UI Spotlight: Product Owner, Chris Scott

Hello Chris! This is the first time we’re chatting but I’ve been hearing great things! Tell me and the good people of the web about yourself.

Hey Rob! Ok, so, I went to school at RPI for Electronic Media, Arts, and Communication. From there, I spent a few years working in retail. Luckily, I found a job doing QA for a startup out of Ithaca called Envisage, which kickstarted my career in technology. Since then, I’ve been a tester, business analyst, client relations specialist, product owner, and IT manager. But my passion is in product creation.

Seems like a pretty straight line from there to your new position with us!

Exactly, I love small startups and Upstate Interactive had been in my periphery for a while. It’s hard not to hear about UI with all of our involvement in the Syracuse tech community. After meeting Peter somewhat by chance last summer, when a Product Owner role opened up, I knew I had to apply.

What are you most excited about in your new role?

There are a million reasons but I’ll keep it short: I get to be a part of defining what it means to be a full-time product owner at a growing tech company while working in a field I love. If that’s not exciting, I’m not quite sure what is.

All right, you’ve been in the tech world for a while so tell me, what’s the most interesting project you’ve been able to work on?

At my first tech job, a friend/coworker and I had an idea to “gamify” the retirement industry. At the time, it hadn’t been done, so we worked with the CEO to get in contact with someone who had experience creating this sort of app. Unfortunately, the product didn’t come to fruition, but going through the process of discovery and requirements gathering for this was a great challenge and a lot of fun.

So, you’ve been around Syracuse for quite some time, is there anything that excites you right now about the local tech scene?

Honestly? I’m most excited to see it growing. As more tech businesses either build their homes in Syracuse or open themselves to remote work, Syracuse is becoming a bigger hub for technology and could eventually be seen as a tech hotspot.

Outside of work, what kinds of things can we find you doing?

My favorite thing to do is travel, especially internationally. But when I can’t do that, I play board games and video games or occasionally brew beer

Unfortunately, we can’t count becoming a brewmaster as a superpower but if you had a superpower, what would it be?

While flight is a tempting answer, just for the sake of convenient travel, I think I’d pick shapeshifting. It seems kind of fun to be able to change into other creatures or objects at convenient times.

Ahhh very appropriate for a Product Owner. Cool! Nice to officially meet you.