We’re thrilled to announce that Nicole Zabel has been awarded the Resco Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for September 2022 – September 2023.
The Resco MVP Award is an annual award that recognizes individuals who are actively sharing their technology, business, and industry knowledge with the Resco community, and/or are leaders inside their organization.
All of us at Resco recognize and appreciate Nicole’s outstanding contributions. And today, we’d like to introduce her and her work to you as well.
Read the interview with her and learn:
- How Nicole approaches problem-solving with a process similar to ‘5 whys’
- What she recommends to ask customers requesting new features or modifications
- What she sees as the most pressing customers business challenges
- Two main problems that Resco solves the best
- Tips for professionals who would like to become Resco MVPs
Nicole, congratulations on this recognition! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
I started my career as a Mechanical Engineer working on the development of on and off-road vehicles. After many different roles, I decided to make a change and got my master’s degree in Software Engineering.
I am currently a software developer with Key2Act working on our MobileTech solution,which is a field service application built from the Resco Mobile App Development Toolkit.
Is there anything from your mechanical engineering background that you use in your current role?
Quite a lot of things, actually. It has been surprising to learn just how similar the product development cycle is to the software development cycle – with the main difference just being the output (in my experience either a vehicle or a mobile application).
My mechanical engineering background has also laid the groundwork for how I approach problem-solving.
When working on software bugs, I use processes similar to 5 Whys – to keep asking why something is happening until the main root of the issue is identified.
Or when working on how to implement a new feature, I try to break things down into smaller increments, start with changes at a simple level, prove them out, and then slowly and methodically increase the complexity.
What’s your approach when it comes to customers?
When a customer has a request for a modification or feature add, typically, I like to take a step back and ask them at a high level, what they are trying to accomplish.
I’ve found that they may request a very specific code change, but after reviewing what the ultimate goal is from this modification, there may be a better way to approach the situation.
When reviewing what they are looking for overall, I’ve found it is most helpful to start by having the customer walk through how they currently use the application.
This not only helps to understand why they want the change but also provides insight as to how we can improve going forward.
What are the most pressing business challenges that you are hearing from your customers?
Probably the most common challenge I hear from customers is trying to streamline their processes.
With so many things going digital nowadays, customers want to easily enter data from a mobile device and be able to access and actually utilize that data in other applications – whether that be reporting, referencing historical data, or creating step-by-step instructions to simplify and establish procedures.
Also, I think customers want to be proactive rather than reactive, especially when it comes to items like equipment issues.
So, the focus is on anything that can be done to aid in this way, whether it is process automation, digital form integration, or smart building analytics like in Key2Act’s Building Optimization Broker (BOB).
What are some of the problems that Resco solves really well?
Two main problems that Resco solves really well are offline data capabilities and facilitating modifications.
Offline data capability is crucial for technicians out in the field who need to be able to continue their work no matter what their device connection currently is.
This is something that I have frequently heard from customers.
The flexibility and ease of modifications that Resco allows is a huge benefit.
When I get a customer modification request, more often than not I can confidently let them know we can make that modification work.
This is great not only for my company and customers, but also to get ideas going – modifications can be fairly easily implemented so what can be done to improve things in the future.
Do you have a standout Resco project that you’ve worked on?
Incorporating Resco Inspections+ with MobileTech is probably one of the biggest projects I’ve worked on, not just from a code perspective but also from a new feature add.
Frequently we heard the need from our customers to incorporate digital forms, and it was very satisfying to provide them with a solution that continues to grow and evolve.
What are some tips you would give to Resco professionals who would like to become MVPs?
My route to becoming an MVP was through being a Resco leader inside my organization.
I’m more of a behind-the-scenes kind of worker and originally didn’t even consider going for this award. But once I looked through what it takes, I realized I had already met a good majority of the criteria.
So, for those of you like me that are typically in the background or more on the technical side, I would suggest reaching out to Resco and reviewing what gaps remain and going for it!
Thank you, Nicole. One last question: will you be attending resco.NEXT in Lisbon?
Absolutely! I found the last couple resco.NEXT conferences very beneficial and I cannot wait to have the opportunity to network in person, learn how other people are utilizing the software, review the new features, and continue to gain insight and give feedback on the future road map.
You can connect with Nicole on LinkedIn and learn more about Key2Act.
Become the next Resco MVP
Resco MVPs are recognized as experts in the community. This helps them with career building and increases business opportunities for the organization they represent.
On top of that, Resco MVPs enjoy a range of direct benefits from Resco, such as exposure in our marketing channels, free entrance to resco.NEXT, priority access to market development funds and co-marketing possibilities, and more.
If you know someone or consider yourself a worthy candidate for the Resco MVP award, please send an email to partners@resco.net with the subject line “Resco MVP nomination.”
We are looking forward to recognizing more exceptional Resco experts and influencers!