How long have you worked for Brightspot? What brought you here?
I’ve worked for Brightspot for two and a half years. I first saw Brightspot at the career fair at the University of Maryland in January 2023 and received my job offer that March. I remember talking with Parker Ramsdell (SVP, People, Mission & Culture) at the fair and later interviewing with the team. It was my first job out of college, and I’m still here two and a half years later. It’s been great so far.
Can you tell me more about your role as product manager? What is a typical day like for you?
My role as a product manager has evolved throughout my time here. I started as the Ops Desk product manager, then spent some time working on the platform team doing UI work. Now I’m working with the Johnson & Johnson team on the delivery side while also maintaining more of a project management role for the infrastructure team and the various projects they have underway.
My mornings usually start with standups across the teams I work with, which make up most of my morning. Once I understand what the teams are focused on, those meetings typically come with action items, and I work on helping developers move those forward. A lot of my time right now is spent with Johnson & Johnson revising some of their existing processes. That’s been something I’ve been really excited about working on — things like Jira management, time management, budget tracking and customer communications.
In the afternoons I’m usually continuing that work, responding to messages and helping unblock people so they can keep moving. My typical day has changed quite a bit over the past few months, and it will likely continue evolving.
What do you find most challenging about your role and the projects you work on?
With infrastructure, one challenge is predicting the team’s work further in advance and planning agile sprints around it. Infrastructure teams get interrupted frequently. When something goes wrong on a customer site, they’re usually the first people contacted to fix the issue. Planning projects while allowing room for those interruptions can be difficult.
Another challenge is that the two areas I work on — infrastructure and customer delivery — are very different. I have to manage my time carefully between the Johnson & Johnson and infrastructure projects to make sure I’m supporting both effectively, even though the work, tickets and priorities are completely different across the two programs.
How have you grown professionally since starting at Brightspot?
I’ve definitely grown in my confidence since starting at Brightspot. When I first joined, I was more timid and didn’t always feel confident leading a team. Over time, working across different departments — learning about infrastructure, Ops Desk, the platform and now delivery — has given me a much broader understanding of Brightspot and how all the pieces fit together.
That combination of building product knowledge and learning how to run a team effectively has helped me become much more confident in leading work and making sure projects get done efficiently.
Is there a specific feature, launch or problem you solved during your time here that you are particularly proud of? What was the impact of that work?
Toward the end of last year, Ops Desk released features related to tenant management that help reduce infrastructure costs. These features allow tenants to automatically shut down after being idle for a certain amount of time or be scheduled to run only when needed.
That was one of the last major features I worked on before transitioning into my current role. Since cloud infrastructure can be expensive, being able to automatically shut down unused tenants helps the company save money on excess cloud costs.
Besides the people, what is your favorite part about working at Brightspot?
I’ve really loved the mission work, especially the opportunity to step outside of daily corporate life and reconnect with what’s happening in the community. That’s been really impactful for me.
I’ve also appreciated the opportunities I’ve had at Brightspot to grow across different areas — product management, product design, program management and project management. Getting exposure to all of those roles and seeing how they work together has been incredibly beneficial.
During your time here, you’ve been a huge part of our culture of service, earning you a Brightspot Mission Award last year. Looking back at all the initiatives you’ve been a part of, is there one favorite activity that stands out to you? What made it so meaningful?
I really enjoy the work we’ve done with Aldrin. I love going into the school as a classroom support volunteer and working with the kids. I’ve always loved math, coming from my mom being a math major and my dad being a computer science engineer. We like math in my family!
Being able to help kids with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division has been really rewarding. It’s also fun to see how they respond to you. Every kid has their own personality and quirks, which makes the experience really enjoyable. Math can be hard sometimes, so it’s nice to help guide them through it.
What are your favorite activities or hobbies to do outside of the office?
I don’t know if many people in their 20s feel this way, but I’m still searching for more hobbies. In the winter especially, I feel like I’m doing fewer things. Right now I spend a lot of time cooking, working out and doing more indoor activities. I also love planning imaginary vacations, which is funny since I plan things for a living.
During the summer I try to golf with my friends and my husband, and I also enjoy pickleball and tennis. I love walking around Reston, where there are great trails. In the warmer months I usually go for an hour-long walk after work, which I really miss in the winter. I wouldn’t say I have any unusual hobbies. Not going lie, I keep things pretty basic!
What is one thing you think people would be surprised to know about you?
I’m from Southern Maryland, which isn’t that far from here, but people are always surprised when I show them where it is on a map. A lot of Northern Virginia natives don’t even realize that part of Maryland exists, even though it’s only about an hour away.
I love Maryland — the summers, the crabs, boating and spending time on the river. I also went to the University of Maryland, so I guess you could say I am a true born-and-bred Marylander.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I did a month-long trip around Europe, which was amazing. I’d love to go back to the south of France because I really loved that area. Switzerland is also high on my bucket list because it’s so green and known for its waterfalls and beautiful landscapes. Maybe next summer I’ll try to visit both — we’ll see!
