Why this finalist deserves to win Best Tech Manager:
Charlie Hill is the living embodiment of a Chuck Norris joke. When he joined STRATIS a bit over two years ago, we called him a project manager because we really didn't have another title that could fit him. We just knew that he was an electrical engineer, who also flew helicopters in the Army, who also had a Columbia MBA, and that he had an incredibly persuasive personality and a determination to succeed. Within a relatively short time, he took on the role of the Chief Innovation & Product Officer (CIPO), managing all of our engineering teams and overseeing the incorporation of new products into our platform. With him in that role, we've move into a next level of growth and productivity.
Where Charlie makes the leap from incredibly talented and driven manager to the level of BEST tech manager is the commitment he shows to preventing small things from slipping through the cracks. When our roof was leaking, Charlie came in on the weekend to seal the affected area. Another time, Charlie spent several days on site in publicly-subsidized apartments replacing old inefficient thermostats. Charlie personally installed and then did troubleshooting for smart thermostats and gateways to ensure that the residents got the full benefit of a grant that paid for them. The money the company made off that deal was negligible, but Charlie made sure it was done and done well because it was the right thing to do.
Given that dedication, it's not surprising that on Charlie's watch, our product, a smart apartment software platform, has grown from a solution for managing apartment access into a full IoT solution, adding thermostats, Alexa integrations, lighting, scenes, and other valuable features for property managers and tenants. Over that time, our engineering staff has more than doubled, with Charlie overseeing most of that hiring. He's been able to build a close-knit, diverse staff of engineers who come from both traditional and non-traditional backgrounds. Over the past year, during a time when software engineers nationally had some of the highest turnover rates of any profession, we've had no engineers leave the company. During that time, we've also seen several engineers earn promotions, taking on more complex and ambitious projects and more responsibilities within the company. All that has led to an increased velocity on our team to the point where projects that we couldn't do in the past are now being accomplished, and projects that would have taken a month in the past are now finished in only part of a sprint.
What enables this success is how Charlie cares about the people he manages. When a new feature is successful, Charlie is the first to speak up and acknowledge the engineers who were involved. If something goes wrong, Charlie shields the engineers from blame, publicly taking the the flak from the client and privately orchestrating a strategy to fix the problem. He blocks any meetings from happening on Wednesdays so we have a day to work fully without interruptions. He spends weekends picking up new Jira skills to better layout the roadmap for each team. He organizes early morning workouts a couple times a week for people in the company who are interested, and he builds into those workouts accommodations to suit all ability levels. When one of our long time support team members wanted to make a transition into engineering, Charlie personally researched all the available options to see what would be a best fit for that team member and then worked out a way to help pay for the program. It's a pleasure to work for someone who cares that much.
