As the person with the best job title by far in the company, there aren’t many things in DPOrganizer that Yannelos (as he prefers to be called) hasn’t been involved in. From product to customer success to marketing, he fluidly moves between departments to squash bugs, improve processes, and most of all – automate all of the things. We caught up with Yannelos to reflect on the DPOrganizer journey so far.

Hi Yannelos! Where the heck did the idea of the title  “Improvement Guru” come from?

I’m happy to say that it wasn’t my idea from the beginning, it would be a bit weird to just take that title by myself :). The idea came up in a phone call with me, Egil (our founder) and Helen (our former COO).

I would say it originates from the fact that I constantly want to improve things and make sure no one spends manual time doing something that could be automated. If we could save a few minutes per day for everyone not doing manual boring work and instead making them focus on things that actually matter, that’s a win-win. 

Can you give some examples of what you do every day? What are you working on right now?

My role is really broad so no week is the same. But most weeks are spent 50/50 working as a Salesforce admin and UX/UI designer.

The first part is all about making sure everything runs smoothly for all our teams working in Salesforce and the applications we have connected.

The second varies a lot as well, sometimes it’s all about listening to customers and interviewing them and other times it’s about making prototypes and trying to iterate them as much as possible before putting them in the magic hands of our developers. 

You’ve been involved in a ton of different projects over the years at DPOrganizer. Which have been the most exciting ones?

Wow, there are so many things that I’m so proud of being a part of. I would say that I’m excited every week when we make a new release, there are so many improvements being released constantly and that makes me happy.

Best memory at DPOrganizer?

There are so many great memories I’ve had over the years with all the great people at DPOrganizer so forcing me to pick just one is really hard. So I will choose the first and the last best memory I have ✌️ #breakingtherules. 

About 5 years ago we got approved to be part of the Sting accelerator program. That was the starting point making it possible for me to leave my old job and be able to work full time with DPOrganizer which has been so much fun! 

Around 3 weeks ago I was in the office and we were half of all the people in the company in the same room for the first time in ages. That was such an energy booster seeing everybody in person instead of through a computer screen.

You’re known around the office as a bit of a wine connoisseur. If you could only drink one wine for the rest of your life, which would you pick?

With one wine you can’t mean anything else than one per type right?

If I didn’t have to pay for it myself the red wine I would choose is Chateau Cheval Blanc from Bordeaux and for white, I would go with Vincent Girardin Corton-Charlemagne from Bourgogne. For sparkling Krug Grande Cuvée from Champagne and for dessert wine Toro Albalá Don PX Gran Reserva from Andalucía in Spain.

Enjoying a fine glass of Bodegas Herederos Ribas Sió (2016). (Yes, he still remembered when I asked him. “Had you taken the picture a couple of hours later, it would’ve been a Franco Fiorina Barolo from 1964!”)

Quick facts

Favourite movie?
Inception

Favourite food?

The food you don’t choose yourself so the tasting menu at La Ragazza or Punk Royale

Favourite book?
Every book with images in it from David LaChapelle

Coffee or tea?
Tea of course, too young for coffee