Act! Employee Spotlight

Erika Rivera

Meet our Product Manager (CSPO), Erika Rivera!

To bring a quality product to market, you need sincere effort, attention to detail and skillful execution. Meet Erika, Act!’s Product Manager (CSPO), who helps to synthesize Act!’s research with creative efforts to bring exciting and user-friendly products to market.

Department: Product Management
Office location: Scottsdale, AZ

What do you do at Act!?

I wear several different hats throughout the day. I can be working hand-in-hand with the development team on implementing a new feature to the CRM to start the day and spending the afternoon with the User Experience (UX) team analyzing insights from user interactions with different products. While I never know what tomorrow might bring as a product manager, my overall day-to-day goals are to identify customer needs and align them with business objectives to create a roadmap to success for our UX and development teams.

What brought you to Act!?

Before coming to Act!, I worked as a quality engineer specialist for a diagnostics and laboratory informatics company. I loved improving products and processes through testing and research but knew I wanted to have a more significant role in the development and launching of products. That, and working within the heavily regulated healthcare industry, severely hampered creativity and free-thinking.

Having worked with CRM platforms throughout my career, I always thought working behind the scenes on the development of CRM products and features would be fascinating work. So, when I saw the Platform Test Engineer position at Act! had become available, I jumped at the opportunity. Five years later, I have worked my way up to Product Manager!

What makes working at Act! different from other places you’ve worked in the past?

The collaborative environment. So often in companies, you see conversations between departments carried out by only one or two mouthpieces, which can lead to miscommunication and hinder collaboration. At Act! everybody knows one another and communicates openly, so there aren’t any silos. The environment facilitates communication and collaboration. And, we push one another to be creative and forward-thinking, never making assumptions and always encouraging new ideas.

How has your professional life influenced your personal life?

Well, I have recently become a mother to my beautiful son, Nico. While I would never have thought it, the knowledge and skills I have acquired professionally have helped to prepare me for motherhood. As a product manager, I constantly have to be open-minded, consider the bigger picture when making decisions, and know the decisions I make, just like a parent, don’t only affect me. This mindset has allowed me to be more patient during 3 a.m. diaper changes.

What would you say has been your greatest accomplishment during your time at Act!?

It was exciting to win Act!’s Living the Exclamation of the Year award as the employee that displayed Act!’s Living the Exclamation values the most. The fact that the award winner is voted on by Act! employees meant a lot to me.

Aside from that, I am proud of my work during the new Act! CRM release. From development through product delivery, I played a significant role in the quality and success of its release.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Well, I have always loved math, which may not be the hippest thing, but it has led me to volunteer as a tutor for local high school students. The opportunity to create lesson plans that helped students learn while making math fun was very fulfilling. As my work and personal life have gotten more complex (especially with a newborn!), I have stepped away from tutoring for the time being to focus on spending time with my son and husband.

If I’m not enjoying family time, I love staying active and being outdoors. If it’s a long scenic hike or intense workout, I’m usually game.