Product Owner Mindaugas

Meet Mindaugas, a man who finds great pleasure in the little things life has to offer – cherishing precious moments with his loved ones, nurturing his family’s farm, and venturing out into the world with his wife and daughters to explore its many wonders.

Mindaugas’ career journey has been an intriguing one. Although he was initially on the path to becoming a nuclear power plant operator, he veered off course and eventually found his way to Ruptela, where he now thrives as a Product Owner. This role allows him to handle exciting challenges like coordinating car crashes and field tests for innovative features.

When he’s not at work, he can be found on the farm, optimizing work with telematics and enjoying the stress relief of physical labor. Mindaugas’ love for traveling has also taken him to many places, but his heart belongs to Vilnius and his hometown. From folk dancing to Slovenia, he shows us that finding the right place to start can lead to a lifetime of fulfillment

Tell us more about yourself and what led you to your current position.

Originally, I was set to become a nuclear power plant operator. Didn’t become one, but I at least managed to get some time at the RBMK simulator to start the virtual reactor. After my studies, I worked part-time as an engineer in a laboratory and full-time as a Physics teacher until I got an opportunity to work at Ignalina NPP. Started as a Radiation Safety engineer and later Spectrometry engineer. Part of the job was dealing with Low and Very-Low activity waste from the nuclear power plant dismantling process, free-release process (I could talk about it all night after a beer or two), nuclear waste management, and workers’ dose calculations when planning dismantling work. It is a very tidy and well-documented process, and you must prepare it well in advance.

Then I met a girl I fell in love with and moved to Vilnius. I changed my career path. For 2 years worked with simple medical devices, plastics injection molding processes, and quality assurance when I found out about the opportunity to work at Ruptela. I have known this place since time long ago as some of my coursemates from the University were working there. When I applied, I asked for the opportunity to visit the office for a day or two to get a feeling of what it looks like. I liked the vibe and people on that first day, so it was a no-brainer to join Ruptela and enjoy the career path.

How does your journey at Ruptela looks like?

I applied for the QA engineer position because my previous job was more related to quality assurance and validation, but instead, they offered to apply for a Business Analyst role. Business Analyst might sound a bit dull, but it never is so. I always had some funny tasks, i.e., organizing car crash tests (in a controlled environment!) to gather data or create a new feature from just a random idea, lead it through the development process, and organize field tests for it.

After a year or so, our team got offered to take on some additional responsibilities, and we became Product Owners. I’ve been enjoying this position ever since!

How do you start your day? Please share any rituals or tips&tricks that help you stay productive all-day.

It depends on the day of the week. Some days I go to the office at 7AM.

And some days, I start by taking my daughters to school and kindergarten, and it gives me some time to make a plan for the day and set myself up for the day.

Since I’m most productive in the first part of the day, I begin with the tasks that require the most concentration and effort and leave the easier ones for the second part of the day if my meeting schedule allows it.

Sometimes I finish work when the kids are asleep, which is also a very productive time for me, allowing chatting with colleagues from Mexico when we get some common topics.

What motivates you to go to work every day?

Topics that are interesting for me. Also, the feeling of fulfillment.

What are your job’s most challenging and most cheering elements?

The most challenging moments are managing the expectations of internal and external clients. If this is done in the right way – everything else is fun.

Tell us more about your hobbies

My second job is my hobby. I have worked at the family farm since I was little, so it was a part of my routine all the time. Expertise gained at the current job helped me pick suitable autosteer for the tractors and install telematics in the equipment to optimize the work. Other skills, like time and resource planning, communication, business case calculation, etc., are helpful for both jobs.

Also, I’m joking that working at the farm is my stress relief from a job at Ruptela, and a job at Ruptela is my stress relief from the work at the farm. Because of the time spent in nature and physical work, it cleans your head from all the problems and helps you find solutions. It works vice versa as well – changing activities makes you think out-of-the-box, and the solution comes to you by itself.

My other hobby is traveling. We travel with our daughters most of the time. They grow a lot during our trips. Also, we have a world map in our living room on which we put the pins on the cities we visited. Our goal is to visit all European capital cities in the next 2 years. What’s after that – let’s wait and see.

Interesting facts about you.

I used to dance at folk dance ensembles for 13 years. It was a great experience, and I would surely recommend it to anyone.

What is your favorite place in the world? Why?

I like Vilnius and my hometown the most. But if I had to pick another place, that would be Slovenia. Simply because it has everything in such a tiny area – seaside, mountains, nice people and mild weather.

And the last one – could you share any advice for those who want to start their career in the telematics industry?

It is really important to pick the right place to start. Once you find it – the rest will come.