T2 has some of the brightest minds in the parking industry, and each employee brings a unique set of talents and experiences to the table. We thought you might like to learn more about these talented individuals. In our Employee Spotlight series, you’ll get to know one employee each month. This month we talked to Grant Hubbard, an Associate Product Manager for our T2 Flex solution.
Where did you grow up?
Seymour, IN – yes, the hometown of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, John Mellencamp.
What drew you to working in product management?
Truth be told, I had no idea what product management really was until I was offered the opportunity to join the Product team at T2 (I previously worked as an SDR). As I started to learn more about what the role entailed from a day-to-day perspective, I got increasingly excited and energized at the fit it was for me and my technical background and strengths. Now, two and a half years later, it’s turned into a role and job description I want to make a career out of. To me, product management is such an awesome opportunity to sit in “the middle of the wheel” of a company and work with each and every department to get new features out the door for our customers and be that individual that others look to for guidance and leadership.
How did you end up in the parking industry?
I came to T2 and the parking industry through a program called Orr Fellowship. Orr is a two-year postgraduate program based in Indianapolis that’s mission is to bring recent college graduates to the city, find them incredible jobs with companies like T2, and provide further professional development opportunities, all while giving them a social community of peers who all have just graduated as well. When I found out I had been matched with T2 I gave the usual response of, “Parking? What do you mean parking?” that most people have, but I have truly enjoyed my past 3.5 years with the company.
What do you do as an Associate Product Manager for T2?
My role at T2 as a Product Manager is two-pronged. My first focus is mainly internal: working on new release delivery and assuring every department is ready and able to support the release when we ship it out to our customers. This starts by working directly with Engineering to create development plans and identifying how long a particular feature and release will take to complete. Once that is done, I work side by side with our other T2 departments (Marketing, Project Management, Sales, etc.) to identify new information they need to be aware of and determine the steps we need to take to get them ready for the release to go out the door.
My second focus is more external: working with customers to identify what problems and pain points they may be running into within their operations. Talking with customers and getting that first-hand knowledge of what they do day in and day out is absolutely crucial to be able to continue to meet the needs and demands that they – and the parking industry as a whole – require to run a successful operation.
What’s something that you think people don’t know about parking that you find interesting?
In short, how complicated it can be to make the end product as simple as possible for someone to use. That can probably be said for most pieces of technology, but most people assume a pay station is as simple as walking up and touching a few buttons to pay for their parking stay. At times it is that simple, but what happens when someone doesn’t press the buttons in the right order? What happens when the cellular connectivity goes down and the credit card machine can’t connect? What happens if snow is covering a solar panel for more than a day or two? These questions and more turn what should be a very simple process into a frenzy of never ending “what ifs” that we have to try to address and find solutions for prior to them happening in a customer’s operation.
What do you enjoy about working at T2?
I think what I most enjoy about working at T2 is being able to be a part of a company that relentlessly puts our customers first in trying to address and mitigate issues as soon as possible when they arise. We do our absolute best to get it right the first time, but we’re far from perfect and we’ll be the first to admit that. When a customer issue arises in the field, it is amazing to see the effort that goes into quickly and swiftly resolving the issue and getting our customer’s operation back on track.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
What most people don’t know about me is that while attending Purdue University, I was fortunate enough to be Purdue’s athletics mascot, Purdue Pete, for two years. Being a mascot wasn’t really something I ever dreamed about or had a goal to set out to do, but while at Purdue I had a couple friends who were a part of the mascot program and encouraged me to try out. Needless to say I was selected, and it was truly one of the most unique and incredible experiences I’ve had in my life. Not many people get to say they’ve been at center court in a basketball arena dancing in front of a roaring crowd of 14,000+ people to “Jump On It” by Sir Mix-A-Lot, or that they’ve ridden on the back of an ATV waving to fans with UW-Madison’s Bucky Badger. The memories and stories I have from my time as Pete and being able to represent my university in such a grand way is something I am incredibly appreciative of. Boiler Up!