Tanja Heyken

Hi Tanja, thanks for taking the time! You joined in November 2022 as our first UX Designer and have now grown into our Head of UX with 4 UX colleagues.

How did your Journey with Checkmk start? What made you decide to join Checkmk?

Joining a company as the first UX professional is always a risk, so I was cautious about whether I could make a difference at Checkmk or whether I would be doomed to failure due to office politics. But what convinced me was another call with my boss, who was at a customer’s to observe the roll-out of Checkmk and identify issues in the process. This showed me the company's user-centric mindset, so I took a leap of faith and signed on. To this day, I am so glad I did because user-centricity is built into the very DNA of Checkmk.

What has been the most challenging part in your journey to Head of Product & UX and how did Checkmk support you with that?

Taking on the role of managing a team after starting out as an individual contributor has definitely been the most challenging part so far. However, I was not simply promoted and left to deal with the role shift on my own. Checkmk supported me throughout the process! Alongside colleagues who were also promoted to a leadership role, I attended the “Leadership Journey”, consisting of various leadership training sessions over the course of a year. In addition, I have had the support of an external coach to help me overcome challenges and further grow into my role!

What fascinates you most about your job at Checkmk?

How open and enthusiastic our users are. We have a really active Checkmk community and they are all so engaged that I have no problem recruiting them for interviews, surveys or usability tests. It is really rewarding!

What tools/technologies do you work with in your team?

• Figma: For wireframing, hand-offs to development and very rarely for hi-fi mockups
• FigJam: For workshops, reviews, smaller projects that don’t require wireframes, brainstorming, research analysis… I think I use Figjam the most, second only to Slack.
• Balsamiq: For early wireframing and collaboration with PMs
• LimeSurvey: Surveys
• Slack: Daily communication
• Zoom & Google Meet: Calls, remote moderated research
• Jira: Project management
• Confluence: Documentation
• Google Workspace: Mails, calendar, file storing, and my beloved spreadsheets
• Checkmk! Of course, we also use Checkmk to monitor the setup of our home network and for research purposes.

What is most important to you in your work life?

We spend most of the day at work, so the most important thing for me is that it is actually fun and that I can make a difference. There is nothing worse than a hostile environment and shouting into the void.

What do you think makes Checkmk or your team in particular special?

Definitely the user-centricity! To be honest, even when I was still the only UX designer at Checkmk, I never felt alone. Working with users to solve problems and improve features is a core value and it really shows. There is no fear of feedback, it is always seen as an opportunity to improve and open up communication.

Do you remember a particularly interesting, exciting or beautiful experience you had at Checkmk? If so, can you tell us about it?

One of the things that comes to mind is the Checkmk Conference #9. It was the first one I attended and it was so great to meet all the colleagues in person, catch up and meet our users. It was particularly exciting for me to give a talk at the conference - the first time I had ever spoken in front of so many people!

What role do customer feedback and market research play in your work?

A HUGE role. It is my bread and butter. We make data-informed decisions, so we need a lot of insight into our users and our competitors to be able to make the right decisions. That's why we all spend a lot of time conducting interviews, surveys or usability tests.

How do you collaborate with other teams such as development and consulting to successfully bring products to market?

I love working together with the engineers, as they not only estimate feasibility of proposals, but also offer a unique perspective and have great ideas! It is always worth asking them for feedback.

I am very happy that we have so many great consultants at Checkmk, who not only have a very deep knowledge of Checkmk and IT infrastructure, but some of them were even Checkmk users before joining us! As you can imagine, they are a great source of information and can provide valuable context. Also: They are always happy to help.

Collaboration is very important, and fortunately everyone at Checkmk sees it that way. As the cheesy saying goes: "Teamwork makes the dream work".