{"id":34322,"date":"2016-03-13T07:51:36","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T14:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/?p=34322"},"modified":"2017-04-18T13:58:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T20:58:57","slug":"geocaching-employee-spotlight-product-owner-avid-geocacher-ben-hewitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/geocaching-employee-spotlight-product-owner-avid-geocacher-ben-hewitt\/","title":{"rendered":"Geocaching Employee Spotlight: Product Owner & Avid Geocacher, Ben Hewitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of a series of blog posts shining a spotlight on the people of GeocachingHQ. We hope to show you the \u201cgeo-who\u201d behind the \u201cgeo-what\u201d. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

What is your name?<\/span><\/strong>
\nBen Hewitt<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, but what\u2019s your Username<\/em>?<\/span><\/strong>
\nbenandjayme<\/a> (shared with my wife!)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jayme,
Jayme, Ben, and Signal the Frog at a Geocaching Event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How did you come up with your username?<\/span><\/strong>
\nHmmmm… it’s not the most creative username, but it’s certainly representative of the two of us!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your job title?<\/span><\/strong>
\nProduct Owner\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bryan,
Bryan, Ben, and Jayme at Geocaching Block Party 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does your job title actually mean? In other words, how do you explain what you do to someone that has no idea what you do?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI’m one of the six members of HQ’s Product team. As a team, we’re responsible for identifying and defining the best new features to add to Geocaching.com<\/a> and the official mobile apps<\/a>. “Best” is a lofty and sometimes tough to define goal, so we’re constantly striving to create features that are good for the community, good for the game, and good for the business. Individually, I’m responsible for managing the flow of design and development work that passes through one of our three product delivery teams at HQ and for helping making sure that the team meets our timeline and quality commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/a>
Ben is a firm supporter of DNF Pride<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tell us about your geocaching style (exotic locations \/ quality over quantity)?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI love to use geocaching to explore new places. One of the things I’ve really come to appreciate after almost 8 years of geocaching is that exploration and discovery are always just around the corner. I’ll always love flying across the world and discovering a new country or\u00a0culture, but I’ve had just as many amazing experiences discovering new places just a few blocks outside of my well-worn everyday routines.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s something that surprises you about geocaching – whether it\u2019s the game itself, working at headquarters, or anything else?<\/span><\/strong>
\nI’m always amazed at how many different ways geocachers come up with to play this game. Any time you think you’ve got it down (“THIS is geocaching”), some new and unexpected geocache or trackable experience will surely come along to defy your definition. I love that about this game!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ben
Ben and his baby girl geocaching last summer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s the best piece of geocaching advice or information you ever learned?<\/span><\/strong>
\nAn oldie-but-goodie that I do believe: it’s not about the numbers!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of a series of blog posts shining a spotlight on the people of GeocachingHQ. We hope to show you the \u201cgeo-who\u201d behind the \u201cgeo-what\u201d. \ud83d\ude42 What is your name? Ben Hewitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[52,159],"series":[],"class_list":["post-34322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-behind-the-scenes","tag-geocaching-hq"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/d3mo08i005h0zn.cloudfront.net\/blog\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Ben-DNF-Pride.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.geocaching.com\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/inside-geocaching-hq-podcast","embedCode":"

Geocaching Employee Spotlight: Product Owner & Avid Geocacher, Ben Hewitt<\/a><\/blockquote>