John Robinson leads Compute Quality using an outside-in approach to service delivery

[rachelduran]

Since the beginning, HPE has advanced the way people live and work by creating innovative technology at the heart of successful organizations and communities all over the world. We invite you inside our careers and culture through stories of the people who power HPE—our team members.  
 
Today, we’re hearing from John Robinson, Director of Compute Quality, with 15 years of experience delivering superior customer experiences by focusing on quality.    

John’s HPE career journey 

With a career squarely based in product delivery, John leverages his prior roles to shape the customer experience within our Compute business. Having worked in engineering, research and development, and factory testing, John recognizes the number of touchpoints involved in product development and the significant role quality plays to deliver positive outcomes for customers.  

For instance, you can design a product well, and then build it poorly, which leads to a poor customer experience.  Conversely, you can have a design error, and build the unit perfectly, which also leads to a poor customer experience.  While the outcome is the same, the scope of the issue and the remediation activities will be very different.  

Team member straight talk 

Q: What’s your leadership approach to quality? 
A:  I obsess over the customer every day and use an outside-in mentality to deliver the best customer experience and the highest quality product. I encourage my team to take a step back and think about what quality means to YOU.  Reflect on pleasurable experiences you’ve had as a customer, and what about the experience made you feel good. We should consider how companies renowned for quality resolve an issue and if we can’t equal them, how can we emulate them?  

Q: How do you redefine what’s next in your career?   
A: I’ll never stop learning and growing. I love to push myself and others to imagine what could be, and then figure out how to deliver it.  “Good enough” is fine for many things, but if you aren’t at least sometimes making something “Great” then you’re missing an opportunity.  

Q: What trait is important for team members to have at HPE? 
A: I think curiosity drives a lot of goodness; when team members get curious about why a problem occurred, or why we follow a particular process, the outcomes are generally good. Comfort can lead to inefficiencies, and I know when I’m comfortable, it means I’m not challenging myself enough so asking ‘why’ is super important to growth and driving innovation. 

Ready to redefine what’s next for you? With industry-leading training, development, and cross-functional learning opportunities, you could potentially explore multiple careers without ever leaving the impactful, mission-driven work and people at HPE. Explore our careers site and apply at careers.hpe.com. 

Rachel Duran
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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