At Technology from Sage our purpose is to support libraries in advancing teaching, learning and research. We can’t achieve this mission without the work of the talented team at Technology from Sage, so we’ve launched a series of posts for you to find out more about the team.
In this Meet the Team post, we’re joined by Daniel Horvath, Product Director at Technology from Sage.
I worked at Lean Library for 4 years before joining the Technology from Sage Leadership Team in 2022, which was an exciting time. My background has always been in product; I worked as a Quality Assurance assistant, did a bit of product training and consultancy – and a bit of coding myself!
I am Product Director at Technology from Sage. I lead the product teams across the businesses (Talis, Lean Library, and Sciwheel), and develop the long-term product strategy on the product suite level. Additionally, I work closely with other departments such as sales, and marketing, to align our efforts and support them in their work.
I am excited about the opportunities and possibilities we are seeing at Technology from Sage, and it’s great to be working with a team full of bright, talented and motivated people on these opportunities.
At Technology from Sage, we believe that librarians are fundamental to learning and research at their institution and that the right technology can remove barriers to knowledge. This is particularly true for the product department. The ultimate goal of our products is to make learning and research easier for our users (the library’s patrons). Therefore, we need knowledge and input from librarians when we build and develop our product suite. To achieve this, we conduct regular interviews, workshops and feedback discussions with our librarian partners (and their users!) to ensure our roadmaps are meeting their needs. On top of that, we work closely with a few libraries as development partners, who directly advise on specific products as we develop and grow.
I don’t think I’d be able to pick one particular day from the last 5 years. It has been an exciting and challenging journey, through which we have been continuously evolving, and as we’ve evolved, we face different challenges to solve. This has been keeping my work at Lean Library and Technology from SAGE ever exciting and enjoyable.
I try to keep my desk as clean as possible, so apart from my keyboard, mouse and speakers, most times there isn’t anything else on my desk (well, maybe a cup of coffee).
A quote I recently heard from Rick and Morty goes ‘Confidence is the food of the wise man but the liqueur of the fool‘. I found it to be a great and humbling quote.
You will almost certainly find me with my friends having fun by the beach or having dinner and boardgame nights.
Good question. I feel I would either work on a similar project and product, or do something totally different like video editing and videography that is my main hobby.
Meet our Head of Product for Talis, Scott Gibbens April 4, 2023At Technology from Sage our purpose is to support libraries in advancing teaching, learning and research. We can’t achieve this mission without the work of the talented team at Technology from Sage, so we’ve launched a series of posts for you to find out more about the team.
In this Meet the Team post, we’re joined by Scott Gibbens, Head of Product (Talis) at Technology from Sage. Read on to find out more about Scott.
I joined Technology from Sage last October. Prior to joining Technology from Sage, I worked at Kortext, product managing Analytics and then leading on their KeyLInks product. Before that I worked in University, College and NHS Libraries for 10 years. I also worked at a library ebook provider, before working for several years at Jisc Collections managing the Historical Text and Journal Archives service.
My role essentially is ensuring that both Talis Aspire and Talis Elevate not only meet our customers needs, but give them new possibilities they may not have thought of. I work with people across Talis, including Customer Services, Sales, Developers and our Product Team. I also work closely with our partners such as OCLC and Ebsco to ensure all products work together.
Most importantly, I speak to our customers on a regular basis to make sure we are building enhancements they actually want and are fixing problems they may have.
I’ve been involved in Libraries for 30 years, working as both a Librarian (I did a post graduate library diploma in 1994/5) and also working for library suppliers. The great thing about Technology from Sage is the focus is on the Library, and I love to work with a great bunch of people who all have the same focus.
We work closely with libraries to ensure our product development helps them achieve their aims and gives lecturers and students access to resources via the service they use every day (such as the VLE). We ensure we are meeting accessibility guidelines to ensure anyone can access resources no matter their level of ability. We ensure our services connect to other services library subscribe to, so they can get best value out of their collections by signposting users (a recent example is our development to enable universities to connect Talis Aspire to their Discovery service).
My Phone, Mug of Tea (essential) and notepad for ideas/notes.
I read quite a lot of fiction. Eye Contact by Fergus McNeill is a favourite of mine. The idea is fantastic, and the description of Bristol (my home city) is excellent.
I’m sure there is something I live by life by! When thinking about product management I always ask customers if they ever got trained how to use Amazon (no one has ever said yes yet!). My aim is to make the products I work with as easy to use as Amazon.
Most likely it will involve walking the dogs and playing guitar (I’ve been learning for about 7 years now).
I’d always fancied working as a park ranger in one of our national parks.
