My Name Is Finn Meyer — This Is Why I Joined Aha!

I have always been passionate about art and technology. As a kid, I would sit on my dad's lap and watch intently as he played video games on our family computer. Eventually I started building computers and learning all I could about how software programs worked. I studied illustration at art school, hoping to become a concept artist for the film or video game industry.

What I love about art and technology is that both require creative problem solving.

When I realized that concept art offered limited career opportunities, I decided to pivot and give teaching a try. I worked with special education middle school students and went to graduate school to earn a teaching degree. While I loved helping kids learn and grow, I found it frustrating to navigate the public education system. Each student had unique needs, but I had to follow state guidelines and uniform standards of learning.

I was ready for a change. I started working at an IT government contractor for the SEC. Initially I did tech support, then created technical documentation illustrations for EDGAR — a fun mix of my interests in art and tech. I was also able to assist with basic coding work using HTML and CSS.

I applied what I learned at my next position, as a program analyst at another government contractor. Here I provided support for internal systems and software applications for our customers, who were FAA employees. I gained as many new skills as I could, learned Agile methodology, and became a certified scrum master.

As my responsibilities grew, I worked closely with a team of developers — helping define what our customers needed, prioritizing features, and even doing some front-end development work.

Because of Covid-19, I had been doing this role completely from home. Remote work was a revelation. Instead of spending three hours each day commuting between Virginia and Washington, D.C., I could put more energy into my work while also enjoying extra time with family and pets. When the company announced it was time for everyone to return to the office, I knew I had to find a role at an organization that values remote work.

I saw on LinkedIn that Aha! was hiring for the Product Success Associate program. This sounded like an intriguing opportunity and a strong match for my product and technical experience. Once I learned more about Aha! and read stories from members of the team, I felt even more excited about the company culture and potential for personal growth and development.

After joining the Aha! team, I immersed myself in our robust Product Success onboarding program. Over several months, I became an expert in our software and learned how to support larger and larger customers.

I am still teaching people every day, but now I get to tailor my approach to each individual — coming up with creative solutions for each product manager's unique situation.

For example, a customer wanted to add a line to their budget on a prioritization report. I came up with a solution that involved using custom worksheets to rank the records against each other. It was thrilling to be able to solve the problem in an elegant way. (And now all of our customers have the ability to add priority limit lines to prioritization pages in Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Ideas.)

I am so happy for the opportunity to learn from my colleagues. All of the product experts on our team are highly skilled, hardworking, and responsive. And they are always available to help or hop on a call to think through problems together.

The more I continue learning about our software, the happier I can make our customers and teammates. This motivates me to keep growing my expertise and finding creative ways to make life better for product managers. It is truly a privilege.

That is why I joined Aha! — and why you should too.