Bounce for N900, Jim Morrison and photography: meet Michiel Maandag

Last Friday we announced here at the Ovi Blog that we’ll start doing in-depth interviews with some of the most interesting personalities who work here at Ovi and publish them on a weekly basis at the Ovi Blog. Have you ever wondered what mobile phone models we use around here? Or what kind of apps [...]

Last Friday we announced here at the Ovi Blog that we’ll start doing in-depth interviews with some of the most interesting personalities who work here at Ovi and publish them on a weekly basis at the Ovi Blog. Have you ever wondered what mobile phone models we use around here? Or what kind of apps we download from Store and use every day? Or what we do when we leave the Nokia offices behind in the afternoon and head towards Party-Time (well, not really)? Here’s your chance! In my Friday post I also asked for your suggestions on what YOU would like to ask our future interviewees and a bunch of really good questions came in, a big thank you to irfun4ever, Mark Guim, suyog, Linus, Jade Bryan Jardinico and the rest! We’re definitely including some of your questions in the interviews So if you (yes, you!) come up with even more questions, please leave them below in the Comments section, here or send them over to me via email: niini (at) ovi (dot) com

Now, let’s get down to business!

My first interviewee, Michiel Maandag, works in the Ovi Product Marketing team and he was lucky (?) enough to be my very first interviewee. Here’s how he tackled my hard-hitting, Diane Sawyer-esque journalist moves.

How long have you been working at Nokia?

I’ve been working for Nokia since November 1999, so more than 10 years. Time flies when you’re having fun!

What do you do here at Nokia?

I head the Ovi product marketing and brand. We actually do a lot of stuff in our team: we, for example, take care of the Ovi.com, the Ovi Blog & Ovi.mobi digital channels and of all the content in Nokia Ovi suite. Then we do Ovi consumer relationship management and work with product teams in defining the consumer proposition and messaging.

What other projects have you been working on at Nokia?

So many things! But the last solid 3 years I’ve been focusing on Ovi. I headed the team that created Ovi by Nokia. I’ve also done CRM in the past and I was responsible for the Nokia Nseries sub-brand.

Which Nokia office do you work in? What do you like/dislike about your office/location?

I work in the White Plains, NY office, but I’ll be moving to Nokia House in Espoo, Finland soon. The only downside of the White Plains location are that there are no good restaurants nearby. However, the office is really spacious and light. Also the lobby has a nice touch of Finland. When thinking about my future office in Espoo I would say that it has a nice interior, beautiful design…

And it’s close to the sea.

Yeah. And you can arrive with your helicopter (laughing).

Oh yeah, I do that all the time. So what did you do before you joined Nokia?

I was a consultant in Netherlands in the area of business consulting, IT & communications.

What do you like about working at Nokia?

There are lots of opportunities here; we’re in the middle of a shift where everything is going mobile – as they have for quite some time now. We’re right in the middle of the action. Also, Nokia as a company is open, non-hierarchical and very engaging. We’re here to change the world!

What makes you passionate about Ovi?

I’m passionate about the good start we’ve had so far; for example Ovi Maps free navigation is a real success. I’m also excited about the future possibilities Ovi has.

Next, let’s do some word association. What word is the first word that comes to your mind when you think about Ovi?

Connecting.

Cool. What’s your favorite thing you’ve downloaded from Store? Why?

Skype for N97! With Skype it’s easy for me to stay in touch with my family back in Holland. I also really like the Bounce app for N900; I remember when I got the 7650 – our first Symbian smartphone – and it had Bounce installed.

Speaking of phones, what was your very first Nokia device?

It was a Nokia 5110.

What about your current phone(s)? Which models are you using right now?

At the moment I use the N900 and the N97.

What were you trying to find the last time you used Maps?

I was trying to find the Woodbury Common Premium Outlet mall in NY (Ed.note: That would have been my answer as well…)

What are your top three favorite blogs/websites?

Website number one is the Branding Strategy Insider. Another website that I love is Cinema 5 D. The context there is that I love photography, and that is a website about making movies DSLR camera. I check it every day. My third favorite is Read Write Web.

We already touched upon this a bit, but what do you like to do in your spare time?

Well, I love photography. Mostly I take photos of people. (Ed.note: Check out Michiel’s photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michielmaandag/) I also like to listen to a lot of music, mostly synthesizer/electronic music. I’ve been a real techno geek for years!

(Ed.note: He’s also a fan of The Doors, which you will notice next)

What’s your motto?

I have one… it’s not really a motto, but more like a principle. It’s from Jim Morrison of The Doors: “Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a movie on?” For me it means to enjoy life. If you really do, it should be worth creating a movie out of it.

Finally, is there anything you’d like to tell our readers here at the Ovi Blog?

Keep reading the Blog!

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So there you have it, our first People Interview! How do you think Michiel (and myself) did? Let us know what you think (and remember to send in your question for our future interviewees, too!)

Source : http://blog.ovi.com/2010/04/12/bounce-for-n900-jim...