The challenges and joys of product management as a working student

What is your favorite way to drink coffee?

?Depends on my mood and my tiredness. I like the variety. I usually drink filter coffee, sometimes black, sometimes with a sip of milk – and in the summer I also like it iced

Nico, please introduce yourself.

Yes, with pleasure! As you said, I'm Nico, 28 years old, and I started this summer as a working student in product management at Nect. I'm currently studying Business Development & Digital Innovation at the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg. After my bachelor's degree and before joining Nect, I worked as a junior project manager in a digital agency for one and a half years.

Besides work and study, I spend a lot of time with family & friends, visit pretty much every home game of FC St. Pauli at Millerntor and love sports. As for the latter, there's nothing better for me than riding my road bike and exploring Hamburg and its surroundings.

How did you end up at Nect?

I became aware of Nect through my master's program, which includes an excursion week in various German cities every semester. Last semester, I had a home game, so to speak, and the week took place in Hamburg, where we were invited to an after-work event at Nect. Besides the company's vision, which inspired me right from the start, it was the great atmosphere at Nect Tower and the open-minded conversations with some of the Nectees that made me realize that I definitely wanted to work for Nect. Shortly after, I had an interview with Malika and Magdalena, which felt more like a lighthearted get-to-know-you meeting and totally confirmed my first impression.

You are supporting our product manager Magdalena around the area of Nect Products, what are your tasks?

In my position as a working student in product management, I try to connect the dots between business, user experience and technology as best as possible. To put it in a nutshell, we strive every day to optimize our products for customers and users and to develop new features and products. In more detail, this includes taking a hard look at the user experience, testing again and again, and collecting user feedback. Since there is no point in defining what you want to build if you don't know how to build it, this is where our development team comes in. That's why we spend a lot of time with our frontend and backend team, who ultimately realize the optimizations. And anyone who thinks that our work ends here is mistaken. Once a solution is in place, the next step is to develop better designs and better solutions to customers' problems. In a sense, a never-ending story, but in a very exciting way.

What fascinates you most about your job?

My job itself is incredibly broad and varied. I have the opportunity to work with all my colleagues and all the departments in the company. Beyond that, I enjoy being part of something bigger and working on things that can make a difference in this world. In our case, the future of digital identity, which is becoming increasingly important and will continue to do so in the future. That's what I like most about my job.

?What philosophy do you follow in your work?

My work philosophy is to constantly challenge myself. Learning new things, taking new opportunities and working with different people in the company motivate me every day anew. Among the most important factors for me to do a good job are great team chemistry and 100% identification with the product (and of course the company) I work for.

If you had to describe your team in three words, what would they be?

Open-hearted, encouraging, promoting.