Matter Stories: Ashlee Drakes, Senior QA Analyst

Tell us about yourself. Where are you located, what’s been your career journey, and what brought you to this industry?

I am from Long Beach, California, originally. I left California in 2013 and after moving around a bit I've settled in the Atlanta, Georgia area for the last three years. I have been working in Customer Support since 2011, a few years after graduating college. This was very unexpected since I thought I wanted to be a lawyer when I started undergrad. Before joining Matterport and the tech industry, I was working in the luxury concierge and hospitality industry. I decided I wanted a change of industry after 11 years and honestly became most interested in tech because of how highly other people spoke about the benefits, work/life balance, and the overall perks of working in the industry. Although I didn't have any technical knowledge, I believe customer service is at the core of every industry. So, I decided to take my years of experience and find a place where I could apply it in the tech world. 

What excites you most about your role?

What excites me most about Customer Support is its range. No matter what company you work for or what industry you’re in, Customer Support is at the core of the business. As a Quality Analyst, I am responsible for influencing how our customers experience Matterport through our quality standards. That allows me to directly contribute to one of the “Three Dimensions” of Matterport: Be the Customer. 

Tell us about your biggest personal accomplishment this past year, or favorite project at Matterport? What was it, were there any challenges, and how was it successful?

One of my favorite projects this past year was creating an SFDC queue for the Support team to transfer cases of customers needing assistance from the Sales team. This process decreased the time it took for customers and potential customers to receive a first time response from a Matterport Sales rep after initially reaching the Support team, connecting customers directly with the Sales team. 

Personally, my biggest accomplishment was learning how to navigate becoming a first time mom / working mom. Becoming a mom has helped me better approach challenges I face at work. I’ve learned not to feel defeated when things don’t work out my way the first time and that sometimes certain problems will take multiple attempts before I’m satisfied with the outcome. For example, trying to figure out how to get my daughter to sleep through the night. I took many losses along that journey and at one point it seemed like nothing was working. Besides understanding that babies do what they want when they want and this was no fault of mine, I learned to appreciate what didn’t work and use it to help me figure out how I can apply this towards a solution.

Are you involved in any programs such as EMERGE, Matterport Cares, ERGs etc., if so why? What’s been a memorable experience?

I was a participant in EMERGE 2023. I am a co-lead of BERG (Black Employee Resource Group) as well as a member of other Matterport ERGs including WOM. I’ve also participated in Matterport Cares events. 

The events that BERG put on during Black History Month and Juneteenth are always memorable for me because Matterport has been the first company I’ve worked for that actually put resources towards the celebration of cultural events. I love seeing different faces from the company come together to learn and have a good time, even the CEO! One of the things we discussed was what can be learned from some of the more public failures in addressing the Juneteenth holiday, and what companies should be mindful of to celebrate it respectfully. With Juneteenth being a newly recognized federal holiday, there is still so much to learn about the ways in which it is properly celebrated.