Meet Susan Hauth: Jira Queen

[#1]

 

@Susan Hauth (Toronto - JIRA Queen) is a Toronto based AUG Leader, working for StatPro Ltd, a financial software company which creates many innovative and cloud-based products for financial asset managers. Yes, Jira Queen really is Susan Hauth's official job title. We hope you enjoy her AUG-some Showcase as much as we do:

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I'm originally from Montreal but was part of the mass migration to Toronto in the 70's. I'm now a true Torontonian and a graduate of U of T. I am an original geek having graduated in Computer Science in 1983 when punch cards were still a thing. I'm a marathoner and was racing in Boston in 2013, too slow to finish and blessedly lucky before the bombs went off. I returned in 2014 and triumphantly finished with my partner and kids in tow (I've got twin boys and a daughter, all young adults who still keep me very busy as you can tell). Although I've run many marathons in the past, now I do so just for pleasure. My boyfriend and I run, bike, ski, and sail together and love being outdoors. You can often find me running the belt line, ravines and parks of central Toronto with my partner Miles and our dog Phalen.

How did you first get involved in the Atlassian-verse?

I was leading a development team back in 2008 when we started the search for a change management tool. After several months we chose Jira and never looked back. Jira was quickly implemented in all the development teams and then started to creep into all the other teams as well. Today everyone in our organization uses Jira (IT Help Desk, HR, Finance, Marketing). I also accomplished the huge feat of moving my team to Confluence. Over the years I have slid away from managing the development teams to looking after JIRA.

In 2015, I officially changed my job title to Jira Queen. I have the best job title in the world and that's what I do all day long, reign over our Jira instance. I'm passionate about Jira and annoyingly sniff around other teams for deployment opportunities for Jira workflows! In the past, I trained a group of potential Jira admins and found it great fun to impart my knowledge and tricks. I have been equally annoying in deploying Confluence and Service Desk across our teams.

What's the most important thing you've learned so far as an AUG?

I signed up to be an AUG leader at Summit in 2014 and hosted my first event in February of 2015. When I first started as an AUG leader, I was nervous that I wouldn't know enough or be able to relate to everyone what with all their varied uses of the Atlassian tools. I soon found there was a real commonality among Atlassian users. They are for the most part the most passionate group of people, have super interesting stories and are usually quite ready to have a good laugh. It was like a level playing field no matter what the user's background. 

What is your favorite story from an Atlassian User Group meeting?

My favorite AUG story occurred when a mother and daughter team presented on their shared Trello board. They showed the group how the mom used it to manage work and household chores while her daughter used it for studying, assignments, and volunteer activities. It was really eye opening to see atlassian products deployed in business and personal use.

What's your favorite memory of helping another user?

There was a young, keen individual who was attending many AUGs. We made him our "buddy", got him into the beta certification testing, and swung him a free companion pass for Summit 2016. He was thrilled and in return presented an awesome post-summit talk at the next AUG.

Would you like to nominate another outstanding AUG leader to be Showcased?

I have two great picks: @Eaniel Deadsand @Beejal _London_. Both absolutely outstanding. We all spent time together with other AUGs in Barcelona after
Eurosummit this year AND we took a road trip from San Diego with AUG @Mark Livingstone up to San Jose for Summit 2017.

If you have questions for Susan, please leave them in the comments! 

[miikhy]

Another great showcase by @Bridget!

Very interesting story, glad to know more about our famous Jira Queen! Love the recommendation thing :)

[Danny Zuccaro]

Great story on the one and only Jira Queen!! True royalty. 

[Monique vdB]

I bow down to the Jira Queen! Great showcase. :

[Matt Doar]

Good write-up! 

[Becky Gosden]

I work with Susan and whilst my primary role is Project Manager she's training me up on all things JIRA and Confluence.

The more I've learnt about the surrounding community and all the additional work she does within it (in addition to all the amazing stuff she does within StatPro), the more I've come to realize just how amazingly lucky I am to have such a brilliant teacher at my disposal.

She truly is the Queen of all things JIRA :) 

[Monique vdB]

@Becky Gosden soak it all up, Susan is a star! ✰

[Tony Moreno _ATX AUG_]

I've had the pleasure of meeting the Jira Queen and she is the best! Rumor has it she may make an appearance at one of the team tours 😮

[Mahesh S]

That's a must showcase write-up!! It's very much inspiring on the way she balances work and personal life. :)

[Scott Grieder]

Thanks for helping make our community thrive both offline and online!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That was a great road-trip!

[Bryan Bai]

awesome! 

[Norman King]

That's great!

[Caterina Curti]

That's awesome Susan!

[Renata]

This was a great post! Does anyone know if you can "follow" a user? If so, I would love to learn how to follow the user discussed and profiled in this post. Thanks!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

@Renata - not yet, but it is on the to-do list, and quite high on the list.