Maya G.'s Recent LinkedIn Posts

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to work on a new product segment team at iRobot: robotic lawn mowers! After conducting competitive product and experience analysis, I can honestly say that iRobot's Terra is truly innovative technology and will redefine the standards for the RLM, consumer robotics, and smart home industries. I was given the autonomy to define a PRD, develop use cases, and brainstorm multiple solutions for a new Terra feature. This was my first product management internship and I'm happy to say that I've finally found a position that resonates with my passion for working with people and applies my engineering skills. I look forward to seeing iRobot's Terra on everyone's lawns!

I have two big professional updates that I thought I'd share :)   1) Officially graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelors of Applied Sciences in Management Engineering! It was a challenging time but I definitely have a lot of fun memories. The last year was remote followed by a virtual graduation in June '21. I have MANY thoughts and reflections on my time in Waterloo, but the one thing I'll share here is that the co-op/intern program was the highlight of my education and one of the main reasons I chose to go to Waterloo from Seattle.  When thinking about a full-time career it is difficult to know your preferences in the workplace such as position, field, company size, culture, location, leadership styles, etc. After six internships (2 years of work experience), I got a pretty good idea of my interests, what I value, and what kinds of positions I'd like to work in full time. And with that... my next update!   2) I started working full time as a Product Manager at Axon in Seattle 5 months ago! I knew after interning at Axon in summer 2019 that I wanted to be a part of a company with social-impact driven missions such as obsoleting the bullet, capturing the truth in law enforcement, prioritizing mental health, saving lives, and more. Starting my full-time career working on an innovative Dispatch product as a squad lead with a dedicated engineering team and designer has been a rewarding and huge learning experience.   Shoutout to my amazing mentors & managers that guided me throughout my career and the ones that continue to help me grow!! Jack Mazzeo, Taqi Jaffri, Zubin Wadia, David Watson, Anne Vaittinen, Supriya Gupta, Josh Pepper, Dave Suzuki, Aidan B., Liam Burke, Moira Doherty, Ira Renfrew, Gillian Hughes, CSM®, Darryl Cheng, Nick Pearsonfranks (may he RIP), Paul Peavyhouse, Daniel Daoura, Vinay Gupta

I had an AMAZING internship as a Software Product Manager at Axon (formerly Taser) this summer! My team and I were building a dispatch software for 911 call takers, police dispatchers, and police officers. I had the opportunity to own and define the search functionality for this product. I conducted user research by going on ride-alongs with police departments in Arizona, California, and Washington state to gain a deeper understanding of the user pain points, strengths and weaknesses of their current system, and define user outcomes that could be translated into functional search requirements. I have some crazy ride-along stories! Through this experience, I established a new perception of law enforcement, the challenges they face, and how technology can be applied to make an impact in their lives and society overall. I need to give a shoutout to Josh Pepper and Dave Suzuki for all of the autonomy and mentorship you both gave me. I miss everyone I worked with - I had such an awesome summer!

Teaching Blockly coding to students with TechVenture Kids was such a fun and rewarding job!  I love programs like Scratch and Minecraft Mods where students can learn programming fundamentals (conditionals, loops, etc), physics concepts, and have the ability to integrate their code into other technology such as the Microsoft Kinect. I never thought I'd be able to code an Xbox program until I created a simple balloon popping game with the Kinect and realized the power I had through coding. I'm excited for other students to discover this as well. Happy Computer Science Education Week! Satya Nadella