Get to Know Phil: Fat Fish Digital's Project Manager

My current role at Fat Fish Digital is as a Customer Success manager, and while it's a bit different from what I used to do, many of the skills I developed in my previous job as a health and wellbeing assessor have carried over. Now, my main responsibilities revolve around managing the developer workload, working closely with our clients, and keeping an eye on what's coming up next. It’s a busy role that requires juggling priorities and making sure everyone — from the team to the clients, is on the same page.

Before joining Fat Fish, I was a health and wellbeing assessor and team manager, travelling the country providing employee wellbeing assessments and making sure the team of assessors did what they were supposed to! I managed logistics, ensuring that everything ran smoothly, and even helped improve the in-house software system we used to organise it all. Although there were some amazing aspects to my previous role, I was looking for something within a more varied industry, offering an opportunity to support different types of projects and people within the health and wellbeing space.

Fat Fish focuses on supporting clients in the health and wellbeing and sports sectors, both areas where I have experience from my background in sports science and nutrition That’s where Fat Fish came in. It’s the perfect fit, allowing me to combine my passion for these fields with the opportunity to work on a broader array of projects, making the transition feel both rewarding and aligned with my interests.

Making the Transition to Tech

The three main aspects of my role as a product owner are managing the developer workload, interacting with the clients, and keeping one eye on what we need to prioritise next. My previous role made the transition into managing the team workload and interacting with clients a relatively seamless one, as these were both key components of my management position. However, the biggest challenge when I started was getting to grips with the technical language and concepts that are core to the tech industry (so many acronyms). At first, there may or may not have been a lot of head nodding and frantically searching on Google, but the Fat Fish team was incredibly supportive. They helped guide me through the more technical side of things, and over time, I’ve built up a solid understanding.

Balancing Client Needs with Team Capacity

One of the most rewarding parts of my job is the variety of projects I get to work on and the diverse goals our clients bring to the table. I see my role as a bit of a middleman, balancing the client’s wants and needs and managing the developers’ time and resources. This can certainly be a challenge, but with such fantastic developers working at Fat Fish, who are always willing to listen and adapt to the needs of the project, it's made easy! I understand how daunting the tech industry can be for clients new to it, and with my own experience of this since starting my role, I feel well-placed to support them through the process. Every client has different concerns and nerves about a project process, and it can be scary to hand over the success of a project to someone else. I see it as my job to find ways to resolve these concerns and build a trusting relationship.

Advice for Others Making a Career Shift

For anyone thinking about transitioning from a non-tech background into a role like mine, my advice is: don’t let the unfamiliarity of the tech industry scare you away. In fact, I think coming from a different background can be an advantage. In a matter of months, you’ll have an understanding of the core aspects of the industry and the technological lingo, and your experience of the learning process can help guide non-technical clients through the project process.

The key qualities for this role are being organised, enjoying working with people, and caring deeply about the projects you’re involved in. Although you might not be hands-on in building the product, you care about the work you are involved in, like it's your own. It's a varied career and extremely rewarding, so I’d highly recommend giving it a go!

Looking to the Future

Looking ahead, I’m excited about what’s next for the Fat Fish team. We have some incredible projects in the works and more on the horizon. I’m looking forward to helping our team work even better together and expanding to take on even more exciting challenges. It’s been a joy to work with such talented and brilliant people, and I’m eager to see what we’ll achieve next.