#meetthegravity9ers 9 Questions with Melissa Bonsted

In Short : Meet US based Product Owner Melissa and hear why getting back to your toddler mindset is the key to accelerated learning, why small town culture is the best and, her care package mission supporting young children.
Joe Bloggs

Joe Bloggs

Managing Director

When it comes to disrupting entire industries and building transformative customer experiences you have to have an exceptional team who can and build these products at pace. Our team at gravity9 are just that, highly skilled, driven, passionate and fun to work with. This month we continue our Meet the gravity9’ers series with the introduction of Product Owner Melissa Bonsted, who is based out of our New York hub.

1. What is your role at gravity9?

I am a Product Owner.  I work with clients to understand what problem they are solving, their vision on what they want built and break that down into small pieces that a development team can build.  I speak to the business or client in their language and then shape that into words or terminology that the development teams speak; a translator.

2. What do you enjoy most about working at gravity9?

The part that I like the most about working at gravity9 is the small town feeling you get every day at work.  You know, when you walk down a (virtual) street you have walked down before, where when you run into someone you ask about their kids, how they are and how they are feeling.  People genuinely care about each other. People check in on each other if you haven’t heard from them in 2 weeks.  All this done virtually of course as I’m in the USA and the team I work with are thousands of miles away; it doesn’t matter where you live it’s the same.

3.  What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in your line of work?

Go back to your toddler age and ask more questions.  If you don’t understand something, ask a question. To further your understanding of something, ask a question. Ask why more often.  Questions allow someone to share information that may prove helpful as you unravel your work.

4.  What can’t you start your day without?

A walk of the pup out as soon as I wake up and then a cup of coffee.  I’m a morning person and probably don’t need the coffee but it’s become a habit and one that I probably psychologically need now.

5. What do you do in your spare time?

Spare time has been increasing for me now as I have sent one of my 2 children off to college.  Since I have this newfound time on my hands, I have done some investigation on what I want to use my time.  2 years ago, my daughter was diagnosed with a rare disorder not frequently found in children, which required surgery. Since it’s rare and she didn’t want other kids to feel they were along, she began to send care packages out to children who are about to go through the surgery that
she went through, packaged with items she had wished she had while recovering from the surgery. I am now continuing her mission to deliver these care packages. I’m working on procuring sponsors of the items in the care packages and facilitating the delivery.  

6.  What is the last movie you watched?

I can’t even remember.  I’m not a fan of movies.  

7.  What special skill / talent do you have (other than what you do for a living)?

I am always inventing.  I find a problem and my mind quickly looks for ways to solve it.  I have probably 20 ideas floating in my mind of things that will solve real issues. Problem is I haven’t taken the next step to make any of them happen.  One day I will!

8. What would be your dream vacation?

A trip to Alaska.  My family and I are going in July, and we can’t wait.

9. What is the last song you had stuck in your head?

Carolina in My Mind by James Taylor, I live in North Carolina and can’t think of another place to be.

Visit our careers page to find out about current vacancies at gravity9 and the opportunities for joining our global team.

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