Versatility: The Key to Professional Growth
Pedro Santiago is a man of many talents, and he’s sharing his journey and how he became an invaluable asset to our team.
As I walked through the doors of PRPL for the first time, it was sensory overload. I could feel the intense focus of the teams working away on the production floor, momentarily taking a break to skate down the hall for a cup of coffee or listen to some jams in a back booth. I was so enthralled by everyone’s determination and support of each other that I felt anything was possible within these walls.
From my first day on, I committed myself to absorbing everything that I could within every discipline so I could contribute to this special culture I had found myself a part of. I knew right away I had to earn the right to be a member of the PRPL team.
Getting My PRPL Education
When I wasn’t in the office, I studied a library of online courses each night. I began by focusing on evolving and expanding my current skillset as a Quality Assurance Engineer. From there, I build on complementary courses that taught everything from App Development to UX/Strategy and Project Management.
Some may say my learning schedule was somewhat aggressive, but I was determined to stay disciplined in my search for growth. I signed up for local tech meetups on different subjects and volunteered to speak and participate in group discussions.
Those were some of my most humbling experiences. Man, did I feel like a dummy asking question about topics I had only recently started studying. But each group was extremely supportive, welcoming, and excited, and they further strengthened my love for the Orlando tech community.
While working on projects here at PRPL, I would pick the brain of each of my team members at every available opportunity. My questions were locked and loaded, but I also had to be respectful of everyone’s time, including my own. The wonderful thing about PRPL is that we enjoy taking an interest in each other, so sharing our knowledge came easily.
Solving Problems From the Start
After rigorous study and making a conscious effort to put myself out there, I started to see the return of my investments. My work as a QA Engineer became more focused. I started testing wireframes and requirements documentation with greater care and detail, and by doing so, I was able to identify possible defects that may have not been discovered until the feature was fully developed. That saved a considerable amount of time and effort not only for me, but for the rest of my team.
When we help each other work more efficiently, we enjoy working together more — and can celebrate with a beer at the end of the day.
From QA to Client-Facing
Project Management has to be one of the most underrated positions in agency settings. The pace is furious and responsibilities are plenty. I collaborated closely with the project managers on my teams, consistently inquiring about their responsibilities to learn what I could do to help them and the rest of our team.
As I did with wireframes, I would study our kanban boards, which contained a backlog of responsibilities to successfully carry out our projects. I assisted the project management team by identifying tasks that required clarification and providing clearly defined acceptance criteria to stakeholders, so our progress could be transparent and clearly communicated.
This helped our production teams during development and during testing phases to ensure that the requested features were delivered as expected and of the highest quality. The new practice allowed PMs to efficiently prioritize tasks and bring more value to the clients.
Diving Into Development
As I continued to learn more about the development process, I was better able to collaborate with our engineer teams. When identifying defects during testing, I no longer said “Hey, this is broken. Please fix it.” I learned how to provide detailed reports identifying the source of the issue and outlining how to reproduce errors to repair them.
This evolution of how developers and QA testers communicate saved time and helped us have more meaningful interactions, as we now have direct instruction from either side.
Earning My PRPL Badge
PRPL has cultivated an environment that supports our continuous professional growth. With their support I’ve had the opportunity and freedom to explore my abilities outside of my official role.
When needed, I’ve stepped up to manage projects from conception to completion, contributed to a developer role, participated in strategy sessions, created design and motion assets, and executed tests for complex applications.
Now none of this is to brag, but rather to prove that with a little curiosity, dedication, and desire to learn, you can transcend your current position, develop new areas of expertise, and become an invaluable asset to your team. To be the best team member — at PRPL and anywhere else — you have to commit to learning new skills and explore how you can use them to make the greatest work possible.
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