Implementation Manager — I am a member of the implementation team. I am tasked with establishing and understanding our customers’ business requirements in order to design adaptable solutions to meet these needs.
Sander is waiting for you to join #TeamTuum, check out our careers page at https://tuumplatform.com/careers/.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a Tallinn native, born, bred and now raising my own family here. Tallinn has been a perfect location for me; as someone who has always been interested in technology and IT, I feel privileged to live in such a digital-first society where I have been able to study and then work in this field. Although, I have to admit that my first dream was to follow my love of cooking and become a cruise ship chef!
How did you come to work at Tuum?
I had previously worked at Icefire, a financial technology company founded by the same team behind Tuum (with Tuum essentially being a spin-off of Icefire), and was offered the opportunity to move to Tuum as a member of the implementation team alongside three of my colleagues. Naturally, I jumped at the chance, as I was excited to take on a new challenge in the IT field. During my first customer solutioning sessions, the customer was describing their various objectives, and I was able to put together the initial solution for them. I found the whole process of forming ideas and creating a system around the customer’s goals to be so interesting and engaging — it was at this point I understood this is exactly what I want to do.
What are some of the new challenges you have found in this role?
During the solutioning as well as implementation phases, we every now and then discover additional requirements our product has to meet. Sometimes these requirements can be met by changing the business process (whether that is modernising, automating, etc.), and other times, it requires additional product development. In cases of the former, I usually demonstrate tothe client exactly how such a business process adjustment can be made. For the latter, I will work very closely with both the customer and the product team to make sure we deliver a solution that covers our customers’ needs and is also scalable for the rest of our customers.
What advice would you give to someone joining your team?
If you are interested in how different financial institutions work and love working with people from different backgrounds then our implementation team is definitely the correct place. No two cases are ever the same; we work with companies of different sizes, and have collectively worked through a broad variety of different challenges — all of this is to say that: you will never be bored!
Apart from spending time creating first-class solutions, what other activities or hobbies do you enjoy?
I really like walking and hiking. Whenever I get the opportunity I go hiking with my family; in Estonia we have many nature trails, so discovering these always makes for an interesting adventure. On our last hike with #TeamTuum, we walked along the President’s Hiking Trail in Estonia; as it was winter, it was an opportunity for many of our team members to sleigh and walk on (frozen) water. I also really love cooking (despite not pursuing it as a career) and am always on the lookout for exciting new recipes.
You mentioned your love of cooking — do you have a signature dish?
I would have to say my favorite dish to cook (and best tasting!) is duck breast in a red wine sauce. This has been a dish thatI have mastered over many years, after previously over-cooking it, forgetting it in the oven, and burning it.
We have just entered a new year — did you set yourself a resolution?
I have not set a specific resolution — as with my job, I will tackle the new challenges and opportunities as they come!
