Every month, we like to shine the spotlight on our team members who make the biggest difference for our subscribers. This month, we interviewed Kris Howard, our Subscriber Services Manager! Kris is a hardworking and vital member of our team as well as an expert on all things Liftoff. Read more about Kris and her career adventures as we dive into this interview!
Liftoff: What’s your Liftoff origin story, Kris?
Kris: I joined the Liftoff team in March of 2019 after a decade of enjoying my time as a stay-at-home mom and running my own small business. Before being a mom, I worked as a training coordinator for a due diligence company. My background as a trainer, attention to detail, and my technical aptitude helped me as a candidate for the position. Andrew quickly recognized, despite my 10 year hiatus from a professional work environment, that I had much to offer to our team. I officially became the manager of our Subscriber Services division in August, 2019.
Liftoff: Can you tell us more about what you do? What’s your favorite part of the job?
Kris: I am currently the manager of our Subscriber Services division. I’m responsible for providing an excellent experience for our subscribers and supporting our amazing team of account managers and implementation specialists. I work closely with our product manager and development team to provide subscriber feedback relative to new features to ensure that our platform growth aligns with the subscriber’s needs.
My favorite part of this job is architecting solutions! Since our platform is designed for multi-tenancy, there are times when we must get a little creative to provide solutions for very specific use cases. I love the challenge of presenting an outside-the-box solution for these unique circumstances.
Liftoff: Let’s talk features. Which Liftoff platform feature is your favorite?
Kris: My favorite feature used to be Records (our ‘database in the clouds’) because it is very powerful, but I think these days my favorite feature is our Webhooks and OData API. The possibilities feel endless when we pair these two together! I’m not even a developer, but they’re tools I can use (thanks to our excellent documentation) to creatively push our platform to a whole new level of cool.
Liftoff: Tell us about a mentor who gave you support during your career.
Kris: I promise I’m not trying to earn brownie points here by saying this, but I will forever be grateful to Andrew for giving me the chance to join the team despite having not worked (professionally) for a decade. Andrew (and the other leaders on our team) are a constant inspiration. They work just as hard as, if not harder than, everyone else because they truly believe in our product. The skills and information I have learned from the leadership team here have been invaluable. They’re all mentors and role models to me.
Liftoff: What makes you happy? Tell me what interests you.
Kris: As a *neurospicy* individual, I have a ridiculous number of hobbies and interests. My 4 kids keep me very busy outside of work, but in most of my spare time, you can catch me camping, hiking, kayaking, exploring, and practicing primitive living skills. The other half of my spare time is the opposite – lounging around on the couch binge-watching documentaries, thrillers, mysteries, dramas, etc. I also love crafting and keeping my hands busy.
Every Tuesday at our house is “tech-free” and I use this time to devour books and play fun games (card, board) with my family. I highly recommend implementing a tech-free day into your life if you don’t already!
Liftoff: What should the Liftoff Community know about you?
Kris: Sometimes my coworkers refer to me as a robot. They seem to think my head is just full of everything Liftoff related and that I never forget anything. I don’t necessarily agree with these statements, but I just want to remind everyone that every expert was once a beginner. Don’t stop learning, and don’t ever hesitate to share your knowledge with others!