How Three Accelo Users Became Team Members

Oftentimes, the people who know the Accelo platform best (and have ideas for how it can be improved) are our amazing clients. After all, they are deep in the product every day planning their projects, tracking results and efficiently managing their client work. So it’s no surprise that we have employees who joined the team after being Accelo users themselves! 

Here are the journeys of three Accelo users who became Accelo employees and how they have made an impact since joining the team. 

Drew Galiger, User Feedback and Product Research Manager in San Francisco

What was your career journey to becoming a Product Research Manager at Accelo?

I worked for a small creative agency in New Orleans. Our team was full of super talented folks, but we had little idea how long any work was truly taking, and the project plans pinned to our walls became inaccurate quickly. I was tasked with implementing Accelo for the organization and assisting our design and development teams with onboarding and upkeep. I immediately liked the platform and saw the value (and visibility) it provided our small team. When I left New Orleans, I emailed Accelo (many times, about a bunch of possible positions) hoping to get a chance to work for their awesome product. Now I've been here for half a decade - answering support questions, implementing new clients, and gathering as much feedback from clients as I possibly can!

In what ways have you made an impact since joining the team?

My job has always been to listen, learn and teach. Accelo does a ton of custom work management automation for our clients, but that means it can be a beefy product to learn for new users. Aside from teaching and training new clients, I also wanted to run a large internal training for new employees across our teams so that I could help make the first few weeks at Accelo a bit easier. Right now, I spend my efforts listening to users and trying to make the platform as user-friendly as possible.

What keeps you at Accelo?

I came to Accelo to work for a product I believed in. I actively stay because I am given the autonomy to make the biggest difference I can. When I thought our internal teams could use a bit more help in the first few weeks, I was given the chance to build a curriculum and work closely with all new employees. When I wanted to shift from assisting individual clients to using client feedback to serve all clients, Accelo created a position for me, which is now becoming an entire team!

Siobhan Collie, Professional Services Manager in Canada

What was your career journey to becoming a Professional Services Manager at Accelo?

It all began when the digital agency I was working at in Kelowna, BC decided to invest in Accelo. I was part of the sales journey and Accelo caught my attention from the beginning because of all that it could do as a client work management tool. 

I first experienced Accelo’s implementation program as the ‘Client Champion’ (aka project lead). I worked closely with my Professional Services Manager at the time, Matty Sayer––he was a fellow Aussie and it was awesome to be connected with someone else from down under on the other side of the world. As soon as I had that moment where it all started to click for me in the platform, I fell head over heels for the software. (Little bit lame, I know!) 

I could also pick up on the very cool cultural vibes of Accelo through Matty and this just made me super curious about what it would be like to work for Accelo.

Fast-forward… and now I work for Accelo in my favorite professional role of my career thus far! I have a background in content creation, project management and operational process development. I’m also a people person, and so the role of Professional Services Manager really allows me to shine and do what I’m great at.

In what ways have you made an impact since joining the team?

I came into the role with many ideas for how to improve the implementation experience from the client's perspective. I’m an empath and I’m always putting myself in my client's shoes to consider how I can adjust my approach to better suit their needs. 

I was able to share my firsthand experiences and provide feedback on areas for improvement in terms of admin processes, documentation, scripts, training content, support resources––you name it in implementation and I’ve probably spent some time improving it. My team was really curious and open to listening, which helped! 

Since joining, my passion for process optimization has continued. I believe the journey of improvement is never-ending for our team for two reasons:

1. The way our clients work and their needs are continually evolving
2. The way Accelo does business and our product offering never stops advancing

I also took over hosting webinars not long after joining the team. I’ve worked closely with our core internal webinar team to establish an ongoing content calendar and schedule, improve the quality of the content we deliver, streamline our processes, gather data and feedback from our clients for future content and onboard a new platform to better facilitate this beloved Customer Success service.

What keeps you at Accelo?

The people, my (everchanging) clients and the platform itself.

I knew Accelo would be a great place to work through my interactions with the Accelo team as a client. Then I joined the team and all of my hunches about their awesomeness were proven true, tenfold. Here at Accelo, the appreciation for all of us being human is the norm and it allows for a working space (remote and in-person) where you are supported and encouraged. Not to mention, we have many brilliant people working for the company who bring so much to the table, every single day.

My clients keep me on my toes and I honestly spend so much time with them each week that we get to know each other well. I appreciate how different they can all be but at the end of the day, their goals and priorities are essentially the same. That’s how they all came to invest in Accelo and be working with me. I can also relate because I’ve been in their shoes as a client.

I truly believe Accelo is an incredible solution for the professional services industry. Where time is money, efficient and established processes, consistent service delivery, and capturing data to help you make smarter business decisions are just some of the key differences between a company lasting the distance, or not. I also love our approach to continually improving the platform and the vital role our client’s feedback plays in the product development space. 

Between our talented clients and dedicated internal teams, I know Accelo is in safe hands.

Pat Doyle, Product Researcher in San Francisco

What was your career journey to becoming a Product Researcher at Accelo?

It definitely started with me being an Accelo client first. I used Accelo for two years as an end-user managing projects, tickets, retainers and invoices out of Accelo. Then when I moved to San Francisco I started working for Accelo as an Implementation Specialist. I was on the Implementation team for almost three years, eventually becoming a Senior Implementation Manager before switching to the Product team. 

In what ways have you made an impact since joining the team?

Besides onboarding almost 100 clients, I've hosted three webinars, improved internal documentation for the Implementation and Product teams and more recently completed user interviews and research that will go into new designs for our product.

What keeps you at Accelo?

The people. That means the clients and my colleagues. I love everyone I work with and I also love seeing the impact of our hard work on clients' lives. It's a nice feeling when users share their excitement for how Accelo has helped them. 

Accelorate Your Career

Are you an Accelo enthusiast that wants to join us and help people do the work they love? Drew, Siobhan and Pat are always looking for driven and passionate individuals to support their growing teams and make life easier for our hard-working customers.

Head to our careers page to see our open roles around the globe to see where you can make an impact here.