Craig Marett is the product development manager for technology company Vaiie, talks to Channel Eye about gardening, clay target shooting, and the importance of fun.
Craig leads and coordinates the development of digital products and services, including RegTech, customer communication management and enterprise portals. He’s worked in Jersey’s financial services industry for almost 25 years and lives on the island with his wife and three young children.
What’s your day-to-day work routine?
I start each day leading a 15-minute stand-up meeting with the wider Vaiie product and sales teams before I start collaborating with our network of partners around the world, concepting and designing new digital product solutions and user journeys, researching innovative business technology (particularly RegTech), and defining game-changing product functionality and requirements with SMEs that will deliver solutions that reinvent and enhance their businesses.
What’s the most interesting thing about your work?
Concepting a new product or feature that has the potential to digitally transform how a business process has been performed for years to deliver added benefits and efficiencies to the business and end user. I also get to work with an internal team of bright and innovative thinkers at Vaiie who all share a common passion and goal, as well as some of the most impressive individuals and cutting-edge brands in tech businesses around the world.
What are you watching/reading/listening to?
American Kingpin: The epic hunt for the criminal mastermind behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton. In the last year, I’ve also got addicted to non-fiction audiobooks, especially about tech startups, and I now listen to two to three a month, so I always have a couple of genres on the go.
I’m coming to the end of a binge watch of Halt and Catch Fire that is about the spirit of innovation of computing in the early 1980s – really fascinating to re-live the 80s now in my 40s.
What are the last three accounts you followed on social media?
- BBC Comedy
- Jacksons CI
- Ducati Owners Club
When are you happiest?
When I’m in my garden and my three kids (aged one, four and 10) are playing and I get to relax with my wife (very briefly). I get a lot of joy from gardening and love planning ahead to see something amazing happen months to years later.
What keeps you awake at night?
Enhancements to product features. I seem to come up with game-changing concepts and solutions to some of the difficult aspects of product developments at about 3am, and I can’t help but write them down.
What traits do you most like in yourself?
Innovative, strategic and attention to detail. Being able to understand the detail helps me envision what would make a real difference, then from there it’s all about how to make it happen.
What traits do you dislike in other people?
I’m competitive, which is a trait not shared by all, and I speak up when I see something that is not right or fair on others.
What do you do to relax?
Clay target shooting. You’ll find me on a range come rain or snow every Sunday. Target shooting is something I’ve been involved with competitively for almost 30 years now and has taken me abroad to inter-island and national competitions.
How do you measure success?
I measure it in happiness. When I see smiles and people around me happy, I know we’ve succeeded. To me life is about enjoying every journey and it’s important to have fun getting somewhere together.
