At ZeroNorth, we organize in teams that work on transforming problems into solutions that benefit our customers and their business. We encourage an agile mindset, focusing on always validating hypothesis and concepts with users before launching products. Collaboration, joint ownership and shared responsibility is key to how we succeed.

Katrine Hastrup is the product owner in our BunkerAction team.  She is a strong woman with a confident demeanor.  Her collaborative spirit fits in perfectly with the way we work at ZeroNorth. Our agile teams are responsible for the whole product life-cycle from idea and research, building an MVP ( minimum viable product) and test with users to launch and improvements. 

Katrine grew up on a small farm with horses. Being part of the horse community was a big part of her childhood. Her parents encouraged her to try every form of horseback riding, jumping and dancing, letting her find her own place. She enjoyed success in the competitive sport of dressage. But there were also a lot of rainy days where she would have to go to the barn and take care of her horse; feeding and exercising him. It took a lot of commitment.

Participation in a sport dependent on an animal can have its challenges, such as training for 2 years for a championship, only to miss it due to your horse getting sick. However, in those tough moments, Katrine learned to swallow her disappointment and get back on the horse (literally) - embracing her commitment and perseverance.

These two qualities still guide her today; in her life and her work. As a product owner, she is not afraid to take action but also not afraid to take responsibility- should those actions fail. Katrine shared a bit about how she faces challenges at ZeroNorth “In everything I do – I always try to look for a solution.  In horses – there is not only one way to ride or jump or dance on a horse.  It is the same with software, there are many ways to solve a problem.  There isn’t a perfect recipe on how to do product ownership or to manage a team. To make a team-work you need to find the right fit between the value of the solution and the customer needs.”

Thinking big 2 weeks at a time

ZeroNorth has an ambitious goal as a company, to digitalize shipping for the climate. The focus of Katrine’s team, BunkerAction, is on optimizing bunker which not only improves earnings but also helps to reduce Co2 emissions. To understand the flexibility needed to work as an agile team, and deliver on ZeroNorth’s ambition – A team needs to have a clear goal of where they want to end up.

Katrine shared how working agile helps her team achieve their goals “Working agile is the way we can achieve our stretch goals, as we constantly get wiser.” She explained more in detail of how her team works, as each team in ZeroNorth has the freedom to decide the structure their work. “We never commit to more than 2 weeks ahead in our planning because we learn along the way. We can’t possibility have all of the answers ahead of time, because there are so many unknowns. However, as long as we have a clear goal, the discoveries and learning is part of the process. The leader who sets the goals doesn’t always know how to reach it. It is up to the team to figure it out as they progress and learn as a team. We will be successful, because we are open to every solution. We experiment, test and keep trying until we solve it. We don’t give up. We are curious and creative and we find answers.”

So, at ZeroNorth, we reach towards the stars – our name even implies our goal – but we know it is important that we complete each step on our journey to the stars. Because in each step - we learn. And with those learnings, we will solve industry challenges by building digital solutions which will make the world a better place. 

Katrine is married to a dane and has a 2 year old son. They are currently completely renovating their dream house together.