Meet Jasmine Ong, Product Owner, myairops 

As we celebrate international women’s day 2021, Jasmine shares her views on women in tech and talks to us about her experience at myairops.

You’ve been at the company for nearly a year now, what brought you to myairops in the first place?  

Prior to joining myairops, all previous roles of mine had involved a certain element of digital platform management. This was always the golden thread throughout my jobs that I really enjoyed and in 2019 I decided that I really wanted to focus my development, and further build on my experience in an actual product owner role.  

When I saw the opportunity to join myairops, although it was daunting as I had no experience in aviation, it seemed like a fantastic chance to learn about a completely new field. 

Can you explain your role as a Product owner, what does your day to day look like?  

My day to day role involves writing up new software features or enhancements to current functionality. I’m then responsible for getting these requests in front of the developers to discuss the requirements and estimate how much resource will be required to implement the work. I run several weekly ceremony meetings with various members of the team which all support getting this work from idea stage to being ready to start work on. Alongside senior product owners I support the organisation and prioritisation of development work into upcoming sprints. 

How did you become interested in software development and technology? 

When I finished university, I went straight into an events role which involved a lot of testing of registration websites. This is where I first became interested in website development, I loved seeing the process of developers taking written requests and turning them into a fully functioning website. This was all so new to me, I’d not done anything similar at college and I studied Law at university –  a career U-turn I know! In my next role as an Employee Engagement Manager at O2, I had the opportunity to manage the build of a new employee website, including the launch and roll out across the business. This really was the point where I decided that I wanted a role focused on website or software development, rather than it just being a small element of my wider day to day role.   

Both the aviation and tech industries are statistically male-dominated, what steps should be taken to attract more women?  

I got to this role eventually (which I’m really pleased about), but it took five years of secondary school, two years of college, and 4 years of university learning nothing about tech until finally I started to learn about website and software development in my first role out of university. I believe that girls need to be exposed to tech when they are young and in a way which is fun! They need to have the opportunity to discover that careers in tech are available to them, and the actual scope of roles that are out there – as early as possible. 

What do you most enjoy about working at myairops? 

I’m learning every day, and learning from a team of really talented individuals. Starting in a role like this knowing very little about aviation is very daunting, but every member of the team has been so supportive, approachable and encouraging. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first year at myairops, and this is largely due to the team that I am lucky enough to work with. 

What’s the most unusual job you’ve had? 

My four years in events took me to some amazing places across the globe. I miss the locations, but not the hours! 

Here is a picture of me, my other half Matt, and my cat Gus!