Danielle joined De Mandemakers Groep as a business analyst a year ago, after studying Business Administration in Zeeland and a Master's degree in Strategic Management in Tilburg. Originally from Zeeland, she found her way in Brabant after her master's and feels completely at home at De Mandemakers Groep.
‘’First I thought like most people, isn’t it too much digital and do I like it?’’
After I finished my study, I had heard of the business analyst job. But if this was the job for me, especially whether the digital part suited me, I didn’t know yet. The final vacancy text of a business analyst at De Mandemakers Groep caught my attention. After my application I was invited for a day at the office. This day full of different experiences helped me with the decision. I had also applied for another job in consultancy, but during this day I immediately noticed that this job and the company suited me best.
Shortly thereafter, I joined the Pega Customer Service team. A nice start to get to know more about the basics of the company and the work. They gave me some time to get used to everything and had many try-out days at different places. I also had a buddy who guided me and let me work out my first user story in a small assignment to get to know the process.
‘’The most fun is to see the progression when the first steps in the app become visible’’
Pretty soon after I started I was allowed to collaborate at field service on a big project: the delivery app. Until then, basically all delivery staff worked with paper documents and delivery reports. That could be done differently. One of my colleagues already mapped out all the current processes. After that, we started working together to digitize the processes in such a way that no more paper is involved and that it works nice and practical for the delivery staff.
I joined the delivery staff and other relevant departments for a few days to get a good understanding so we could translate that into a good app. We then held discussions with delivery people and department heads about how we could best set up the process in the app. I then worked this out in user stories, which we discussed with the developers who then went on to build. The best part was seeing the progression afterwards. You hand in user stories and you see them directly visualized in the app.
For months we worked on developing the app and in March of this year the app went live. The first pilot version was an exciting moment. I get a lot of positive and nice feedback from the people who work with it. There are delivery employees who are not using the delivery app yet, but can’t wait to start using it.
Meanwhile, I am working on a new project; supporting the requests that mechanics make via the app. In the past year I have become quite "digitized," and indeed I have to be careful with my technically-influenced language. I realize that I must remain clear to the other departments and continue to speak their language as well.
‘’At parties I usually say I make apps and right away I tell them, not by myself but I guide the process’’
My friends and family regularly ask me ‘’what do you actually do?’’. I usually say that I make apps and then immediately after that tell them I don’t make those apps myself, but that I'm focused on how we can digitize and improve the business processes. Directly referring to the ‘app’ makes it more concrete and gives them a better understanding of what I do at work.
I feel at home in the ‘cozy’ Brabant, but my roots remain in beautiful Zeeland. I usually work with the team at the office and one day a week at home, which I can sometimes combine with my traveling to Zeeland, so that I can add a day of working in Zeeland to my weekend. I like the combination of living in Brabant and visiting Zeeland, you could say ‘the best of both worlds’.
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