Our team members are an integral part of what makes Sortly a great place to work. Every month, we spotlight a member of the Sortly team each month to learn about their role, their accomplishments, their challenges, and their journey at Sortly.
This month we’re spotlighting Fernando Mondragon, our User Experience Researcher. He joined Sortly eight months ago to help us better understand how our customers do inventory, how they use the Sortly platform, and how it can be improved to meet customer needs and preferences. Although Fernando is a newer addition to the Sortly team, his work has already made a big impact! Here’s what Fernando had to say about his journey at Sortly and what advice he has for prospective candidates.
How long have you worked at Sortly?
About eight months.
What does your role entail?
I am a UX researcher, so I conduct investigations in order to 1) learn how customers run their businesses and manage their inventory, and 2) understand how customers interact with the Sortly platform. Then, I aggregate that knowledge and bring it to the Sortly team so they can build things that are both valuable and usable for our customers.
What gets you excited to come to work each morning?
It’s a fun job, and the team wants to be here and cares about what we all accomplish. Also, whenever I talk to customers, they are very excited about Sortly and how it helps them, so that’s fantastic.
What originally attracted you to Sortly? And how has Sortly changed since you joined?
The customer base. I’ve worked with small businesses over the years, and while I was in academia I studied how to implement mobile IT to help construction field workers. And that’s who Sortly’s customers are: a lot of small businesses with field personnel who need communication aids. Since I joined, our customer base has grown, with different organizations and industries in the mix.
What advice do you have for prospective Sortly candidates?
The team is very oriented towards learning what’s valuable for our customers. My advice is for candidates to bring forward their experience doing product experimentation. Also, having someone else on the team who makes Simpsons references would be nice.
What do you find most challenging at Sortly?
It’s not just that the amount of customers we have has increased, but also our team has grown. And so each time we have more complex problems to work on, which challenges the team to communicate more and better. To tackle this challenge, we need to have a shared understanding of our clients’ needs; we all need to be watching the same film.
What are some of the professional challenges you’ve tackled, the most interesting projects you’ve worked on, and/or your proudest moment at Sortly?
I did a study with some of our customers about how they got started on Sortly, and that was so cool because by means of interviewing customers we uncovered a lot of aspects that are relevant in their early interactions with the app. Now, several teams are using the results we obtained, so I’m quite satisfied with the outcome and the pace at which our team has absorbed this new knowledge.
What do you like to do outside of work—passion projects, hobbies, family?
I live in Austin, so I do use the city’s offering of live music shows and paddleboarding areas. I have a lot of books but read them at a much slower pace than I purchase them. I still get Netflix DVDs by mail, which is great for watching older films.
Where is your favorite place in the world?
I really enjoy being in the audience for live music—doesn’t matter if it’s a friend jamming at their house or a large band playing in a stadium.
What is one food you can’t resist?
Avocados. Over the years my taste has changed considerably, but avocados remain at the top.
Sortly is a SaaS company that helps businesses streamline and modernize every aspect of managing inventory. Learn more about Sortly’s mission and browse our open roles.
