Product Development

​As part of our Career framework at Access, we have carefully defined each role in the Product Management, UX, Development and QA disciplines and specified what is expected of an individual at each level.

We talk about attributes such as autonomy, Complexity, Influence, Knowledge and Engagement rather than specific technical skills. Within Access, this allows for flexibility and then we describe the level we expect the individual to operate at.

Each role within the organisation chart is described in the same way so it becomes much easier to see if you are operating at the expected level in your current role and what you would need to demonstrate to get to the next level up or sideways.

I joined Access like many others through an acquisition, but really my journey began before then. I started working at HCSS, which is now part of the education division, having made the touch choice to dissolve my own digital agency. Declaring that I was done with responsibility, I took on the role of UX designer at a little place in Macclesfield.

Just a few months later the company was acquired by the Access group and I was EXCITED. In every previous role there had naturally come a point where the volume and pace of work slowed down with the inevitable boredom setting in; this time I realised I would never be bored again. Christmas had come early. It’s quite funny thinking back now at how both my role and Access has transformed. Many reskins later, as Head of UX managing an amazing centralised team of UX Designers we are at the forefront of evolving the company culture towards a design-led approach and involved in many strategic / greenfield projects.

Who knows what the future holds, but this is a great place to be and I can’t wait to continue to fully integrate UX into our development processes and to grow the team even more.

Having worked for Access for 10 years now as you’d imagine my role and the business has changed significantly over that time. Having started with one on-premise Recruitment Software product to leading Development for the entire Recruitment Software division, made up of over 10 products and 50+ employees leading on Access Workspace for Recruitment, every day is different and exciting!!

In the Product Development, we work with a variety of technologies and languages across the teams who are responsible for the different products. Each squad is autonomous, delivering and creating solutions to interesting and evolving challenges.  It’s a pleasure to work with so many creative and engaging people using a variety of languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Python, Ruby, plus all the surrounding frameworks. There is always the opportunity to learn more and satisfy your curiosity, something which I have thrived on over the past years.

Our culture and values really shine through, with everyone being friendly and approachable, making Access a great place to learn and develop mastery in software development.

​​Discussions between leaders and teams are centred on achieving value rather than clocking on or off at particular times; about flexibility and an approach that works for us as well as the business. Access recognises that most of us have families and a live outside of work. Our value statement #Lovework.Lovelife. says it all.

This was especially great during Covid!

In the Product Development department, we work remote working s a norm: we have all the tooling, technology, processes and behaviours that support this, so the real business impact was minimal for us. Instead, we’ve focussed on how we can support each other through these times with virtual tea-breaks, after-work ‘taverns’ to share a beer, a quiz and a leaving do where we played online games!