Dessie Zaharieva, Vice President of Engineering at Prime Holding, is a tech enthusiast who turned her childhood hobby into a thriving career. Dessie finds creating something new using technology to be extremely fulfilling and enjoyable, taking pride in overcoming complex challenges and solving technical problems. She has a particular interest in experimenting with new software, exploring different programming languages, and building innovative applications.
One aspect of the technology field that Dessie appreciates is the need for continuous learning. She stays up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements by attending conferences and events, reading books, and networking with fellow tech enthusiasts.
Innovation is another crucial aspect of the IT field that Dessie values highly. It involves developing new technologies, applications, and solutions to meet the evolving needs of businesses and consumers. For Dessie, innovation requires a blend of creativity, technical knowledge, and an understanding of market trends and consumer needs.
Ultimately, innovation in the IT sector can lead to new business opportunities, increased productivity, and improved quality of life for people worldwide. She finds the potential of innovation in the IT field to be captivating and highly motivating. As a woman leader in technology, Dessie is a role model for emerging women leaders, advising them to have faith in their abilities and invest in education and professional development continually.
First Step Towards the Tech World
Dessie hails from the charming city of Plovdiv, which happens to be one of Europe’s oldest cities. Growing up, her parents had strong mathematical backgrounds, and her mother was a software engineer. Despite this, Dessie showed a great interest in art, poetry, and foreign languages from a young age. She speaks five languages apart from her native Bulgarian. Nonetheless, her parents’ expertise influenced her interests, leading her to attend Plovdiv’s high school of mathematics, where she discovered her passion for computer science. With access to her own computer at home, she spent countless hours developing programs, sometimes encountering unexpected setbacks. Her dedication was such that she would stay up at night trying to solve coding problems, sometimes even waking up in the middle of the night with a solution. These experiences ultimately paved the way for her to pursue a career in computer science. In summary, her upbringing played a crucial role in shaping her professional trajectory.
Joining Prime Holding JSC
Dessie held a managerial position at a sports betting company when her friend, who had been working at Prime Holding for more than a year, contacted her. They were looking to form a team of highly skilled IT professionals in Plovdiv. Initially, Dessie turned down the offer because she had a great team and felt she could still contribute to their success. However, upon further reflection, she decided that she was ready to move forward in her career and explore new opportunities. As a result, she accepted the challenge and joined the organization as a solution architect, which required frequent travel.
About the Company
Prime Holding, a professional services company, offers a wide range of services, including product design and prototyping, which is one of their areas of expertise. They utilize software engineering principles and practices to create and refine new software products or applications. This involves essential steps such as discovery, understanding, ideation, strategy, UX concept, user validation, and UI prototyping. This process is critical as it allows teams to test and refine software products or applications before the team goes into production, ensuring that the final product meets user requirements, functions correctly, and can be scaled and maintained as necessary.
In addition to product design and prototyping, Prime Holding offers end-to-end product development services, which begin with needs and requirements analysis and end with implementing and adopting the new software solution. It uses its extensive experience and follows best practices in core software development, QA, DevOps, and professional services while adopting agile delivery and tailored Scrum development practices.
The team at Prime Holding places great importance on their cloud strategy and DevOps practices, which are utilized in the creation of cloud solutions from scratch or the migration of existing on-premises solutions. Its expertise also extends to Salesforce solutions, digital transformation, and data science and analytics.
Meeting Client’s Expectations
Dessie believes that defining standard processes and procedures is the first step in establishing a successful company that meets client expectations. These procedures should cover all aspects of service delivery, from onboarding clients to billing and reporting. It is essential to communicate clearly with clients from the beginning about the company’s services, including the scope of services, timelines, deliverables, and potential challenges that may arise. At Prime Holding, open communication with clients is a priority, and the team encourages them to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement. The team listens to clients’ concerns and works with them to find solutions that meet their needs.
Another critical aspect of the business is setting realistic expectations. Being honest and transparent about what the company can deliver, including timelines, service quality, and pricing, is crucial in maintaining client satisfaction.
Dessie stresses the importance of monitoring progress against defined processes and procedures, which includes tracking service delivery metrics and key performance indicators. Regular monitoring helps identify areas for improvement, avoid delays, and ensure that clients’ expectations are being met.
At Prime Holding, the team continuously reviews and improves its processes and procedures based on feedback and industry best practices. This approach allows the company to maintain a high level of service quality and exceed clients’ expectations consistently. “This approach allows us to deliver exceptional service consistently and build lasting relationships with our clients,” says Dessie.
Encouraging Responsibility and Accountability Among Team Members
At Prime Holding, Dessie holds the responsibility of creating and overseeing the technology strategies and ensuring the smooth running of the day-to-day and long-term operations of the engineering department. This includes collaborating with other senior executives and business leaders to align technology initiatives with the organization’s goals and objectives, ensuring efficiency in the company’s operations, and keeping up with emerging technologies and industry trends to identify opportunities for innovation and growth.
In addition, Dessie is responsible for managing a team of technology professionals, including recruiting and developing talent and building a culture of innovation, agility, and continuous improvement. Dessie is passionate about both technology excellence and people development and strives to create a work environment that fosters both.
Dessie places high importance on fostering a culture that embodies integrity, transparency, and inclusivity in communication and collaboration. She believes in recognizing and respecting diversity and different perspectives to ensure that all voices are heard and valued. Dessie also prioritizes ethics, accountability, and responsibility in the use and development of technology to ensure that it benefits society as a whole.
Keeping the Responsibility towards Society
Prime Holding has formulated a corporate responsibility strategy that aligns with its values and mission and aims to create positive impacts on the social, environmental, and economic aspects. This includes reducing the carbon footprint, promoting diversity and inclusion, adhering to ethical business practices, and contributing to the local communities where the company operates. The organization is deeply committed to upholding its values of authenticity, benevolence, and competence and strives to pursue excellence boldly.
To effectively execute this strategy, Prime Holding conducts a comprehensive evaluation of its resources and people to identify feasible initiatives. The company employs an iterative approach that involves engaging with all stakeholders, continuously monitoring, and collecting feedback. This method allows Prime Holding to continuously refine and improve its efforts toward achieving its goals. The ultimate objective is to create a positive impact on the world and make a meaningful contribution to society.
Keys of Transformation
Dessie believes that fostering innovation within an organization requires encouraging experimentation, promoting collaboration, and supporting continuous learning. This will create a culture of innovation that facilitates the development of new and exciting solutions that improve people’s lives.
To promote digital literacy, it is important to provide access to technology, offer training and support, encourage critical thinking, and partner with schools and community organizations.
Sustainability should also be a priority by implementing sustainable practices in business operations, encouraging sustainable behaviors among employees, investing in green technologies, and promoting environmental awareness. These steps will help protect the planet and ensure a better future for generations yet to come.
Never Been Afraid of Challenges
Dessie is always seeking new opportunities to expand her skill set and take on new responsibilities. Although she cannot recall a significant risk she has taken in her career, she understands the importance of pushing herself outside her comfort zone to avoid complacency and stagnation. She has actively pursued projects or roles that were unfamiliar to her, requiring her to learn new skills and collaborate with new teams. This approach has helped her broaden her knowledge and expertise, as well as build stronger relationships with colleagues across the organization.
In addition, Dessie has been proactive in seeking out training and development opportunities to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in her field.
Based on her experience, Dessie believes that taking on new challenges and stepping outside of one’s comfort zone can result in personal and professional growth, as well as create new opportunities for career advancement. Although there is always some risk involved in trying something new, she believes that the potential rewards are worth it.
Dessie is always open to exploring new paths and taking on new challenges, even if they may appear daunting or outside of her area of expertise. This mindset has allowed her to broaden her skill set, gain valuable experience, and develop a unique perspective that can be applied to future opportunities.
Improvements to Bring in the Future
According to Dessie, Prime Holding has achieved impressive growth as a company while maintaining a unique and special company culture. The organization places a great emphasis on creating a positive and supportive work environment, which has enabled it to attract and retain talented employees who share the company’s vision and values.
In addition to its cultural success, Prime Holding has made significant advancements in its IT products. The company has developed innovative solutions that help clients to streamline their processes, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. By continuously improving its products and services, Prime Holding has been able to stay ahead of the competition and provide real value to its customers.
Prime Holding is proud of the growth that it has achieved while maintaining its culture and advancing its products. The company remains committed to building on its success and striving for excellence in all its endeavors.
Message for Emerging Women Leaders
Dessie’s message for emerging women leaders is to have faith in their abilities and be willing to take on new challenges. Confidence in their skills and judgment is essential for becoming successful leaders. It is also important to invest continually in education and professional development, stay up-to-date with industry trends, and seek opportunities to learn new things.
Creating an inclusive and respectful environment is crucial for emerging women leaders. Appreciating diverse perspectives and experiences can foster a collaborative and supportive workplace culture. Dessie also encourages women to seek mentorship and support. A mentor can serve as a role model and provide guidance to navigate the challenges that come with leadership positions.
Finally, Dessie adds, emerging women leaders should have confidence in their abilities, invest in their education and professional development, create an inclusive workplace culture, and seek mentorship and support to become successful leaders.
Written by Steve Sanchez.
