Welcome to Autura Spotlight. This series of posts is dedicated to shining the spotlight on the talented, experienced, and dynamic individuals that make up the Autura community. We love sharing the personal and professional stories, advice, humor, and perspective that each featured employee brings. We hope you enjoy these opportunities to get to know us better!
Today’s post will introduce you to Calvin Pitman, this month’s Autura Spotlight team member!
Q: What Is Your Business Title? Can You Share a Brief Description of Your Role?
I am the Senior Product Designer at Autura. I work with product managers on the engineering team to design experiences for users based on direct feedback from our users. I also test designs we have created. Essentially, it is my job to ensure that our users’ product experiences are simple, intuitive, and enjoyable.
Q: What Is a Quote that Means a Lot to You? Why?
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” — attributed to Henry Ford.
This inspires me to think differently and outside the box. Users don’t always know how to articulate what they truly need; they only know their own experiences and what they’ve been told. Just because a user says they want something to be faster doesn’t necessarily mean that speed (or lack thereof) is the real problem. There could be underlying issues. It’s our responsibility to think beyond what’s being asked and show them what’s actually possible.
Q: What Is One Project or Achievement You’re Particularly Proud Of?
The biggest professional achievement of my career happened earlier on, when I worked for another company as the sole product designer. I was tasked with creating their inspector app. If it was built well, it would benefit inspectors, sellers, buyers, and the business — the ultimate win.
At the time (pre-COVID), I was in an office and able to bounce ideas off other people. But eventually we needed to real-world perspective, so I took my own car to a parking lot and pretended to be an inspector. If you know anything about inspections, there’s a lot to cover — sometimes you have to circle the car five or six times. After spending time talking directly with inspectors, I worked to determine the most efficient way to complete an inspection while only going around each car once. I:
- Designed a prototype
- Made modifications based on real feedback
- Kept refining
Ultimately, inspection efficiency improved by 70-80%, cutting time from about an hour down to 20 minutes.
Since inspectors are paid per inspection — not per hour, that made a real difference. And I’ve had a chance to do something similar at Autura through what I call “micro-research.”
Getting feedback from tow operators is tough — they’re busy and hard to reach. But if you ask one question at a time and meet them where they are, they’re much more likely to respond. That change, alone, has increased responses by 80-90%. I’m looking forward to seeing what their feedback brings to our product strategy.
Q: What Is the Latest Book, Podcast, or TV Show You’ve Enjoyed?
Most of the reading I do is for educational purposes.
Recently I’ve been reading The Muscle Ladder, which covers building muscle scientifically and why certain exercises do what they do for your body. Fitness is a genuine passion of mine.
On the TV side, I recently started Couples Therapy and it’s been surprisingly compelling. It’s intriguing to hear people’s real experiences, even in short sessions. It’s a good reminder of how much better things get when you communicate well and show up for the people in your life.
Q: Which One of Autura’s Company Values Speaks to You the Most and Why? How Do You See It Show Up in Your Everyday Work?
Of our REAL values it’s the “A“… which stands for Absolutely Customer Committed.
While all of the values speak to me, if I had to pick one, it would be this one. Even though I use the same tools I build, I have to live and breathe the idea that I am not the customer. Keeping that top-of-mind makes me constantly think about how they would think and feel — not how I would. That’s what helps me make great products. A lot of people skip this step, assuming they feel and think the same way their customers do. We can either breed faster horses, or we can build something new.
Related: Read what the other letters in Autura’s REAL values are in our blog post unveiling our updated mission and tagline.
Thank you to Dennis McGowan for sharing today! If you are interested in learning about career opportunities at Autura, view our current job openings.
