Unikie’s organization consists of close to 600 individuals, all with their unique personalities and backgrounds. These people come together in teams that work towards shared goals, creating new opportunities for our international customers and driving innovation in software solutions for machines, vehicles and industrial solutions.
One of those individuals is Xiao Nie, who works in a hybrid role of Scrum Master and Team Lead. Originally from China, Xiao has now rooted herself in Finland and in Unikie’s multicultural team.
What does Xiao like about her job? Where will she be in five years? Let’s find out!
Arriving in Finland
Born in China, Xiao completed her Bachelor’s degree at Sichuan University in 2010. After graduation, she started working as a Test Engineer in Shenzhen, the third most populous city in China with nearly 18 million residents. After working for a couple of years, she noticed that her current situation was not a good match for her.
“I realized that living in a megacity and working in a very fast-paced, highly detailed and stressful working culture was not for me. I felt a lack of creativity in my work and wanted to explore something different,” says Xiao.
Xiao had a long-term plan of continuing her Master’s studies, possibly while living abroad. With easily accessible education in the Nordics, Xiao soon found herself enrolled at Tampere University of Technology and hopped on a plane from China to Finland.
Xiao quite quickly realized that Finland was a good match for her. She made friends and appreciated the fact that Finnish society enables individuals to handle their lives very independently.
“Before, study and work took all my time and energy. Here, with condensed work hours, you have a lot of opportunities to explore hobbies, for example. To me, this felt like a luxury.”
After 11 years in Finland, she feels rooted to the country and integrated into its culture. The four distinct seasons set the pace for her daily routines: summers are more for remote work and enjoying the outdoors, while autumn weeks are about going to the office and engaging in hobbies in the evenings.
Working Towards a Common Goal
After several project management positions, Xiao started working for Unikie in 2022 as a Scrum Master. Not long after, she accepted the additional role of a Team Lead. Today, she leads a team of 7 software development professionals.
Xiao’s entire team works for the same customer and in the same project. She really enjoys the hybrid role of working with people and advancing the project work by removing blockers for her team members.
In fact, despite the double role, she considers that she has a one, single goal: delivering value to the customer.
“Everything I do in team leadership and communicating with customer stakeholders ties together in a single goal, which is delivering customer value. Without a motivated team, we can’t do this. If any team member is not doing well, the entire team is not stable. To perform well, we have to feel well.”
Xiao’s team works for an internationally leading customer operating in the automotive industry, doing software development for middleware solutions that link software and hardware together. The team is integrated to the customer’s organization but works fully remotely.
“I’m really happy with the cooperation between Unikie’s team and our customer. Consultants are treated just like an internal team, with direct access to the people we need to collaborate with. Everything works, though we also face the challenges all software development organizations do – adaptability, iterative progress, collaboration, and customer-focused value delivery.”
When it comes to the required skill set for a consultant, technical skills are a must-have but only one side of the coin. Xiao feels that soft skills are absolutely necessary, too.
“Communication and cooperation skills, interest to solve problems, patience and resilience towards occasional pressure – these are all needed. As a team, we grow by working with each other, coaching each other, gaining experience from each other. That’s our goal.”
“To me, it really is a privilege working with such talented people.”
Lean Organization with Inherent Trust in People
Though tightly focused on customer work, Unikie remains the home organization for Xiao and her team. She feels that Unikie is a lean organization, respecting people and efficient flow. What she values most is trust.
“I feel 100% that Unikie trusts me to get my work done. I feel that I have the confidence, resources and responsibility to make decisions. Trust really is something that I highly value.”
Xiao also feels that her colleagues at Unikie are nice people. Though some of the people she only meets at the company Christmas or summer parties, it’s nice to catch up and hear stories about what’s happened since the last time.
In general, the atmosphere at Unikie is very inclusive and equal. The company is quite multicultural – in fact, all Xiao’s team members come from a different country.
“Bringing people from different cultures together is a continuous learning journey. I think the best way to do this is to simply have a common goal, and have people pulling together to reach that goal.”
Growing as a Professional
When talking about her plans for the future, Xiao’s goals seem to be quite well aligned with her current position. She would like to learn more about software and product development while also working with people and competence development.
“At Unikie, I get to learn from other colleagues, scrum masters and team leads. Learning from peers is really fruitful: they have different experiences and perspectives. Seniority and experience comes little by little as you work with different people through both good and challenging times.”
