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Railnova’s learning curve and teaching each other

Post by Nolwenn Parisot, Customer Success Manager
at Railnova

June 20, 2022

The Railnova learning curve is steep, but we can overcome it because we are a strong team! I wrote this in February, almost 6 months ago, but I am still learning and now, I am also helping others along the way.

Spoiler alert: Working in a great work environment and doing a job you love is not a fairytale! 💙
Over six months have already passed since I joined Railnova and since day one, my eyes and head are still full of fireworks and excitement 🤩 🎆

Learning about the Railnova environment

It’s part of the onboarding process to meet each colleague individually during the first month. I started my welcome calls right away and every single colleague said the same: “You’ll love it here! Everyone is so kind and helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask questions! You’ll never want to go back to a “regular” company…” All the time I kept thinking: “Where am I? Is this for real? What’s the catch?”

Then it was my turn to do welcome calls with new joiners, and I caught myself saying the same things I had heard because they’re absolutely true!

 

Meme that reads

High expectations and a steep learning curve

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not *just* a friendly bunch. The learning curve is very steep and expectations are high: challenge accepted! The learning possibilities go beyond the software – to help customers navigate and use it – or the hardware – to help install or troubleshoot Railsters.

 

I am also learning about the European railway system, locomotive types, the new ECM regulations, the pains and needs of our customers, how they use our solutions, how they work together (who is ECM, lessor or owner), or even about the Supply Chain! Do you know the Railnova hit
🎶 🎶 “Repeat after me, stock is not flow, stock is not flow….”🎶 🎶 😉

 

Meme with one of the things Nolwenn has learned at Railnova

Learning from others

This is also what I enjoy so much here, there’s always something to learn and read about. There are always new questions from customers, days are never monotonous and my little grey cells are all firing away!
Another thing must be said loud and clear: Karin did a brilliant job with the Customer Success team onboarding! (If you want to know more about Karen, follow this link: https://www.railnova.eu/karin-vander-have-joins-railnovas-executive-team/). She gave us 2 hours of theory every morning and let us take all the customer tickets to try and solve them on our own. We would then talk them through together in the afternoon.

 

Thanks to Karin, now I can solve many tickets on my own and if I’m stuck, I usually have to ask our wonderful engineers and developers directly! That’s another reason why I love working here: any colleague I turn to is always kind, patient and helpful, never making me feel silly for asking. It is so great to know you can ask freely and nobody will take you for a fool!

 

Teaching others to conquer the learning curve!

The culture and the communication are atypical but once you’ve embraced them, there’s no going back to hundreds of emails and dozens of calls a day. I love that I can focus on something without being distracted by everything else or having to waste time in endless useless meetings. We mainly communicate in writing, which is so much better and easier to absorb, ponder, and react to. I’ve never felt lost nor alone though – even if I work remotely – because anyone is only a huddle (or Gmeet) away if needed 😊

 

When I see all the data we can get from locomotives (data I didn’t even know exists!), how it’s possible to analyse every single detail (for instance to improve energy consumption or lessen maintenance downtimes), how our platform calculates and updates maintenance plans automatically (bye-bye outdated Excel sheets!), and all the endless possibilities we offer… I’m so happy and proud to be a part of it! It motivates me to show our customers the path to success, and how our solutions can really make a difference for them and for the railway industry in general, allowing them to be more sustainable and competitive.

 

After six months, I feel comfortable with our platform and solutions, I’ve already had the chance to prepare the test environment a couple of times to show new functionalities to customers and I’m starting with customers’ onboarding. I’ve also recently been part of a project to use Railfleet to completely manage the maintenance of a small fleet. That project went live last month and is a success! I still have a lot to learn but step by step, I’m finding my way 😊

 

I can’t believe my luck. I’m so grateful every morning when I wake up that this is real. I love my job and found my tribe!

 

I love it here! 💙

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