Meet Darius, Senior Product owner – diverse tasks and hobbies make my life balanced

Share your Ruptela story?

I have two different episodes. The first one happened when I was on my way to a career change. I used to work in the IT sector for a long time and wanted to keep working in this field. It seems that when it is meant to be, it is meant to be because I found Ruptela job ad totally by accident. I didn’t even know what the telematics industry was, but it didn’t stop me from trying. Pretty soon I understood that the transport telematics market has a giant potential – it quickly gained my attention.

The second episode happened just recently when I was invited to come back. It was a natural choice because I know the ins and outs of Ruptela product. It was clear that it will be exciting to join TrustTrack platform growth again.

What is different about internal communication in Ruptela?

I remember the first invitation I’ve got in the email when I just started working. It was an email from our CEO, Andrius, with “Let’s talk” written in the subject line. The chance to openly talk to a person who is standing in front of our company was astonishing for me, and of course, I reserved my time and went for an informal chat. It shows that we are brave and keep our doors open – CEO wise and company wise.

This “Let’s talk” initiative is still active after so many years. Prioritizing the transparent conversation – this is how I would describe communication that we have here.

What is the skill you use every day?

I instantly wanted to say communication since I am in contact with many different information sources every day – clients, team members, stakeholders. Juggling all the information I get, creating ways to use it and converting feedback to actions – this is what I do. But the primary skill I use every day is listening. In my opinion, people get more benefits when they are being heard, not given a direct piece of advice. I enjoy seeing situations where people find solutions themselves just because they were given a safe space to speak out everything that is on their mind.

What is unique about your position?

I call myself a micro decision-maker. And for real, I make a considerable number of them every day. Even if some of them seem small, in the end – it matters in the big picture. My main challenge is to keep those decisions mutually based on team’s opinion. Small steps grow our team, product and mindset continuously.

I heard you have many hobbies. Why so?

Looking at my hobbies list, I choose them according experiences they bring. Every activity I take reflects some kind of skill of my daily work life. Fishing teaches me concentration, patience and right approach on my tactic skills. Skiing brings speed in rational decisions. I enjoy hiking, because it trains my inner strength to reach goals, that seems unreachable.
I’m the one who chooses a highly active life. My hobbies are diverse, my work is full of different expertise mixed, even my music is totally different according to the day I’m having.
I believe that having a wide range of choices helps to keep my life balanced and my mind clear.