Behind-the-Scenes: Meet Andrea Ferrazza

Andrea is a very cheerful person. When he is around, the workplace environment is filled with a lot of positive energy and relaxing and beneficial discussions. He is also a very organized person (and that is not because of his job, but rather his success in his job is due to how organized he is). Another thing that stands out is that despite his skills, he is a very modest person who likes to be helpful. You can find him trying to be involved in all teams and figuring out how he can help to improve everyone’s daily job, while pushing forward the implementation of goals we have in our roadmap. To top it off, he is a very pleasant person to work with.

Q&A with Andrea

Hi Andrea, please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself?

Ahoj :)

So, where to start? I’m Italian, I’m 36 years old and I've been living in Brno (in the Czech Republic) for about 5 years now. I’ve settled here with my fiancee (soon to be wife) Ekaterina and 2 years ago we bought a house together to start building our future. I initially came to the Czech Republic to visit a friend, but I fell in love with the country and I never left.

What is your role in Runecast and what does a typical day look like for  you?

My role in Runecast is a mix between Product Owner and Product Manager (I’d say 40/60). The first part of my job consists in helping our RAIKA Team in making sure we work on the right things, ensuring the EPICS and Stories are well defined and the roadmap is always updated and clear to everyone in the team and in the company. I couldn’t do any of the above without the help of Mike and Lucka, who are key people for this team.
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The second part of my job is more focused on Product Management where, together with the Product Team, I make sure that our Roadmap is always up to date, with a clear description of the features we want to deliver and that it is communicated to the Teams.

I’m also coordinating a new project, which is soon to become a new Security Product in Our Portfolio, but I can’t share much about that yet. Recently I’ve also joined our Marketing Team to help them out, acting as Scrum Master. This consists of me joining their weekly cerimonies (daily stand-ups, weekly syncs etc…) making sure we aren’t blocked on anything we need to deliver and addressing the tasks to the right person.

“Runecast is growing very fast and because of that part of my job is also making sure that everything that needs to be fixed or improved will be taken care of. But this is something we all do in Runecast, - helping each other and the company!”

In terms of what my day looks like, usually I have a full calendar filled with various meetings (which takes more than half of my day) and the rest is spent between Jira, product/market research, preparing for events and many other last minute things that we all have to deal with in our working life.

‍What is your favorite part about working in Runecast?

I truly appreciate the trust the company gives you. For example: I’m only 6 months in the Company and I’ve already attended a few conferences presenting the Company and demonstrating the potential of our Product. I take this part of the job very seriously as it is important to share the capabilities of Runecast and keep the company’s good reputation.

How do you spend your free time? What does a typical day off look like for you?

Besides cooking, playing music and traveling with my fiance I play videogames, watch TV shows/movies and go cycling on my mountain bike.

We heard that you are into cooking. Can you tell us more about that? 

I’m definitely into cooking! I used to be a Chef for about 10 years and at the peak of my career I worked as Sous Chef for a 1 Star Michelin Restaurant in the center of London. Cooking is something that has been in my family for generations and I've always loved to stay in the kitchen with my grandmother, watching and learning how to cook Italian delicacies. I don’t have a particular cooking style and I’m not the type of cook that makes ONLY original Italian recipes - I love to combine different styles, for example, Asian with Mediterranean cuisine. 

Even now I love to cook as much as I can (I don’t usually have time during the week) but during the weekend, if we don’t travel anywhere, we love to invite friends over and cook for them.

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What is your favorite type of food and why?

I don’t have a specific dish, I’m more interested in the culinary traditions of countries. There’s one thing that I love to make because it reminds me of my grandmother and those Sunday at home cooking for the whole family: Ravioli. Twice a month I prepare them in huge quantities and give them to friends or store them in the freezer for a good occasion. I still use my grandmother’s pasta machine which has been in my family for about 50 years and I received it from her before she died 5 years ago.

We also heard that you are interested in music? What type of music are you interested in? We see your home-office in our meetings and the background has really caught our attention.

Music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My brother introduced me to Heavy Metal when I was about 10 years old and I never stopped listening to it ever since. Growing up I’ve discovered a deeper love for music and I’ve started to study classical music with classical guitar. 
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After studying at school I wanted to improve on the instrument, but more specifically on the electric guitar and I started to explore other genres like jazz, rock and my beloved blues. Also, I now collect guitars :-). In my background during our calls what you see is my studio. I have a recording studio at home with soundproof walls, so when I play I don't disturb my fiance and my neighbors. 
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I also play bass guitar, piano, drums and trumpet.

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What motivates you and why?

My motivation is my ambition! I always want to be more and better, for myself and for my family, in order to guarantee a high standard of living. I’m always challenging myself to become a better person at work and in life in general.

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Thanks Andrea, it was great hearing from you!