CommerceBear is thrilled to welcome Iris Huang to the Operations team. As an Ops specialist at multiple Canadian tech companies, including experience directly in the furniture ecommerce space, we can’t wait to see Iris use her eye for detail and process development. Get to know her a little better in our Q&A below.

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What are you most excited about as you join Bear?

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Definitely the chance to learn from such an incredible team of people and be a part of solving some seriously complex pain-points for our users. It’s not hard to see how motivated and results-driven everyone at CommerceBear is, which made the decision to join easy for me. Bear’s passion for helping merchants of all sizes thrive in the space personally resonates with me too.

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What drew you to Operations?

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At university, I figured out early that anything operations related was what I liked best about my business courses. I loved getting into the details of how a place runs, working through complex problems, and figuring out ways to help it run better and faster. Since then, I’ve gravitated towards ops roles and taken on building out ops processes within those roles. My favourite part of the job is to first become an expert at the existing processes, then figure out, through trial and error, how to improve them with the team.

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What are your first moves when you’re starting on a new team?

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Observe and learn everything. From people and names, the users, the platform, and each team’s role in all of it. I try to get as much context as possible. I find it helps me be better prepared to dive into the technical parts of my new role and get motivated if I understand how everything ties together.

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What are your words to live by professionally? 

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“Expect the unexpected.” You never know what new problems or situations you’ll face and you can’t always be prepared. I see the unexpected and uncertainty as opportunities to learn and grow. It’s a chance to figure out a solution together as a team and create processes for the next time. As long as you maintain a guiding light and aren’t afraid to fail, there’s no unexpected that can’t be solved.

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What’s your favourite article of furniture? 

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Dining tables for sure. To me, the best bonding with family and friends happens around a dining table with good food and good conversation. It’s a piece of furniture that is so versatile in both its practical use and ability to bring people together.

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From a design perspective as well, there are endless styles and forms a dining table can take on, making it a great way to express personal style. It can be a neutral piece that grounds a space or a statement piece that makes a space.

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What’s your favourite down time activity?

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Hanging out with my dog, Bumi. He’s an 1.5 years old American Eskimo/Dachshund mix, 20lbs, and 100% energy. Being his dog mom has become my whole personality. I love going on hikes with him and taking him to the local dog park to see all his friends. 

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When I’m not hanging out with my dog, I like to try new restaurants and bars in the city with friends and document it all on film cameras. I’m also trying to travel more now. I went to Hawaii recently (after not leaving Toronto for two years) and I definitely caught the travel bug.

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Hiking, traveling, photography… you’re certainly no slow poke! Welcome to the team, Iris!

✌🏼🐻