Welcome to our team member spotlight series! Check out our previous spotlight on Tyson here.
In this blog, get to know Kait Marcinek, one of the senior product managers here at Osano. Kait is a Senior Product Manager at Osano, a Public Benefit Corp focused on data privacy. She’s worked in a variety of roles in her tech career including product, support, and quality assurance. Outside of work, she enjoys true crime TV, cooking, hockey, and spending time with her fiance, Jon, and her cat, Mitz.
1. Why did you decide to join Osano? Tell us the story of how you became an Osanian.
I decided I wanted to join Osano after receiving a sales demo while at my last product job. I immediately loved the product, and it was easily the best sales demo I had ever received. The sales rep (Mark) was incredibly knowledgeable about the product and industry, and that really influenced my opinion of Osano as a company. As soon as I saw a role open up on the product team, I applied. The rest is history.
2. Describe the company in one word. What made you choose that word?
Collaborative. I can easily say I've met everyone at the company and that I interface with multiple different roles and teams at Osano each week. Our teams work efficiently together because of how collaborative and helpful everyone is with each other.
3. What do you do in your current role?
I am the Product Manager for our Consent Management Platform. I work closely with our legal, customer, UX, and engineering teams to seek out problems that we want to prioritize and resolve to keep our customers compliant.
4. How does this role fit into your career goals? What put you on this career path?
My favorite thing about product is how challenging it is and how there are many growth paths. I got into product as a natural evolution from working in QA and support. Working directly with customers and engineering teams gave me a unique sense of empathy for all aspects of the software experience. I love that product is flexible and that you get to solve problems that can really impact people in positive ways.
5. What made you want to join a data privacy company? What drew you to this industry?
I moved over from edtech to data privacy because I found this industry to have unique and interesting challenges. Just like in the learning space, even small issues or changes can have dramatic impacts on how we perceive our information culture and our idea of data privacy.
6. Which of Osano’s core values do you identify with the most? Why?
Authenticity + Inclusion. One of my favorite aspects of working with a totally remote team is the opportunity to work with people you would never have met otherwise, simply because of where they are located. I also appreciate the focus on family and work/life balance, which allows me to separate work time from family time even when my home is my office.
7. What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
I love to cook and try new foods. I cook at least six days a week and really enjoy the creativity and technique that comes with crafting meals. I don’t have a specialty, but my favorite thing to make and eat is pierogies.
8. Is there anything else you’d like to add about your experience at Osano? Personal anecdotes, favorite team activities, ways your life has changed since starting your position, or anything else?
We once tried to do our company all-hands meeting via virtual workspace on Oculus. It was equal amounts of hilarious and terrifying seeing my coworkers as floating, legless avatars glitching out in VR.
Photo courtesy of Arlo Gilbert