term for all this is “Product Management” and it is what I care about. My hope is that care translates into an even better product, in ways both big and small. Then, hopefully, this helps to encourage the wonderful SK Chase team to keep caring and thus feeds into the virtuous spiral that makes everything we do better. I hope that this, in turn, results in everyone who comes into contact with SK Chase being happier as a direct result of that contact.
So, trite as it may sound, caring about Product Management makes the world a better place. I think that is cool.
It’s why I care.