Meet the Team:
Maria Cretier-Mansurova.

What do you get when you combine a cat lover, a hardware designer, and a big-hearted team lead?

We know. Her name is Maria. And she’s the HiberHilo engineering team lead here in Amsterdam. We sat down with Maria to ask her about herself, what goes into keeping the Hiber engineering team running, and how she sets her team up for success.

Hi, Maria! Can you start by introducing yourself?

Sure. So, I’m Maria. I’m originally from Uzbekistan, but I came to the Netherlands twelve years ago. I’m the Engineering Manager of the HiberHilo team, so I’m responsible for making sure our engineers are happy, productive, and delivering the best product possible. 

 

Twelve years!
Yes! I came here originally as a student, and I found that I really liked it. Since then I have worked in France and Germany and a bit in Austria, but so far I love the Netherlands the most. It’s quite comfortable life-wise, and career-wise there is a lot of opportunity. I’m an electronics engineer and the Dutch market offers a lot of opportunities for people like me. There’s a lot of professional satisfaction. 

I’m happy to hear that, and we’re happy to have you here.
Thanks!

Can you tell me more about your career path? How did you end up here?
I started as a hardware designer. With time, I began to manage small teams, and found that I loved it. As I continued to move up in my career I moved into product management and product ownership. All of that eventually led me to being the Engineering Manager here at Hilo. 

Have you always been working in the oil and gas industry?
Well, I started out in the automotive industry. I used to make sensorsized bearings, condition monitoring systems and those kinds of things that were used in solutions for automotive, railway, and oil and gas markets. So I’m familiar with what it’s like to work in a highly regulated industry. 

Probably helps with HiberHilo, right?
Definitely. Our team knows how important it is to have things done properly and according to industry standards. 

 

So back to your job now. What does your day-to-day look like at the moment?
That’s hard to answer, because every day is different. We start every day with a 15-minute sync up with the whole team where everyone talks about what their plan is for the day. It’s more of a casual way to check in and see how things are going and connect as a group. 
 

After that morning check in, the team heads off to go do their work. Sometimes I help them with their projects, but more frequently I just act as support when they need it. I spend my days going from meeting to meeting to facilitate projects and make sure things keep moving along. I’ll meet with our Programme Manager or the Product Manager and sync with them about our projects. I also have regular one-on-one check-ins with my team members to keep a pulse on how they’re doing, personal development goals, what’s going well, what needs to change, et cetera. 
 

Sounds like a lot of meetings.
Yes, a lot of meetings for sure. I usually have around 25 hours of meetings each week. But that’s what it takes to keep the team organised and productive. The good news is that even though we’re a big team, we have a strong sense of teamwork and we want to grow together. Working together as a team means we have to connect frequently. 

I love that. It sounds like you really love this team.
Yeah, the team is my favourite part of the job. We really have a special group of people right now, and we all get along really well. We understand each other. It’s awesome, because it’s rare to have such a tight-knit group. 

That’s amazing. What do you think is the foundation for such a good group?
There are a lot of things, but a key one is the desire to communicate. It’s always possible to solve problems as long as we communicate them in an adequate and respectful way. Another big one is trust. We had a session to figure out our team values and what drives us, and an outstanding one was trust. Trust can be expressed in so many ways. We trust each other to do our jobs. We trust that we will talk to each other. We trust that we can be honest with each other, without judgement. It makes a big difference.