Meet Susan Hauth: Jira Queen

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@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.

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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! 

15 comments

miikhy
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
February 14, 2018

Another great showcase by @Bridget!

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

Danny Zuccaro
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
February 14, 2018

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

Monique vdB
Community Manager
Community Managers are Atlassian Team members who specifically run and moderate Atlassian communities. Feel free to say hello!
February 14, 2018

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

Matt Doar
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
February 14, 2018

Good write-up! 

Becky Gosden February 14, 2018

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
Community Manager
Community Managers are Atlassian Team members who specifically run and moderate Atlassian communities. Feel free to say hello!
February 14, 2018

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

Tony Moreno _ATX AUG_
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
February 17, 2018

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
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
March 1, 2018

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

Scott Grieder
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
March 3, 2018

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

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
March 5, 2018

That was a great road-trip!

Bryan Bai March 21, 2018

awesome! 

Norman King April 11, 2018

That's great!

Caterina Curti
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
June 23, 2018

That's awesome Susan!

Renata September 15, 2022

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-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
September 16, 2022

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

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