Technology companies are making slow but steady progress in increasing female workforce representation. Deloitte Global predicts that large global technology firms, on average, will reach nearly 33% overall female representation in their workforces in 2022.

Sharry has also made progress. From 21% in March 2021 to 25.5% in March 2022. Unfortunately, women remain slightly underrepresented at Sharry, we are hopeful that with so many new hires we will be able to improve the ratio (check out the list of open job positions, if you're interested in working for a leading PropTech company).

GET SH#&T DONE

Daria Uslontceva started working for Sharry in November 2019 as a Quality assurance Tester. In January 2022 she became Product owner. “I began to feel that manual testing was not enough for me” – Daria explains her motivation for a career shift.

“Daria has a unique combination of thorough technical knowledge of the product acquired as a tester with a 'get sh#&t done' systematic approach and ability to work hard when needed. This made stepping up into the technical product manager role a logical step in her career,” adds Ondřej Langr, Chief product officer at Sharry.

So we reached Daria to ask her a few questions…

You started at Sharry as a QA tester and since January you have been a Product Owner. How did this change come about?

I began to feel that manual testing was not enough for me. Personally, I think manual testers are a kind of transition position, after which you either do test automation or go into management. I chose the latter path and luckily, Sharry made it possible. 

What helped me the most was that from the beginning my desire was taken seriously, and for example my then product owner gave me some owner duties to try out. I'm grateful for the chance and the trust. ❤️ 

What exactly do you do as a Product Owner? What are your responsibilities?

If I try to explain it as simply as possible: I take over the requirements for new functionalities from the product manager, I think about how they should look and work, and we work together as a team to improve them and make them real. I help my colleagues not to get lost in priorities and to meet deadlines. I mediate communication between the team and the rest of the company. I answer a thousand questions a day and ask twice as many. I investigate and handle SLA bugs, manage hotfixes and releases. Occasionally I test something.

What's your favorite Sharry feature?

As a user, I'll answer Mobile access – it's just so smooth to open the office door with a mobile phone instead of a plastic card. As a tester, I will name Parking recommendations – it was interesting to watch the development of this functionality, which is incredibly sophisticated. As a product owner, I would mention a Mobile card request – because it was one of the first things I worked on in my new role. 😅

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And now in a nutshell:

• iOS or Android? iOS
• ‍Offline or online weekend? Offline
• Your guilty pleasure? Food (meat and sweets)
• Avg number of coffee per day? I'm trying to drink zero.
• Best place to relax? Outside, ideally in the mountains or by the sea
• Movie character to become? Cameron Diaz from The Holiday movie. She's independent, rich, and waiting for Jude Law to fall in love with her. 😅
• First app in the morning? Slack
• ‍Last app in the evening? Daily Bean, a mood tracker. I use it for better self-understanding and I like its super-easy and cute UX.