Getting to know… Dave Round & Phil Geraghty, Product Owners at Atomic

So how long have you each worked for Atomic?

Dave: I’ve been at Atomic since June 2023 and the months are flying by!

Phil: I joined Atomic as a Product Owner in July of 2023

What was your background and what stood out at Atomic to make you decide to join?

Dave: My degree was in Computer and Management Sciences which I thought at the time would be a sensible choice that would open up lots of potential career paths, I just didn’t know which career. After taking a year out after university to travel, I got accepted on a graduate management scheme for a large automotive retail group. I spent 5 years there working various roles within dealerships and head office where I learnt a lot about teamwork, leadership and customer engagement.

After deciding I needed a change in career path I joined Tribal Group as a Financial Benchmarking Consultant, working with universities across the UK to analyse and compare their income and costs and feedback results to senior leadership teams. I learnt a lot about stakeholder engagement, project management and reporting/presentation techniques, but it was the ability to help shape our product offering through IT solutions that really started to motivate me. This led to me becoming a Product Owner supporting our team of developers and testers and working with internal and external stakeholders to shape our roadmap, I had finally found the career that suited my degree all those years ago!

After a few years of being a PO at Tribal I decided I needed a fresh environment to progress my knowledge and skills but also to work in different industries. The opportunity at Atomic was perfect for me, being an agency they work with various clients from all types of industries giving me the exposure I wanted, whilst being an expanding company where I could see my career developing over time.

Phil: I’ve a long career of working in customer-facing roles, starting out as an optical technician making glasses whilst studying physics at university. After spending much of my spare time in the computer labs (rather than wanting to focus on physics) I found myself in pursuit of a career in computing. This was over twenty years ago and I’ve not looked back.

I spent many years working my way through IT support, from first line through to management, before making a sideways move into service delivery, configuring and maintaining software systems for the management and monitoring of servers and desktops for Managed Service Providers in the IT space, becoming a product specialist with Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools.

From there, I was headhunted into the vendor space, becoming a defect manager and then product manager for the world’s largest cloud-based RMM product, Datto RMM (Formerly Autotask Endpoint Management, Centrastage). I loved this job, and Datto were an incredible company to work for. I’m very grateful for everything I learned during my time here and, as I was working remotely, it gave us the opportunity to relocate. After much deliberation and a couple of hiccups, we finally settled on Nottingham in 2022.

Datto entered a period of change, following an acquisition, and as I missed the ‘family’ feeling that my employer once had, it felt like a good opportunity to look further afield. I was eager to seek fresh challenges, and diversify the types of products in which I was engaged.

Atomic felt like a really great fit in terms of ethics and core values, and it was clear as soon as I saw the ‘Showreel’ that I’d be given the opportunity to work on a wide range of distinct and stimulating projects.

Tell us a bit about your role

Dave: Underpinned by Agile SCRUM principles I help our clients realise their objectives by being the link between them and our team of developers, QA and designers. Alongside the sprint planning, backlog management and other SCRUM responsibilities, I really enjoy the interaction with the team, keeping them motivated and helping them understand requirements so we can achieve our clients’ goals.

Phil: On paper, a Product Owner, is responsible for engaging with stakeholders and collaborating across various areas of both our internal business and the client’s organisation, such that a given product is tailored and developed to meet the business needs.

At Atomic, the role is a bit more than that. I am involved at a relatively low level in finding functional solutions to technical problems, working with developers and the design team to find elegant approaches to complex user flows. However, more than that I love having a wider impact. I have been involved in technical discoveries for multiple projects, taking them from core concepts through to suggested solutions, which have in their own right become larger and even more impactful pieces of work.

How do you see your role developing over the next year or so?

Dave: Working with other clients in different industries over the next few years will be a lot of fun but also as Atomic continues to grow I know opportunities will arise to further my career.

Phil: I have really enjoyed exploring the future of the business and our overall strategies. So I hope to be more involved in our overarching portfolio and program management, however in the short term I expect to continue spearheading discoveries and delivering complex and exciting projects.

What do you most enjoy about working at Atomic?

Dave: It’s a very supportive, friendly and vibrant environment. Everyone is committed to doing their best work to build the best products we can and help grow Atomic, but it’s all done with a smile on our faces, it’s a lot of fun!

Phil: As I prefer to have multiple responsibilities and switch between them (as this keeps my ADD tendencies entertained), having the opportunity to deep-dive into a project, and then switch to other projects as, and when, needed, is deeply satisfying.

I’d describe Atomic as a team of diverse and passionate creatives and professionals that strive to take pride in producing gorgeous work of a high quality. I genuinely adore the camaraderie and collaborative nature of the organisation. It’s high pressure, and of course not every day is a walk in the park, but it’s a very, very nice park.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Dave: I’m a big sports fan, I’ll watch just about anything but my main passion is following the mighty Nottingham Forest FC. Many injuries have limited my involvement in sport these days, but I still run to keep fit and love to play as much golf as possible (although I seemingly get no better at it!).

Phil: I have far too many hobbies…

I’m a big fan of movies and music, and went so far as to dredge various musical instruments out of storage over the xmas period. You can guess what my new years’ resolutions might have involved.

I really enjoy social gaming, in particular tabletop roleplaying, which enables friends to get together and explore imaginations and fantastical adventures.

I love traditional ‘low and slow’ barbecues (with three barbecues in the garden), and am developing a love of pretentious craft beer, which (given Nottingham’s propensity toward supporting craft breweries) has been good neither to the waistline nor the wallet… I’d best get back into cycling again to help this in 2024.

I am also a keen coffee lover, with my espresso machine and coffee grinder being sacred relics in my household.. I still haven’t mastered the art of milk steaming, though.

When not embracing the above hobbies (and more!) I am a fan of proper rest and relaxation, so you might find me at an all-inclusive retreat with a spa, where I’m likely to be sipping on a cocktail whilst reading a book on a fancy e-reader.

Tell us something interesting about you!

Dave: I have represented Nottinghamshire and England at TenPin Bowling. I started playing when I was 13 and gradually got hooked, I captained the university team and have played in numerous leagues and tournaments since then. The first questions I always get are; do you have your own shoes and ball?, to which the answers are yes and many!

Phil: I have a ‘black belt’ in the martial art of Iaido, which means I am trained in the tradition of “drawing a Japanese sword from its scabbard to obtain advantage over an opponent”.