What was your most recent career change?
I consider my most recent career change to be the transition from a temporary position to a permanent one earlier this year. This transition has marked an important milestone in my professional journey; providing greater stability and the opportunity to deeply invest in the organization's projects and initiatives over the long term. It has also allowed me to strengthen my expertise, take on new responsibilities, and contribute more sustainably to the achievement of the team's objectives.
What contributed to its success?
The success of this transition was the result of several factors. Since joining the University in June 2021, I have had the opportunity to contribute, alongside my team, to the delivery of more than twenty projects. These achievements demonstrated our ability to provide solutions that meet our partners' needs and generate value for the organization.
I also contributed to structuring the team and improving certain work processes, which helped strengthen our efficiency and delivery capacity. Finally, building trusted relationships with our partners, both within the Faculty of Medicine and Information Technology, played an important role in this success.
I believe it was the combination of results achieved, teamwork, continuous improvement, and strong collaborative relationships that contributed to the success of this transition.
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome in adapting to your new role?
My role itself did not change significantly, but I consider the transition to the centralized IT Services model for the Faculty of Medicine to have been one of the main challenges I faced.
This transition required adapting to a new work environment, new ways of collaborating, and establishing close working relationships with new colleagues and partners. Thanks to the commitment and collaboration of our team, we successfully navigated this challenge while maintaining our operations and continuing our efforts toward continuous improvement. This experience also enabled us to enhance the quality of our services, better meet the needs of our internal clients, and strengthen our ability to support them effectively.
As part of your role, which tasks do you find AI most useful for?
As an IT Product Manager, it helps me work more efficiently and significantly optimize several aspects of my responsibilities, including:
- Information synthesis and analysis: Summarizing meeting notes, workshops, surveys, and user feedback to identify needs, trends, and opportunities for improvement quickly.
- Writing and communications: Accelerating the preparation of emails, meeting summaries, presentations, analytical documents, functional requirements, and other communications for various stakeholders.
- Solution analysis and implementation options: Analyzing technical updates, evaluating solutions and implementing approaches, and comparing available options and quickly summarizing their advantages, limitations, and potential impacts to support product-related decision-making.
More broadly, I would also like to expand the use of AI within development and quality assurance teams to further automate activities such as code generation, test case creation, test automation, and code quality analysis. These use cases represent a significant opportunity to improve productivity, deliverable quality, and overall team efficiency.
What advice would you give to someone considering a career change?
My first piece of advice would be to fully understand what the new role actually involves and not rely solely on the title or associated conditions. It is important to speak with colleagues or people already performing the role to gain a better understanding of responsibilities, expectations, and challenges.
I would also recommend conducting an honest assessment of your strengths, interests, and areas for development to determine how well the opportunity aligns with your profile and professional goals.
A job change should be viewed as an opportunity to broaden your experience, acquire new knowledge, and step outside your comfort zone.
How can colleagues help someone transition into new responsibilities?
Colleagues can play an essential role in a successful transition to new responsibilities. In my view, their support begins with sharing knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned, helping the individual better understand the context of the role and avoid common pitfalls.
Sharing useful documentation, templates, reference guides, and real-world examples is also an excellent way to accelerate onboarding and build autonomy in new responsibilities.
In addition, mentorship or coaching from more experienced colleagues can make a meaningful difference, particularly when navigating the key challenges associated with the role.
What aspects of your day bring you the most enjoyment?
What I enjoy most each day is collaborating with members of my team and with colleagues across Information Technology, while contributing to projects that have a tangible impact on our users and partners within the Faculty of Medicine.
If you were a chocolate bar, which one would you be?
Dark chocolate or Dubai chocolate.
What ingredient should never belong on a pizza?
Fruit or potatoes.
What three items would you bring if you were sent to a deserted island?
- A smartphone with satellite connectivity
- Coffee beans (I'm a Nespresso lover)
- A knife