Rebecca Rafferty
Product Owner at Onebright Mental Health
Always do something that interests you, and investigate what other roles are out there around what interests you as you’ll never know what your dream job actually looks like until you see it.
About Rebecca...
Who am I?
"I tend to sit within Explorer as I spent a lot of time working out what direction the product needs to move in, what the users of the system want and how to ensure it’s all done with good quality. I often investigate and navigate through the software to find the pain points and the areas of improvements."
What do I do?
"I moved into Product Ownership after being a software developer.As a Product Owner I create and maintain a roadmap for a software product, which means I have a backlog of things that need done that I can give to the software development team.I get this backlog through workshops with our users and customers and internal ideas or general behind the scenes improvement.I act as a translator between business needs and software development speak."
How did I get here?
"I initially wanted to work as a teacher but after two very inspiring Maths teachers I chose Physics with Astrophysics at University.I spent most of my time at University thinking I would do a PhD and did lots of extra curricular activities to fit in with that.Then towards the end I decided to change tact and learn to code. I landed my first software role in software consulting and learnt to code, I was taught by some amazing and highly skilled colleagues who taught me loads about software development and the careers in this are.After trying project management and returning to software development, I realised I was more interested in requirements and changing the software than actually writing code. So I landed on Product Ownership and it’s the job for me "
The life I live
"I spend my time mostly relaxing, playing computer games, shopping (both online and in town), watching TV, spending time with my family/pets and eating. I love cooking and trying new restaurants!"
My typical day
"I normally arrive early, I use the time before most people come in to read my emails and look at my to-do list for the day. Apart from that I spend a lot of my day learning about parts of our systems and investigating how they work. I also spend time speaking to other people in the business to see what their requirements are for the look and feel of our products, to make sure they are the best they are. Then collating their requirements and relaying them to my manager and then our development team."
My qualifications
"Secondary education (GCSE/O-Levels)Post secondary education (College, A-levels, NVQ3 or equivalent)Undergraduate degree (BSc, BA, etc.) Post-graduate degree (MSc, MA, etc.) Physics with AstrophysicsPrince2 Certified"
Rebecca's Photos
