Meet the Team: Shaun Sweeney, GridShare Product Manager
Our Meet the Team blog series highlights the amazing people behind Moixa. A huge thank you to Shaun Sweeney, our GridShare Product Manager, who sat down with us to talk about his career, the energy industry and Moixa.
Shaun Sweeney, GridShare Product Manager
Shaun started at Moixa in September 2017, working as a Technical Analyst. Since then he has moved into Product Management and has spent the last year working on the launch of our latest Smart Battery hardware. Recently he moved role to become our GridShare Product Manager, looking after the development of our software platform and capabilities. Before Moixa, Shaun completed internships with IBM Research (e-mobility), EnerNOC (a flex aggregator), ElectroRoute (energy trading), and Deloitte (consulting). Shaun holds a Master’s degree in Energy Systems Engineering and a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin.
What made you want to join Moixa?
Well, because I was already working in energy and all my studies has previously been in energy, the company was a natural fit. I studied energy storage in its various forms in my Master’s and had managed large industrial storage systems while at EnerNOC, but I didn’t have any experience in residential storage. I knew it represented a huge amount of flex potential, particularly when you consider EV’s. Moixa were cool to me because they actually had residential storage products for sale in the UK, so I figured why not give it a shot, I was offered a job and moved to London 3 weeks later!
What aspect of Moixa’s business are you most passionate about?
Moixa has active domestic and international partnerships and projects where we are working to actually solve problems at scale. I’m primarily interested in unlocking grid flexibility and engaging individual consumers in their energy usage. Moixa’s GridShare software platform has huge potential to deliver solutions to current problems caused by the intermittency of renewable energy, like solar and wind. My background is focussed on the application of data science, control theory and optimisation to energy applications, so I fit right in!
Walk us through your typical work day..
As a Product Manager it is kind of constantly changing. I know that is a cliché but there is a lot of variety. It could be anything from talking to customers, business clients, supply chain partners like manufacturing companies, or working with any of the internal teams in the company. I have to spend a lot of time ensuring the technical and commercial requirements for products are aligned. I also ensure changes are implemented, communicated, reported on and the list goes on. So yes, to the cliché, it is very varied.
You have had a few different roles since joining Moixa, what is the most important skill you’ve learnt?
Definitely people and stakeholder management. We have a diverse team at Moixa, with a variety of personality types, working styles and in order to get the most out of people you have to make sure that everyone’s voice gets heard across the company. Then it is important to use basic principles of logic and data-based decision making, to ensure we take the right paths in building products that work the best for the business and our customers.
What has been your highest point since joining Moixa?
Working on the latest Smart Battery product (4.8kWh Moixa Smart Battery) through its entire lifecycle, going from concept to seeing it finally launch in the UK was a hugely proud moment. We had a great, collaborative team working on it.
What makes you excited to get up and come to work?
The people at Moixa, the team are very engaged with the business priorities and there is a real team approach to achieve the company’s goals. It helps that they are also fun to have a few beers with!
What is the best bit of business advice you have received?
Have mentors! I have been very lucky to have had fantastic managers in my previous roles who continue to give me useful feedback and advice for my career.
If you had a magic wand and could change one thing in the energy industry, what would it be?
People engagement. Definitely. If I could wave a wand and make it so that everyone in the world really understood and cared about energy problems, I’m pretty sure we could solve everything quite quickly.
You mentioned that you have worked in big businesses before working at Moixa, what do you find are the differences?
I think there are positives to both types of companies, in a big company you have the opportunity to learn from others who are successfully doing roles that are similar to yours. Whereas, in a small business like Moixa, you have a bigger opportunity to take ownership and contribute more to the business, faster.
What is something interesting about you or your career that we might not know about?
For my Master’s project I developed an electric bike that changes how much assistance it gives to a cyclist, based on pollution levels. In areas of high pollution, the bike gives additional assistance, the study showed that you can control cyclist breathing rates to reduce the amount of pollution they inhale. You can read the full academic paper here.
That sounds incredible, I hope we see more of those types of projects rolled out to the wider public. Anything else you would like to add Shaun?
Can I say hello to my mum?
Yes
Hi Mum!
A big thanks goes out to Shaun, for taking some time out of his schedule to sit down and have a chat with me. If you would like to learn more about our GridShare software that Shaun works on, visit moixa.com or email business@moixa.com. If you are interested in a role at Moixa, visit our careers site.
You can also connect with Shaun on LinkedIn here.
