Kaj Sennelöv: A look at the role, products, and daily rituals of a Twikit Team Lead
Today, we have the privilege of featuring Community member @Kaj Sennelöv, a Team Lead and PM who has embraced change toward success and growth at Twikit.
Read on to hear more about his path, how he's embracing Atlassian products for centralized organization, his top tips on remote collaboration, and more on how he stays energized alongside his work. (Credits to ©Sacha Kleinblatt for his photo.)
Tell us about your role at Twikit!
What I do at Twikit is hard to describe in 1 role, but most falls under two roles: Team Lead and PM Process Improvement.
For three years now, I have been the Team Lead of the Product Engineering team at Twikit. I have to see through that the team can work on the tasks at hand and inform other teams at the company and clients of the workings of our team.
Half a year ago, I have also taken up the role of PM Process Improvement. In this role, I evaluate business processes and practices for improvements. These potential improvements are then planned, implemented and followed up.
What's it like working at an organization that spans industries?
Twikit is currently very active in the automotive and medical industries. These are, in essence, two very different fields, but they both need personalisation at scale.
Looking at a shared need in different industries is super exciting as you learn lots of things in each one. These learnings can often be used slightly different in the other field to improve certain aspects there.
What did you want to be when you grew up, and what was your path to your role today?
As a kid, I wanted to become a lot of things, from a vet (specialized in marine biology) at a very young age to an inventor at a slightly older age.
This last dream led me to study industrial design at the University of Antwerp, a field where you learn a little about everything. During the last years of university, I applied for a student job at Twikit, assembling custom awards for a big project they had at that time, which was my start at Twikit. Quickly I started to get to know the company better. I showed interest in different parts of it, looked at how I could help there and worked my way up.
What advice would you give to people who want to work in a similar industry?
Never stop wanting to learn, which does not only apply to someone in a similar business. It applies to everyone.
The world never stops evolving. The pace of this evolution is not slowing down either. If you build a passion for constant learning, a genuine interest in stuff happening around you, you can surf this wave of evolution easily.
How does your team use Atlassian products?
My colleagues and I are benefitting from a couple of Atlassian products. We are using Confluence, Jira and Jira Service Desk daily.
We use Confluence for writing more extensive documentation on all sorts of stuff, from how-tos to short bios about our colleagues. This can be both for internal as external use. Jira is our internal planning tool where the operational team also logs their progress. The Service desk is used as an internal and external tool for documenting different kinds of accesses, on- and off-boarding and general support.
How do Atlassian products make your job easier?
Where to start? The different products that we use have all sorts of advantages. The biggest being that information is stored in an organised, centralised way.
The Jira automation rules save us a lot of time and keep everything and every one up to date.
Recently, we started using the advanced roadmaps feature, which we hope will make planning easier. With Advanced Roadmaps, we hope to communicate product roadmaps both internally and later on, also externally.
Do you integrate our products with others, or use any Marketplace apps? If so, what for?
Our integration level of Atlassian products is still basic. We use some tools like Scroll exporter from K15t to export Confluence documents and http://draw.io for making easy to read diagrams.
But this does not stop us from investigating new tools and integrations.
What's your top tip for collaborating remotely?
If possible, meet in person from time to time. There is nothing better than a good balance between working remote and seeing your colleagues in person.
Secondly, document everything. Have clear processes in place and be sure everybody knows where to find this documentation. Creating a common ground on how to do different stuff makes you able to focus more on getting work done and not everything around it.
Has your view of work changed or evolved in the last year?
On work itself, it hasn't changed a lot.
But I have started to understand and appreciate the following quote from Darwin a lot more: "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change."
With the pandemic, a lot has changed, both inside and outside of work life.
What's something you love about your job?
The constant opportunity to learn new stuff. As I am involved in a lot of different fields inside of the company, I can learn and get better at all sorts of stuff, ranging from design to company structures.
Do you have a daily ritual that helps you get work done?
My morning routine is starting to form itself. Every day, I end my shower with a cold shower, the coldest setting possible. Then, after taking the bike to work, I take the stairs up (we work on fifth and I park my bike at -1). This gets the blood flowing and enables me to start the day energised.
What do you do for fun outside of work?
I have been enjoying photography a lot for the last ten years. You will never see me leaving on vacation without my camera.
It has long been a dream of mine to be able to share my photography outside of social media. That is why, during the pandemic, I started my own fine-art web-shop called Kaj on the Wall (http://www.kajonthewall.com). It has been super fun and interesting to set this up and automate it as much as possible. This process of learning and improving, combined with all the amazing feedback I get really gives me energy while on Kaj on the Wall.
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Sharon Tan
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Customer Marketing Content Manager
Atlassian Inc.
Austin, TX
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