Meet Simon: Markets and Products Analyst

When did you start at Dolphin and in what role?

I joined Dolphin in September 2007 at entry level with a Marketing Assistant role.

What qualifications or experience did you have?

I had completed a Bachelors and Masters degree in Marketing at Lancaster University. I had very little industry experience aside from temporary positions during university breaks and no experience within the assistive technology industry at all.

What made you choose Dolphin?

With no experience to my name, I was looking for an entry level Marketing position which was convenient to travel to and from to gain experience. To this end, the role at Dolphin met my requirements perfectly. However, after researching the company and attending an interview, I realised Dolphin had much more to offer; the fact that the company exists to make a difference to the lives of blind and partially sighted people was a real plus for me, and meeting the team as part of the interview showed me that this was the sort of organisation that people are proud to be a part of.

What are the biggest challenges you have faced?

Prior to joining Dolphin I had never even met anybody who had a visual impairment and had no experience of assistive technology at all, so I felt there was a lot for me to learn from the get go. Beyond this, one of my more fulfilling challenges has been to help to transition the product teams from being technology-driven to being customer-driven. To this end, we now have a user centred design ethos instilled across all our project teams.

What sort of development have you received in your time at Dolphin?

The management team at Dolphin have always encouraged me to build existing and develop new skills. I’ve attended a variety of training courses during my time here, ranging from training in product management, lean processes, agile development, customer segmentation, user centred design and more. I’ve also benefited from general training, such as management training and even first aid training.

How has your role developed?

My role at Dolphin has changed quite dramatically from initially being focussed on marketing communication activities as Marketing Assistant to being involved across all of Dolphin’s product teams to embed a customer focus and develop our commercial plans.

What do you rate in Dolphin as an employer?

Dolphin’s a great place to work. The environment here is friendly and flexible, and the management team are very approachable and have given me plenty of opportunity to build on my role. But most importantly, I’ve always felt that working for Dolphin has allowed me to make a difference, both internally in being involved in multiple projects across the business, but also for our customers and the experiences they have with the products we deliver.