In the section "on the floor at..." we interview ANVA colleagues about their roles, work and responsibilities inside and outside ANVA's doors. This time we speak with Remco Brouwer, product owner at ANVA.
Being able to grow as a person and in a position is certainly important. What does your growth look like after all these ANVA years?
"I have been able to grow quite a bit over the past few years. As I mentioned, I started as an ANVA consultant. After working in that position for a year, I advanced to business consultant. Yet during those years I had complaints about ANVA's product management. From that role, I saw things happening at business consultant that could be done better and instead of continuing to complain, I indicated that I wanted to do something about it. Fortunately, ANVA gave me that opportunity. So four years ago I transferred to ANVA's product management department and have since become a product owner."
Tell me, what are you concerned with as a product owner?
"As a product owner, I am together with my colleagues looking for solutions for our customers and we also like to verify our solutions with them. Of course, we do this based on ANVA's vision and strategy. We continuously go through this circle. By continuing to verify our products with our customers, we are able to offer solutions that actually benefit them. In my time as a consultant, I missed the connection between the customer's needs and what we delivered. I'm glad we've been able to change this quite a bit over the past few years."
That sounds like quite a challenge. How is it coming along now?
"I am proud to tell you that in the past two years we have been able to achieve quite a change within ANVA. The cooperation in the teams with, for example, the back office, sales and marketing, consultants and analysts is now going well. Everyone can work independently and is willing to help each other and, above all, our customers. There is also more ear and eye for the customer. Also because of this, we are delivering improved software that meets our customer's needs. "
What positive developments! What can we expect from our product owners in 2023?
"Above all, a strong and productive team. This is how we work on improvements, new features and continue to refresh our software. We hope the Cobol University will be a great success and that participants will soon be able to contribute to our development teams. We will also realize a new product in 2023."
A new product? Can you share anything about that yet? You're making us curious...
"Haha, good question. We have been developing this new product for a long time. This is a development that will only make it easier for the users of our products to carry out their processes. Unfortunately I cannot share more about it with you yet although I would love to..."
We are very curious! Good luck with the completion of this great journey. Enne... you'll keep us posted, right?
"Thank you! We hope to be on the air soon with more information. To be continued, I would say 😉"
