Workfront certified system admin spotlight: Bettina Sparks

[kynabaker16]

Ever wondered if you need to have a technical background or work in marketing to use Workfront? Let me introduce you to @Bettina Sparks‚ who has a background in product development and is now a Workfront certified system admin! Congratulations to Bettina on her certification!

Workfront: What was your background before learning Workfront?

Bettina: My background prior to Workfront was definitely not technical. I had experience working in retail management and (at my current company) in Product Development for over 6 years prior to moving over to work directly for our CEO to help manage executive projects.

Workfront: In two sentences or less, how does your organization use Workfront?

Bettina: Initially Workfront was built out for Product Development to manage their projects and then quickly expanded to Marketing and Engineering to help them manage their tasks in the development timeline as well as using proofing (game changer!). Now it has expanded even further to almost all of our other departments from Sales to Supply Chain to help them track the work they need to do on others projects, as well as providing a place for one-off work requests to come into.

Workfront: What is the Workfront accomplishment you are most proud of?

Bettina: Automating so many of our workflows. We have gone from literally printing out artwork, manuals, etc. and walking them around the office for approvals to doing it all digitally, which also perfectly aligned with COVID/WFH. Also working with our various departments on putting pen to paper on their workflows and finding ways to streamline the processes. Our business is all about speed to market so finding efficiencies has helped tremendously. Lastly, I was able to create a new position in our organization that focuses solely on Workfront and improving company processes (Business Process Analyst) that reports to me. I have started to see a shift now in our organization to focus more on process improvement and data integrity, as another new position was added in a different area to focus on data. Oh! And definitely passing the exam and gaining the certification is an accomplishment I am proud of!

Workfront: How will being Workfront system admin certified change things for you?

Bettina: With our organization still being relatively new to Workfront (1 year), I feel like the certification gives our team a comfort level that they have someone they can go to for assistance that understands the tool and its capabilities. It gives validation to the tool as well by showing our organization is investing in people to learn and become experts. It’s also fun to get to have a badge in my signature line and have some bragging rights!

Workfront: If you could time travel and go back to tell your newbie-Workfront self anything, what would it be?

Bettina: Take the bootcamps earlier! Also, less is more. Don’t go too far down in the weeds right out of the gate when building processes and project templates.

Workfront: What areas of work management do you consider yourself an expert in?

Bettina: While I don’t consider myself an expert in any area, I would say I feel most comfortable with project management and overall process development.

Workfront: Finally, as a fun way to get to know you, when you get snacky and need a quick treat‚Äîwhat is your favorite “vice”?

Bettina: I usually reach for salty over sweet—I would say popcorn or cheez-it!

I'm so excited to get to share a little bit about Bettina today and I hope you all reach out to her to find out more about how she's been able to get so many workflows and processes streamlined.