Meet Merix: Piotr - Project Manager

This week, after the interview with Luiza, we're back to the male part of our team (but not for long ;) ). Today you have an opportunity to meet our veteran of Project Managers - Piotr, who has been working at Merixstudio since 2008. He is always calm and smiling. Because Piotr is very helpful, you can always rely on him. We all appreciate him for his experience and knowledge. Besides, I think all of us are jealous of his dinners from his loving wife - smells spread out across the dining room.

• Tell us something about yourself.
  I love traveling and exploring new places. I am always happy to go on a short trip to the seaside, but the mountains are where I like going the most. And it's no matter what season it is. Trekking and skiing are what keeps me happy.

• What are your main responsibilities at MerxiStudio?
  Generally, I am responsible for project management. Very often my job is also preparing mockups and spec for websites we create. More recently I am responsible for the development of tools that we use, and I organize internal meetings for Project Managers that allow us to share knowledge and experience.

• How do you work? What is important to you while working?
  Because of the lack of time, I try to give priorities to tasks that have to be done. It's crucial to me that the team I work with on the project have a clear picture of what has to be done.

• Tell us something about beginnings in the company.
  Actually, I ended up here by accident. The company in which I was working overreached and was forced to shut down. Someone very kindly sent me the information that MerixStudio is looking for Project Manager. The day when CEO of my previous company terminated employment contracts with the whole team was also the day when I got a call from my current boss :)
  The beginning of work was easier thanks to my new colleagues that have been working here for a while - especially Marcin (whom I had to replace) and Kamil. They were my supervisors during my first projects. At first, I was working on smaller projects, but I got "bigger" clients incrementally. The first famous brand that I could work with was Independent News & Media, and I have fond memories of that cooperation.

• You have been working here for a while. How has changed MerixStudio and work here for that time?
  First of all, we are four times bigger now and we are occupying three floors of our building instead of only one. What means more running up and down the stairs :) Too many things have changed to talk about all of them. The biggest one was the change of the structure of the company. Now we have different departments responsible for various areas of our business. Thanks to progressing specialization of individual employees everyone can develop in a field that interests them the most. What's essential at this size of the company is that we also defined a lot of procedures, thanks to what we manage to sort out many issues and not get lost in the vast amount of projects and people involved in them. Greater emphasis was also placed on the development and sharing the knowledge with each other.
  Apart from the organizational matters, we can't forget about the mobile revolution. A few years ago it turned upside down an approach to designing, coding, and testing - it was the beginning of responsive projects era.

• Have you learned something while working at MerixStudio? What?
  When I came to Merixstudio, I already had more than a year of experience in the industry. But here I had the opportunity to experience many web technologies in real life (both front and back-end). Besides that, my awareness of the usability was significantly increased.

• What do you like about working at MerixStudio?
  The ability to work with people from all over the world, constant development and the opportunity to broaden my skills.

• On what cool things you worked at MerixStudio?
  There were many interesting ones. The project, which recently brought me most fun is the Old Axolotl - the landing page promoting a new novel by Jacek Dukaj (published only in the ebook form). This website was only a part of a larger campaign. We created it for Allegro in cooperation with Platige Image and were responsible for the development of the whole concept of the website. The final effect was really great, and both the Client and our company were very pleased with the result we were able to achieve.

• What was the biggest challenge you faced while working in the company?
  Reconciling the interests of business (requirements we have to meet), management (profitability of the project) and the team (satisfaction with the work) with available resources and the deadline.

• First thing you do when you arrive at the office
  I go through tons of spam in my inbox to find the most relevant emails.

• iOS or Android?
  Andriod.

• What do you do in a free time after work?
  I spend my free time with family.

• What is your favorite place in Poznań?
  Right now I'm living outside of Poznań and most time in this city I'm spending in the office. I have a lot of great memories associated with the Old Market Square.

• Beer or vodka?
  Beer.

• Dog or cat?
  Dog but cats are not bad either.

• The website you visit the most.
  Lately, it's Spiderweb.pl and Youtube.com.

• Favorite app?
  Google Play, where I can find many interesting articles from different sources.

• If you could only visit one website for the rest of your life, what site would that be?
  Google.com, which will lead me anywhere I want ;)

• If you could have your dream job, what it would be?
  With the temperature of the summer we are having, I think that I could be an ice cream salesperson ;)

Do you have any questions? Write to us - we'll try to answer each of them. In the meantime, we're going to interview another MerixStudio employee.