How I found my sense of purpose at CodeSafe

How does what I do fit into the grander vision of the organisation? Does my work impact customers and change their lives? These were some of the questions I have asked myself since moving to CodeSafe Solutions after 11 years in the Retail IT industry.

The answers didn’t come at once, but instead gradually unfolded as I found my feet in my new role as a Business Analyst & Solutions Architect. Now one year on, I am at a stage where I can see how my work fits into the big picture. How my passion for building solutions to customer problems aligns with our founders vision to make life easier for our customers and for the thousands of end-users out in the field.

Deep diving into customer pain points

Often, my first interaction with a customer involves understanding what their biggest pain points are and the impact these have on their business.

It is my job to have an open mind and not jump to conclusions because every customer is different and has specific requirements.

I have to listen carefully and consider:

• What outcomes the business wants to achieve?
• What is their vision of the future behaviour and processes?
• Is there a better path to achieving the intended results?

In my role, it is crucial to get both an overall view of the client’s IT ecosystem and a microscopic view of the systems and processes that our QIN solution impacts.

Looking through the lens of those who QIN impacts

QIN is a mobile communications platform and app which CodeSafe built to efficiently deliver critical information and short, compelling videos that engage and equip workers.

Whose lives does QIN impact the most? Without a doubt, it is the lives of the end-users who are out in the field and are not usually technology experts. They are the people who use the QIN mobile app daily for everything from visual refreshers to inductions, pre-starts, job completions, verifications, and audits.

It is the passion of our founders David Broadhurst and Jacqui Broadhurst to make a positive impact on the lives of these people by listening to them and then developing simple and effective solutions that serve them well. How can I do my part to achieve this? By understanding the environment in which our users’ function, their routine, processes, and their behaviour in the field.

Any solution I create has to be one that not only takes these factors into account but genuinely helps them. It should be easy to engage with and should not intimidate them. The end goal is to empower every worker in the field through the QIN app to feel confident to know how to do their job safely and efficiently. We stand by our motto that QIN came from the field, for all in the field.

Designing the optimum solution

Wrestling with solution design is the stage that most excites me in putting together a business proposal.

QIN is a powerful platform with lots of flexibility to customise and configure it to suit a business’s unique requirements. Where possible, I present a customer with multiple solution options to choose from depending on their appetite for change and available budget.

Process maps and product demos help customers to visualise the solutions and allow for early feedback. Sometimes customers require custom functionality outside the product’s current capabilities. In this scenario, I collaborate with CodeSafe’s professional in-house developers to either build workflows or new product functionality that not only addresses the new requirements but also adds value to our existing customers.

I am fortunate to be supported on one side by a talented and experienced development team and on the other side by our founders, who have decades of experience and a wealth of industry knowledge. This is what enables us as a team to roll out the optimum solutions to make a real, practical difference.

CodeSafe seal of quality

I enjoy taking ownership, along with our customer support lead, in ensuring QIN’s quality before each release.

I look forward to this QA stage, because it is here that I get the first glimpse of the new functionality and watch the requirements we’ve described in our collaboration sessions come to life. It’s really exciting to see QIN become more and more powerful with every release cycle, and deliver even greater benefits to customers, as the product evolves.

We are a close-knit team and continuously aim to enhance QIN and make it more and more useful with each release. Workshops and discussions with the founders and development leads help to set the direction and product roadmap for new features and enhancement.

What I learned working at CodeSafe

Building solutions that resolve customer problems and align with our founders’ vision is not just a job; it’s a passion.

QIN can be used in many ways, and this has become apparent during the current fast-changing Coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 restrictions had just been applied in Australia and there was a lot of confusing information around. Our founders rightly recognised that QIN was meant to serve at a moment of crisis such as this.

I was fortunate to be a critical part of the task force that, in just two days, implemented a solution that provided a free risk assessment tool and a portal that gave quick and easy access to credible COVID-19 information. As I watched the user engagement analytics soar, I felt rewarded for the efforts and also a sense of fulfilment in having made a positive impact in a time of crisis.

The fact that I get to influence every stage of a business pitch from requirements to proposal to solutions design and ensuring product quality is exciting and why I come to work.

Playing a role in shaping the future of QIN gives me both a sense of purpose and enjoyment. Particularly when I think of the impact our solutions have on customers and on the thousands of lives out there.