Help On Demand has some impressive employees in our ranks. For this month’s Employee Spotlight, we’re featuring Aaron Lanahan, a technical program manager here at HOD. We talked with Aaron about his time at HOD, his 10-month old, his CrossFit routine, and more!
Aaron is based out of our office in Denver. Let’s learn a little bit more about him!
What’s your role at Help On Demand?
My title is officially Technical Program Manager, but I am also our Product Owner & Manager, as well as our Program Manager. My ultimate goal is to look at project feasibility, scalability and cost from a technical perspective, as well as added value, usability and overall company objectives from a strategic perspective.
Talk to us about what makes Help On Demand different – aren’t they just another software company?
I think that we’re slightly different because we take more of a consultative approach with everything we do. We try not to make it a one-sided partnership where they’re just utilizing our platform and we’re hands-off. Whether that’s from a technical stance, a strategy stance or a business and process stance, we try to support them to the best of our abilities. We’re very hands-on, which definitely separates us from others in this space. We’re almost the middle man between the Consumers and the Experts, and because of that we’re really intertwined with our client partners.
What do you think makes you most effective as a consultant for customers?
I think that because we’re a smaller organization, there’s major benefits – when you work with a large organization that has board members and a huge chain of command, it gets tough. If I have questions for leadership on how I can improve, it doesn’t take me four days to get a response. It’s easy for us to stay connected because we’re on the smaller side. Keeping our organization tight-knit allows us to pivot on a dime, drop what we’re doing and move on to the next thing without all the bureaucracy that most major organizations have to deal with. We can make things happen a little bit faster.
What are your hobbies outside of Help On Demand?
I have a 10-month old, so hanging out with him is one of my biggest hobbies. My wife and I enjoy getting out of the house and hiking. I also really like working out, I do CrossFit at a gym every morning. I’ll also admit that I’m a pretty big geek – I’m always looking at where things are going with the industry. Anything technology-related, really.
What are some goals you have for yourself or the company as whole during the rest of your time here at Help On Demand?
I think one of my big things is, “Never stop learning.” Everything around you is continuing to evolve, whether that’s technology or personal development. Continuous learning, growing your knowledge and expanding on the things that you already know is so important. I want the organization to grow and be more successful in terms of scalability with our SalesForce initiative, and providing new tools and avenues for individuals to get connected is really key in my mind. That’s probably my biggest goal for HOD right now.
Stay tuned for more Help On Demand Employee Spotlights! If you want to learn more about Aaron or ask him any questions, connect with him on LinkedIn!
