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The Interface Podcast Crew chats with Maurice Holt, Product Development Manager at PROS
Interface is a podcast where we connect technology and culture through conversation. Interface is brought to you by EMPOWER at PROS. EMPOWER is dedicated to attracting, developing and retaining Black talent at PROS. PROS helps people and companies outperform by enabling smarter selling in the digital economy.
Try Everything: The Power of Perspective feat. Maurice Holt
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[00:00:00] Jenni: Welcome to Interface a Podcast where we connect technology and culture through Conversation Interface is brought to you by Empower Pros. Empower is dedicated to [00:01:00] attracting, developing, and retaining black talent. At Pros, Pros helps people and companies outperform by enabling smarter selling in the digital economy.
I'm your host, Jennifer Plummer, and I'm joined by my hosts
Matthew and Sierra. Today our guest is Maurice Holt, manager of Product Development at pros. Thank you for joining us today.
[00:01:23] Maurice Holt: Thank you for inviting
me. Glad to be here.
[00:01:25] Jenni: Yeah, we're happy to have you.
[00:01:27] MattieCakes: This is a long time coming too. I've been, I've like, Get 'em on here. Get 'em
on the podcast. So I'm
super excited that you're here.
[00:01:35] Jenni: And you keep forgetting, Maddie, but when I first started talking about doing something, Maurice was on my list
of people, Hey, you wanna
[00:01:43] Maurice Holt: no way.
[00:01:43] Jenni: You wanna help with this? And he kind of was like,
[00:01:48] MattieCakes: Do you remem, Do you remember that? That was
like a year ago.
[00:01:51] Jenni: politely not responding. like, I know what that means.
[00:01:59] Maurice Holt: So I'm
not [00:02:00] about this,
[00:02:00] Siara: And then he showed up to the mentor mentee meeting that we had for Empower was that last week. And I was like at Maurice, out
of the shadows and with us in person
a.
[00:02:15] Jenni: yeah, let's not forget the, uh,
the Empower event for the
managers managing.
With purpose event.
Yeah. So he had a lot of zingers
for the, uh, audience that day. So he has a wealth of knowledge and a wealth of experience. So we're so happy
that you're here.
[00:02:39] Siara: anticipated guest for the Interface
Podcast.
No
[00:02:43] Jenni: we,
[00:02:43] Siara: pressure
[00:02:44] Jenni: No pressure
So, so we like to start out with
everyone's origin story. Um, so
please let us know. Um,
you're
a
manager of product development now. You have a development
team, [00:03:00] teens, um, you know, how did you, what was your
journey to this place where you are right now in your career?
[00:03:08] Maurice Holt: Wow. So how far do you wanna go back here? ?
Um.
[00:03:13] MattieCakes: All the way
[00:03:14] Maurice Holt: Little better in general. I mean, I've, I've been a developer
for over 30 years. Um, been a manager for a little over five, four years.
Uh, so Wow. How far do I go back? I guess I can talk about, uh, how do I even get into computer science and programming and,
and all that in general. Um,
so, you know, I graduated in in 84, so way, way back. And at the time, um, Computer science was very new. In fact, our, it wasn't until my senior year in high school that we actually had our first
computer science program or, or class. And at the time I would describe myself as a very average student . Um, I was more of a, a jock.
Um, [00:04:00] I was my thing athletics. And so when I heard this thing about computer science, I had always kind of had an interest. And, you know, I know they had like a.
Several different, you know, personal computers and things like
that had come out. And also I kind of had an interest, but I didn't know much about it.
But I decided to enroll in this computer science class and.
To my surprise, that was the first class where without trying, I could make straight A's and I'm like, Whoa, this is different . You know, maybe I have a knack for this or
whatever. And it kinda, you know, gave me a direction. Cause up to that point, I didn't know really what I wanted to do, um, for college or whatever.
But I really liked computer science. I was good at it. It was easy for
me. So I was saying, I guess that's what I'm gonna go into. And so,
Kind of jumped forward. I actually got a scholarship
to Texas a and m and chance to go bring me to Texas. And uh, I was the only computer
[00:05:00] science athlete, major athlete at
uh, Texas a and m at the time. and they all thought I was crazy cause it's like, you know, how are you gonna be an athlete and, and not take conne kinesiology or something like that. Uh, so I had to make my own schedules and, and things like that. But, It's, uh, something, like I said, I had a passion for, um, I had a knack for doing it and, you know, I was able to graduate.
Uh, I got an internship and that basically gave me some experience and was fortunate enough to get, uh, hired on at ibm. Uh, Um, in Cool Lake working for nasa. And so I, I actually want to call out and contribute that, that, uh, opportunity to, I had a black manager there that was my first manager at IBM and she was a black manager.
She actually gave me an opportunity and so I was very appreciative of
that. Um, and that kind of set my path, uh,
going.
And so, like I said, most of [00:06:00] my career I've been a developer, uh, specialized in UI
development, full site UI
development. And then toward the last couple
of years, I decided, you know what?
I've got this wealth of experience. Uh,
I never thought of myself as being a manager, taking a manager track, but. I was like, Okay, well let me give this a try. You know, I got some, again, some encouragement from a coworker to say, Hey, I think you can be good at this. I think you should try this. I'm like, Well, I don't know if I wanna go to the dark side.
But , I've ventured in it and I really enjoyed the journey. I mean, I've enjoyed being a manager, being able to have a chance to mentor and, and even participate in these things. Like this is probably part of that feeling, the need to give back and
looking for opportunities to give back. So
glad to be able to do.
[00:06:46] Jenni: Yeah, I think, I think it speaks to. You being exposed to computer science is a big key here when we're talking about how do we get more black talent in the industry. If, if no one's ever [00:07:00] had the opportunity to try it, how would you know that you're good at it or that you had a for it? Um, so it's great that you had that opportunity in high school,
[00:07:09] Maurice Holt: right.
right.
[00:07:11] Jenni: I
[00:07:11] Maurice Holt: And I, I would encourage people just, you know, I try to get my kids, you know, try everything, you know, Um, you never know cuz you may initially think that you like it or don't like it, but try it. And that's how you really know for sure, you know, be well rounded
by, uh, getting involved with different things and trying different
things.
[00:07:30] Jenni: Absolutely agree. I think the other common thread
is, um, yeah, I didn't realize you had a background in IBM
I talk about IBM a lot as well. Um, my first job out of college as well.
And you know, I don't know how you ended up there. I think I was recruited through the National Society of Black Engineers Career Fair and that's where that relationship started while I was an undergrad and, you know, went through the interview process and.[00:08:00]
They, they, um, basically, yeah, showed me the, that they had,
um, you know, that they were
concentrating
on bringing blacks and Hispanics into the company. And that was important to them and that really helped my,
decision for the, my, my first role outside of undergrad. Did you have a similar experience
or
[00:08:21] Maurice Holt: So my, my getting into IBM was really kind of a, a fluke, I wanna say. Uh, so I had interned in Dallas, at
in Dallas, uh, at a. Uh, I think it was digital switch communications or something like that. So I had interned and I had all intentions of going back to Dallas to work after graduation cuz they had made me an offer and everything.
And so my senior year, uh, one of my roommates that I had, um,
said, Hey, you know, IBM is, is gonna be here, gonna be doing interviews or something like that.
And, He had gotten a, yeah, he had gotten an interview with ibm. So I'm like, Really? You [00:09:00] know, and I'm trying, that's like the dream job back then that worked for ibm.
So I said, Well hey, you know, let me try . Let me go see what happens or whatever. So I went and I interviewed, um, , they, you know, gave me an offer and, and so now I had to backtrack because I had already told Dallas that, Hey, I'm coming to Dallas, thanks for the offer room. I did the internship with them and everything, but the last minute I was like, Hey, , IBM giving a much better offer and this is a dream job.
I can't turn it down. And
so that's where I ended up.
[00:09:32] Jenni: no regrets.
[00:09:34] Maurice Holt: Oh no no, regrets. . I would've, I would've regretted not doing it, that's for sure. mean, that probably some of the
most fun work even in my career doing, Cause I worked for, I worked on the space, uh, space station the early before Space Station actually was launched. So we worked on a lot of
the communications and the onboard systems, and so that was very intriguing work, just working for nasa.
I got to learn a lot about the politics of [00:10:00] working
for nasa. If you've been there before, it's a lot of checks and balances. Actually. NASA
doesn't actually do the good work. All the good work
goes through the contractors . So that's who you really wanna work for as a contractor,
for
nasa. And also, I really enjoyed that work and that kind of,
Spur my lo, my um,
my love of the ui, you know, working on the UI and things like that, so
yeah.
[00:10:28] MattieCakes: you mentioned that you had a black manager at ibm, um, kind of in your, you know, journey into software and computer sciences. Was that the first time you kind of had like that
mentorship from a black person or did you have that kind of throughout
your journey?
[00:10:44] Maurice Holt: No, that, that was probably the first time, uh,
that was the first exposure that I had to a black manager and it was a female manager as well. Uh, I give IBM a lot of credit for, uh, being very [00:11:00] diversified and, you know, present opportunities. I mean, since even leaving ibm, I haven't seen that level of diversification.
At the places I've gone. So I give them a lot of credit for that, uh, because we actually had several black managers there and, and also what we would call product managers here.
that I had a chance to learn and grow
from.
[00:11:23] MattieCakes: Hm.
[00:11:23] Maurice Holt: Yeah.
[00:11:26] Jenni: So what do you do
now? How you have a title manager, product development, but what, what is
that?
[00:11:35] Maurice Holt: So what I do is I run two uh, products, the rental and the CMS products, and basically we are responsible for, uh, pros pricing management in the car rental industry, car rental space. So the rental
product is actually on the pricing
pricing side.
Um, and it deals mostly with revenue management, pricing, things like that, the CMS product.
Related [00:12:00] to, um, the fleet. So when, when you have a car rental company, you have to buy and sell cars, You have to allocate where those cars are gonna be located, um, to maximize your rentals and your revenue, and when do I need to buy new cars and how much do I need to buy and stuff like that. So the CMS does deals with the fleet side of the industry.
Uh, and so there are actually two products that are on two different branches of, of. Pro software. One is more legacy and one is more the
B2B pricing industry. But together
we have the same customers. And,
and you know, my, my job is
basically to make those customers happy, make sure they have
deliverables and produce the, the most high quality products that we can.
[00:12:46] Jenni: Okay. And, And, you mentioned going to the
dark side of
management,
[00:12:51] Maurice Holt: Uh, that was always a joke. I mean, that's always been a, a joke amongst developers, you know, the managers of the dark side. Cause they didn't
understand, you [00:13:00] know, they would give orders on. You know, we need this done, we need that done. And they don't have no clue as to what it takes to do it. And if you try to explain to 'em, they're just like, you know, talking to aliens or whatever.
So we always say, you know, the
management was the dark side because they would just, they lived in a different world. They operated to a different beat. And so, um, for a developer
to say, I'm gonna be a manager, it's like, , you're going against the tribe,
So to speak.
[00:13:28] Jenni: So now that been doing that
four years, is it the dark side or do you see from the perspective of the manager?
[00:13:36] Maurice Holt: I see it from the perspective on the manager, but I'm very, very, very cautious of those things that I didn't like as a developer about management and how teams were run and how projects were run and how deadlines were, uh, done and stuff like that. And so I think that's probably, I wanna say what makes me a good
manager is because I do have that developer insight.
And so when we set deadlines or [00:14:00] we have, uh, uh, pressing schedule, I'm very realistic about what we can accomplish and what I should expect to accomplish. And I don't put, you know, I try not to put false expectations and, you know, unrealistic expectations on deliverables and things
like that. And so,
you know, I, I think, like I said, I hope that makes me a better developer because I do have that insight and that kind of empathy
of where the
developers are coming from.
[00:14:28] Siara: In your role as a manager now, have you been able to impart that wisdom, you know, across your peer, your other manager peers to say that may not have the development experience that you have to say, you know, I have this different perspective. I grew up through the ranks, you know, and I know what it's like to be on the developer side.
Have you been able to, you know, make any change, not make any changes, but impress upon your peers to say, you know, maybe this may be a little bit
unreasonable or think about it from this perspective, um, as coming [00:15:00] from the
developer background.
[00:15:01] Maurice Holt: Yeah. Yeah. I see. That's a, that's a good question. Um,
because when I became a manager, there was no manager 1 0 1. It's like, Okay, this is how you need to run things or whatever like that. And so I basically charted my own path of, okay, I know I've had enough experience running projects. I know. What is good and bad?
And so I looked at the tools that we had and I basically came up with my
own set of standards for
my
team, uh, standards when it comes to writing juror, how to write good
stories, uh, how to start planning. Um, Jennifer probably can tell you I actually
wrote, um, Some software using Visual Basic,
um, to basically create, uh, Excel spreadsheet that I can go and, and do help me do my planning and
everything like that. And so I've actually reached out to other developers and I mean,
I develop other managers
and say, Hey, you know, this is our process that we use in CMS and, and [00:16:00] this is how we, you know, do planning.
This is how we do, uh, Sprint planning, release planning. This is how we organize our stories so that we have good stories and this
is how we do our testing and
everything.
So yeah, I've kind of set out to do that and, and tried to be an influence
on other developers and other teams
like that.
Yeah.
[00:16:21] Siara: I think it's an interesting perspective. I can see
benefits on both sides of having a manager
who. Has the experience of
coming from the individual contributor level and then coming into
a manager, managing those types of people. And then you also have a
different perspective of someone who may not have all of that
experience, but they can come with a, a different perspective, maybe from a different part of the organization to see how, So
that's always
been interesting. You know, I don't
know if one is better than the other to have, but have you had that experience where
you have someone who knows? Nothing but had a positive [00:17:00] impact on a team where they were able
to see things from a different perspective without that experience.
[00:17:08] Maurice Holt: I can't think of anything in particular. Um,
Maybe I have to go elaborate on the question a little bit more, but
Yeah, I'm I, I got
[00:17:18] Jenni: at at pros, most of the development managers were developers. In fact, it's a pre, if you look at our ladders, it's, it's a prerequisite to get to. Back when we got promoted, Maurice, it probably was app lead. Um, but now technical lead, so all, all of the developers. Have that technical background. But I think what I do see is the longer you, the farther away you are from being an individual contributor, maybe you kind of lose that, being in touch with, um, trials and tribulations of being a software engineer.
[00:17:54] Siara: Yeah,
[00:17:54] Maurice Holt: yeah, yeah. I think to your point, like I can't think of a couple instances in
fact [00:18:00] where I did have a manager that knew nothing much about. Software, but he was a
good manager and he knew how to do the people
management of things, but he didn't
have much of a clue about the technical things. And so I, in his case, I thought he was good.
[00:18:18] Jenni: You're still
[00:18:18] Maurice Holt: Oh, okay. ,uh, teams just popped up. So in his case, I thought he was good from the standpoint that he relied a lot on his developers. You know, if, if there was a issue about, you know, time or whatever, He relied on us to make those decisions. He didn't just assume that, you know, Hey, we can get this done in two weeks.
You know, let's make it happen or whatever. And I thought that was, you know, I, I guess I can learn. I learned from that too, that even though he didn't have the
skillset, he relied on his people to do that. Uh, I've seen the opposite where, you know, somebody's all about schedules and they're all about deadlines.
And, you know, I hated the fact that every time we got to the end of a. We [00:19:00] had four weeks of work and one week to do it. And it wasn't like, Hey, let's change anything. It's just like, we gotta get this done. You know? Everybody works double overtime and everybody works weekends and all. And, and we could have, you know, as a developer, I saw this
coming already, you
know, and, and, and, we weren't doing anything to
mitigate that.
And so every end of release was a stressful, you
know, situation for
everybody. And, and I hated that environment. So I vowed to plan
and, and put a lot into planning so that
we don't get ourselves into that case, you know? And if it's something that we can't do, I'm very vocal about saying, Hey, we can't do that.
We can't meet that goal.
[00:19:38] MattieCakes: Yeah, to build up on kind of this discussion, I've always heard that like the hardest thing from stepping into management is leaving, doing the work behind, so, Question to you and Jenny. Um, are you guys finding opportunities to kind of stay connected to
the coding and kind of the work.
[00:19:58] Maurice Holt: I would love to, but I this, [00:20:00] if there's a regret, , that's the regret. I mean, I passion, I have a passion for coding. I love the, the whole aspect of, uh, you know, digging into a problem and working through something, things like that. And so as a manager, you really don't have the time. You know, I, I had to let that go.
And focus more on all the other aspects that come of it. Where I do get a sense of satisfaction now is that, uh, as a UI developer, I like being able to, um, prototype and plan and, and design. And so I will still, even as a manager, you
know, if we have a new feature or something like
that, I'll put together the design page.
I may run a, you know, put together prototypes, making sure that we have usability included and things like that. And also try to, you know,
of course, teach my UI developers, you know, to do the same, uh, because I do have more of an expertise in that
area. But yeah, I do miss it, but,
uh, you really, it's hard to, It was hard even when I was a
developer.
[00:21:00] You know, four or five years ago, one of the things that made me start thinking about going into
management is like this industry changes. You know, I went through two years where I had to learn five
different platforms, You know, um, React,
uh, s t js, uh, There was so many different platforms or whatever, and I had to learn needs
and become an expert in them. And I'm like, I don't know if I can keep doing .
You know? Cause it changes so often. I mean, maybe these young guys, they were out there, you know, on the web,
you know, looking at
all these new frameworks that come up and everything. But, uh, uh, so I was like, maybe I've just go into management. I don't have to worry about, you know, keeping up with the latest this and that.
they come out every
every couple months.
[00:21:46] Jenni: Yeah, I agree. Like, um, Where it comes in or like where you plug in with that is your experience. Because no matter the tool or the platform, you can like inject. Okay. Yeah,
Are these [00:22:00] requirements for finding up or you know, do we have a proper test plan? Um, what are, what are the different edge cases for the solution?
You know, how do we migrate, you know, how do we enable this feature? Is it a seamless thing or do we. Add added more features So that we can seamlessly, you know, enable this feature so the users don't, don't get it. So that's kind of where, It's not hands on technical, but it's definitely through that experience that you're, you're enabling the,
people on your team to, to, um, deliver better quality products,
features.
[00:22:35] Maurice Holt: Yep.
the,
Sorry. I was gonna say, it's really about the execution. You know, it's one thing to be developer and take a problem and write some code, but the whole
execution of a, of a project and a, and a development group. Is the key, you know?
Making sure that you have right requirements so you don't do twice the
work because you, you build something and you deliver it and they say, [00:23:00] Oh, that's not really what I wanted.
So knowing how the process of, okay, once you get to a certain stage, review that with the customer or the, the, the PM to make sure you're on the right track. You know, before you get all the way down the road and heads down and stuff like that, and teaching developers to do that and be more patic about, uh, how they go about development.
That's
the kind of things that I, I, I focus on now.
[00:23:25] Jenni: So what's your favorite part of being a Dove
manager?
[00:23:30] Maurice Holt: uh,
definitely some
favorites and definitely some least
favorites. Uh, the most favorite is probably just being more in control. As a developer, I had very little control
over how the group was run and
how the, the sprints and things were run.
So that aspect of controlling the product and how we do, you know, what do we
focus on, how we go
about doing it, I, I love that aspect of it.
Um,
the other part is being able to [00:24:00] mentor.
Pouring into new developers, teaching them techniques and things
that I, you know, experiences that I had. Uh, that's something I didn't have as a developer. I mean, you, you, you can have relationships, but as a manager, you, you have a chance to impact
more people. You know, everybody on my team, I have
one-on-ones with them and I try to
instill my knowledge and, and,
uh, make them better developers. And so that's a great opportunity. I
like that
[00:24:27] Jenni: That leads into my next question, which is, uh, what advice would you give to, um, individuals that are looking to have a career in software engineering? And, you know, you know, moving on up to management and beyond. Uh,
[00:24:44] Maurice Holt: Okay. Um, a lot of it depends on the level that you're at. I will say if you're high school, college, my biggest advice to anybody that I talk to is get an
internship. An internship is goal. Internship [00:25:00] co-op, what do you wanna call it? Do not graduate without
having an internship or a co-op or something like that.
Because that experience that you have on paper is worth more than any grades that you can get. You know, that's gonna get you in the door. And that's cuz it's basically you proving yourself and especially in this industry where you either have a night ward, you really don't. Um, having that experience is gonna get you in the door.
So make sure that you
have that on your. Map to get an internship before you graduate, um, and somebody new in the industry. Um, find a mentor. Find somebody that's in a position that you wanna be in and figure out how they did it. You know, talk to 'em about their experience of how they got to where they are.
Um, You can learn so much from people that already where you wanna be.
So find
somebody to help. You know, don't try to do it all yourself. Find somebody to help You move up.
Sorry about that.
[00:25:56] Jenni: Um, [00:26:00]
[00:26:01] Maurice Holt: So find somebody . Find somebody that can help you move. Um, when you trying to talk about going from development into management, that becomes more and more important than the networking. Um, I wouldn't have gotten into
management except for knowing some
people that were in management that basically brought me along.
And I even, I've seen that with other Sue, that people have Rosen up, but the only reason. The only reason that they've risen,
excuse me. The only reason that they've risen up is because they had somebody that was basically bringing them with them and bringing them up. And so you wanna make those connections
and those relationships because that's how you're gonna basically advance.
[00:26:43] Jenni: Absolutely great advice. Okay. Uh, what kind of programs do you think companies should implement to increase black talent and technology?
[00:26:59] Maurice Holt: [00:27:00] Um,
[00:27:01] Jenni: Uh,
[00:27:03] Maurice Holt: I would probably say the ones that I'm most familiar with right now, the ERGs, you know, I think having
ERGs, um,
or a to
[00:27:13] Jenni: Employee resource groups. For those that
[00:27:15] Maurice Holt: Yeah, in power. Those are ways where you can basically,
Influence
or be a present to presence to people ,
at schools and universities. Um, so they can see people that you can actually influence.
Um, For example, my wife, I look at her company, she
doesn't have any kind of, they don't have ERDs and
stuff like that. But I also look, you know, she constantly talks about the lack of diversity
and, and levels and things like that.
I think, uh, if you have a company that's open to having er d programs, then they're probably gonna be open more to being diversified and, and being concerned about things like that.
If they don't, then that's probably not on their agenda. Um, so having those [00:28:00] kind of programs, Gets people that are there engaged and it also gives you a platform to be able to maybe say, Hey, we gonna go together and reach out to U of H or to PV or somebody like that and show our presence
as a company, not just with one face.
[00:28:17] Jenni: Yeah, I, I, I Empower's been a big resource for us, obviously , um, and just definitely a platform that lets us have an audience with, you know, our company leadership to kind of talk about. The ideas that we have. Um, so, uh, you're right. It's kind of like if, if, if, if you're interested in a company that doesn't have one, then maybe that's a sign that that, um, communication channel doesn't exist.
[00:28:50] Maurice Holt: Yeah, but I would, at the same time, I would definitely encourage anybody, Don't let that this way, diss
way you, um, from pursuing something. If you're good
at what you do, then you need to [00:29:00] go for it and you shouldn't use anything like that to hold you
back. Um, if I had let that hold me back, I probably, I wouldn't do where I am
today because. For most of my career, you know, I was the only
black developer that
I knew, uh, and definitely that worked
in the company of the area and
everything. So if I let that sway me, then I
would've gone to a lot of the places
that I was, that
I've, you know, been in my career. Um,
and my. my. I'll
look on that as be the best you can be. My goal
anywhere else was not to be, okay, I'm
just
another developer. I'm gonna be the best developer or the best UI developer, or the best whatever. And if you take that attitude, I think regardless of the circumstances, you're gonna rise because they're gonna recognize the talent that you bring and the opportunities and the the expertise that you bring If you're the best in that area, that.
It's not about, I don't have an opportunity. You gotta be the best. If you're the best, then you're gonna have that [00:30:00] opportunity.
[00:30:03] Jenni: Love it. Love it. All right. That brings us to sound bite pending
[00:30:12] Maurice Holt: So
[00:30:13] Jenni: Yeah, the heat check. ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,
[00:30:20] MattieCakes: You should
introduce the heat check
[00:30:22] Siara: I was going.
[00:30:23] Maurice Holt: Yeah.
[00:30:26] MattieCakes: Oh,
[00:30:27] Jenni: Okay, so
yeah. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna make something up based with almost the stock is. So now is time for the heat check. This is where, um, we're gonna go around the room And kind of shout out what's been going on, what we've been reading, or events we've been to,
or whatever that's interesting in technology or culture over the past, you know, week or so.
So any volunteers to go first.
[00:30:53] MattieCakes: yeah. I can go first. Um, it's super interesting actually, because, you know, Pros deals with [00:31:00] pricing, uh, and the, and the thing I stumble across today was, and the headline is US Senator seeks antitrust. review of apartment price setting software and basically, um, there is this software, it's called Real Page.
And what they, It's basically, uh, revenue management. Let
me read some of the things. So the chair of the US Senate Committee asked the FTC to review whether this, Texas based, uh, tech company, Tech companies rent setting software violates an
antitrust laws. um, so basically
the software applies a complex set
of mathematical rules, um, to kind of give the landlords what they should set their rent
at.
And there was an interesting kind of example
that in one neighborhood
in Seattle, they, they found that 70% of
the
apartments were overseen by 10 property managers. And they all.
This software. Um, and I don't know if you've been to Seattle, but
rent out there is
crazy. Um, but just it's, it's, I [00:32:00] find that super interesting that like, and and especially in today's kind of economy where like we can just push rent and we can keep pushing it because that's what people, you know, will pay, but like at, at a certain point, like what They have to pay.
So kind of where is that balance between. You know, this revenue management and then like you know, where's the ethics
kind of where's that balance come? What do you guys think about that?
[00:32:26] Jenni: If there is regulations, um, on the rent prices, right, they should be able to build that into their calculations. I would think so Either there's no regulations, so that's the main problem is that needs to be regulated cuz whether or not they're using software, I think they could always just be like, I'm gonna raise the rent $500 a
month because I feel like it, Um, Yeah.
I don't, I, I need to read more about it to really understand it, but that would be my first question is, is there regulations and is it built into the.
[00:32:58] MattieCakes: Yeah, so the whole thing [00:33:00] is like an antitrust. So like if they're
colluding to build, like if everybody around is using the same software and the software
is telling everybody to raise their rent prices,
X amount of money is that collusion because it's not like they're working together as landlords to to decide the price.
It's the software's telling them. So that's what the f that's what this, um, Antitrust review is like to see if there is collusion. I'm not sure about that. Um, I think in the article they said they reached out to some people, but I think there is a balance there and I, I can kind of find what they said that, um, that it's, Yeah.
They said previously that it's revenue management software prioritizes at properties own internal supply and demand dynamic. Over, like external stuff is like competitor rents and it helps eliminate the risk of collusion
that could
occur with manual pricing.
So
there's the other side of that story.
[00:33:57] Jenni: the statement from the company that builds a [00:34:00] software.
[00:34:03] Maurice Holt: Hmm.
[00:34:04] Jenni: Yeah. Be curious to learn more about that
[00:34:07] Siara: Yeah.
Capitalism
[00:34:10] Maurice Holt: Yeah. I mean, that's what, that's what companies do is like trying to maximize your profits.
So I'm not sure how that's unfair,
but you know,
[00:34:20] Jenni: But that happened, what, a few years ago with,
um, prescription drug pricing. Right. I can't remember which prescription it was, but it,
it, like they raised the price of it like 300% in a very short amount of time and
maybe, Yeah.
So,
you know,
[00:34:38] Maurice Holt: Yeah. Yep. It's definitely info
fortunate.
[00:34:44] Jenni: Hmm. Yeah.
[00:34:47] Siara: Who's next?
[00:34:48] Jenni: I have one, unless you wanna go first, Sierra.
[00:34:52] Siara: I can I can talk about mine. I came across an article, um, where General Motors just reveal their new [00:35:00]
electric SUV this past Thursday. Um,
and it's supposed it, with this release, it'll be the cheapest compact
electric, uh, SUV on the market. Um, general prices are around 47
5, and. I was wondering around the room, what are your
thoughts about, you know, all these car companies are now making statements that, um, they're pushing their, their, um, their products to go electric.
I think Dodge came out last year and said that they're moving all of their vehicles to electric by, I think 26, 27 or something like that. And my husband is a Dodge guy. He unfortunately totaled. Charger, um, couple of years ago, and he was very upset about it. Um, and when he saw this, he's like, Oh, no, Dodge can't do this.
Um, And of course Tesla's, you know, very popular. So I'm wondering around the room, [00:36:00] how do you feel about the move to electric vehicles? Are you in, are you a little hesitant? Are you like, I want a greener planet, let's do it. Me, I don't know. I'm kind of, I'm kind of in the, in the middle. I could see the
benefits, but I'm a little resistant to change
[00:36:16] Maurice Holt: Yeah, I actually take that cause that's an interesting topic. I like that topic, uh, a lot. I've kind of resigned. Said
that my, my next car will probably be on
electric car. Um, I think
this, they've been a game changer. You know,
I'm, I'm kind of like a, not a, car buff, but I follow
cars and so electric cars
and the Tesla came out.
You know,
it just put the shame so many of these high end, you know, sports cars
that are
all into the muscle and the whatever like, that.
And then this, this, this family car comes in and now can, you know, outperform. Drag cars,
like that, it's really been a
game changer. So now that you know how much horsepower
and all this other stuff, well I got an [00:37:00] electric, I can blow out anything that you have.
So
it's kind of
interesting. But, um, I think
it's
definitely a market. You know. I see everybody going that
way. Uh, I'm kind of excited about it. My biggest thing is like, where
do I wanna jump in? I know that Lexus is also talking about going completely
electric by 2030 or something like that. And so, The biggest thing I wanna see is, you know, we have Tesla and we have some of these other new players in the market that are leading right
now, but when it comes
to quality, you know,
BMWs, the Mercedes
like that, the, the electric engine is just
one aspect of the car. But when it comes to
fit and
finish and, and the quality
of, you know, the parts and things like that, I mean, these companies have a long history
and then they have production and
everything else. When they get into the game, I'm really looking to
see how it's gonna change, you know, the, the, the Tesla crew and things like that.
When you have, um, a Lexus that, and all the luxuries and everything that come with [00:38:00] Lexus
that can perform just as well as a Tesla. Do you go with the Tesla
because it is electric or do you go with
the
Lexus because of the name and everything that you get besides
just the electric engine.
[00:38:12] Jenni: Do you still to get on a waiting list to get a, A Tesla?
[00:38:17] Maurice Holt: Uh, I think you do, but
yeah. I, I don't know. I think you do, but
I don't think it's that long of a wait. Depends
on which one you want to get. If you wanna try to get a PLA then yeah. You are gonna be
waiting
a
while.
[00:38:28] Jenni: Yeah. I I think my take on it is convenience and. I, I, I am actually needed to start doing some research cuz I, I drive an oh nine Chevy Traverse, so I need a . It's, I'm, I'm all, I'm ready to, If it hadn't been for Covid and all The stock going away, I probably would've already bought a new car by now.
But I'm kind of trying to wait for the prices to. Get competitive again, I guess. Um, but it's all about convenience, right? I, I don't, I, I don't [00:39:00] wanna be stuck somewhere with the empty battery . How long? The questions I need to know is how long does it take to recharge? Where can I recharge? you know, I know there's a gas. station on every corner and you know, maybe my option is just to find the most fuel efficient car Um, but I'd be open to researching, but I.
don't know if I'm quite. There.
Yeah. That's
[00:39:24] Siara: I with you, Jenny. The last thing I wanna do is be stranded somewhere with a low battery . I mean, somebody can bring you gas. Can somebody bring
me and you know, something to plug my car in? So I.
[00:39:36] Jenni: right?
[00:39:37] Maurice Holt: so look at it like this cuz this is
my take on that because a lot of people talk about with the
charging stations, all like that. We do the same things every
day with our cell phones. You charge it
at night. You used to do today. When you make, before you go to bed, you make sure you put it on the charger and as long as it has enough
charger that last a day, who really cares If you get an electric car,
First of all, don't get it. And plan to go out of [00:40:00] time, . Cause I
think it, it doesn't satisfy that
niche at all it for, but if
you're going to work and just throughout the day or whatever, it's like your phone. I would
never expect to have to go to a charging station outside of my home. And I look forward to not having to ever go to a gas station again because I drive it, you know, I go to work or whatever like that.
When I come home, I
plug it in and it charges up and it's ready
The next day or whenever, and then I don't have to go to gas stations anymore,
[00:40:27] Siara: that is. That is a
huge perk.
[00:40:29] Maurice Holt: Yeah, yeah. So I'm actually looking forward to it for, for,
daily
travel, things like that.
[00:40:36] Jenni: For daily travel.
[00:40:37] Maurice Holt: 200, 300 miles. I don't drive 200, 300 miles a
day,
so I should never have to
[00:40:42] Jenni: But what if you want to
[00:40:45] Maurice Holt: you need, you need a, you need a regular compression car. out
town
[00:40:50] Jenni: That's same
[00:40:51] Maurice Holt: have where you gotta go to lake and back.
[00:40:55] Jenni: reason I have a big old traverse and I have only one kid at home right now [00:41:00] because on the off chance that I go to IKEA and I need to like load boxes in it cause I'm like I could downsize, but what if I wanna go to Ikea
[00:41:11] Maurice Holt: Yeah.
Yeah,
[00:41:13] Jenni: I'll do some research. I'll do, Maybe I'll ask you some more questions offline, Maurice, about that.
[00:41:20] Maurice Holt: And even for the, for the going out of town, I mean, I
can definitely see the industry changing such
that,
you know, just like
you have hotels for staying out of town, the hotels are gonna be a major source of charging. That's the place where you're gonna
be, if you go out of town, you're gonna find a hotel to stay at. That hotel has a charging station for those people of electric vehicles. So that, and
then, you know, retrofit and gas, you know, gas, gasoline
stations to have that, I think we should be fine. Another interesting thing I found out about electric cars is that there actually, there's an
industry now for electric motor kit.
So you can take your
normal classic car or whatever and there's a kit that you [00:42:00] can, that you convert it
into electric, basically rip out the, rip out the motor, plug in this
kit in electric battery and motor and you can turn your classic car into
an
electric car, electric vehicle. So that's like a big mo, a big, uh, yeah, that's
a big market for that.
Now it seems like it's gonna be growing where you can, you don't have to get rid of your old car, you
can just convert it to electric.
That's gonna be
[00:42:23] Siara: Jenny. The O, The
oh
nine Traverse can live
[00:42:26] Maurice Holt: Yeah. . Yeah.
[00:42:29] Siara: a kick
[00:42:29] Jenni: No, I gotta get rid of it. I don't even have Bluetooth in there.
I'm, it's
[00:42:35] Maurice Holt: Yeah.
[00:42:36] Jenni: Which this is probably something else I could install, this point
I just wanna get a new car.
[00:42:44] Maurice Holt: Yeah.
[00:42:47] Jenni: Okay, so, So my heat check is last weekend was the code red, uh, University of Houston Hackathon that pros us sponsored. I think I talked about the, I think this was [00:43:00] one of my heat checks last year. Cause I, I went, last, I did, it was virtual last year. Um, it was an in person event this year and it's just so much fun.
Um, It's, uh, you know, mostly, you know, college students, you know, sophomores through, you know, through senior and they get a challenge, um,
and they get 24 hours to implement it.
Um, and I was a judge, so, you know, I went from team to team to see, you know
how
they solve the challenge. And this kind of goes back to Maurice, you were talking about.
How the technology changes every year. and a lot of the,
the, the kids are like Oh, I just couldn't
get this you know, I've never used React before. I've never used this before. you know, they were doing web scraping and things like that. And, um, you know?
one thing I was saying is yeah, that's, that's a good experience for you to, to have to
learn, learn a technology for a project, because that's definitely gonna
happen to you.
When you go in, you know, when in
your professional [00:44:00] career, because the tools we're using today are not gonna be the
tools that we're using five years from now. They may be similar, but you're gonna have to be asked to
um, basically study up and imple, you know, here's a requirement, we, and the best, you?
know, the best tool for that is this thing that we've never used before.
Take a couple weeks, learn it and let's design it and go and implement it. Um, so, um,
I think that's a good lesson for the kids, um, that you don't get in a classroom. Um, like you said, having an internship is another way to do that. Um, I think the hackathon is a good,
um, you know, pressure. There's a prize at the end. you learn how to collaborate on a team
and uh, I just had a blast. It's always fun. I hope to do it next year as
[00:44:46] Maurice Holt: Yeah, no.
absolutely agree. Um, I would say if you are in computer science and that's your field and that's what you're gonna pursue, that uh, critical skill in that is basically being a self-starter because. [00:45:00] What you learn in, in, in, high in
college is not gonna be your
key to success in the industry.
You're gonna have to learn things new and they, you know, you do get to a point where
language is the language is the language. You basically have to
learn the syntax and you get to that point. But you have to be able to say, Hey, there's
something new. I need to go
figure. How it is, I need to
know how to become an expert in it. and then that's how you're
gonna be
successful in, that field. Being able to be a self-starter, uh, and being able to take
on those new challenges like that. Um, because there's not gonna be like, Hey, we're gonna send everybody to this class and you guys going learn and then come you know, months later,
Yeah, probably not.
you know, Where you gonna be successful is if
somebody says, Hey, there's this new thing out there and you go figure it out. You learn it and you introduce it to
the company and we're like, Wow, you know, we can use this and, and they're going to recognize you for not you becoming the [00:46:00] expert and you can actually be the one that cater something in versus who's gonna teach me how to do
this. So that's a good critical skill to have in, in
this
industry.
[00:46:10] Jenni: Absolutely.
Well, Maurice, thanks for being here. How can people get in touch with you if they wanna connect with you?
[00:46:22] Maurice Holt: Uh, so I'm a old school guy. I don't do the social media so much. . I look at it, but I don't participate in it. So LinkedIn is probably the best way to get in touch with me. Um, I definitely believe LinkedIn is something that you should all, everybody should have, especially if you're a professional. Uh,
and so yeah, LinkedIn would
be the.
[00:46:44] Jenni: Awesome. And is there anything that you're gonna be involved in that you wanna shout out to us today?
[00:46:53] Maurice Holt: Uh, no. I gotta check with Jennifer and see what she's gonna plan next.
[00:46:59] Siara: I have [00:47:00] something to highlight. I'd like to highlight the Empower Employee Resource Group here at pros. Just kicked off their first mentoring, uh,
program last week. Um, All, actually all of us that are here today are a part of that program. I met with my mentor yesterday. We had a fantastic meet and greet, um, kind of charted our path forward and I'm very, very interested in, you know, what the outcome will be for this, you know, building this, these relationships and these connections.
And so huge shout out to the Empower Group, um, for putting this program together. I think it's gonna, Really powerful, the connections that are gonna be made, hopefully the opportunities that come from, you know, these relationships that are being built and just, you know, bringing up black professionals through the ranks and having them explore, you know, opportunities across pros and building new skills and increasing your networks and things of that nature.
So [00:48:00] it's a really cool program. They did an awesome job
organizing it and kudos to that
team.
[00:48:06] Maurice Holt: Yeah. Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to
that. Um, the guy that like to have is a mentor, is actually a friend of
mine, is Bobby Kyle. So I've known Bobby. Over 20 years. Cause We worked at BMC together.
So, you know, it's good in, the I mean, it's more like a friendship, but it's gonna be a mentor in the sense that, you know, he's definitely, he's a director, senior VP or whatever like that.
And so I'm looking forward to learning just a little bit, a lot more about
the new space that I'm in as a manager. So, Yep. think that was a
great.
[00:48:39] Jenni: yeah, it's definitely bringing the community together inside
pros and we'll learn with each other, um,
and you Working on those relationships, like you mentioned before,
Maurice.
[00:48:51] Maurice Holt: Yep. Yep.
[00:48:54] Jenni: All right. We wanna thank our guest, Maurice,
for joining us today as well as [00:49:00] all of you listening in. If you enjoy this
conversation, drop us a line@interfacepodcastpros.com
or find us on LinkedIn. Please also rate and review us on whatever platform you are listening from.
It helps the show tremendously and we want your feedback to make the show better.
We encourage you to go out and continue this conversation and even start your
own. We will meet you back here on the
next episode from Mark Who to yours? Have a good one.
[00:49:26] Siara: Bye.
[00:49:26] Maurice Holt: Thanks.
Thanks.
[00:49:29] Jenni: Cool.