Day in the life – Pete Hood

As part of our new ‘Day in the life’ we’re interviewing employees of all levels, across all areas of the business to learn a bit more about them and how we all work together here at Three.

Today we’re getting to know Pete Hood.

Vital stats

• Job Title – Change Manager – Migration
• Function – PMO
• Tenure – 11 Years

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I live in Maidenhead with my wife, Louise and our children Oliver (7) and Isla (4) and four fish. I support Arsenal, although my son is Chelsea mad so I have been to far too many Chelsea games this year than I am comfortable with.  I play bass guitar in a wedding/party band and thanks to the Covid wedding rules being eased, it means I have been to about 15 weddings so far this year.

I joined Three in 2011 as a part time advisor in the Newbury store. Since joining I have worked in a few different roles, from working my way from an advisor to Manager in Retail, to joining the Supply Chain team in 2015, CSD in 2017 as a Channel Change Specialist and now in PMO as a Change Manager.

In a nutshell, describe your role and how you support our business objectives

I am still new to my role, so learning how the R3 Migration changes will affect the business, our customers and channels is a priority to allow me to get up to speed.

Migration has to be delivered in a way that causes the least amount of disruption to our customers as possible so as a Change Manager, I am responsible for ensuring the business knows what is coming, initially by capturing the impact of the change in each business function by completing business impact assessments to identify dependencies, training requirements and risks, which will then feed into business readiness activities.

I’ll then be busy working with different teams/SMEs on a launch plan for channels and functions and as we get closer to launch, I’ll be helping with setting up user trials and hyper care. So quite a broad remit!

What does a typical day look like in your role?

Right now, asking lots of questions and saying “I am new” quite a lot. At the time of writing, we’re in the process of learning more about how Migration will work from Amdocs who have been holding regular sessions to go over the detailed aspects of it all, like how systems and technical processes are going to work.

What is on the cards for the second quarter of 2022 in your world?

Getting the business ready for Migration is going to take a lot of work and this will really begin to ramp up in to Q2 and beyond. I’ll be busy talking to a wide range of different functions across the business capturing any dependencies they have to be able to successfully launch the migration programme.

How have you found returning to the office?

I have enjoyed being back. I don’t need to tell you how impressive Green Park is but no matter how good the office is, I feel it is important to really make the most of the time spent there. I have missed the spontaneous conversations in the kitchen, going for lunch or coffee with a colleague and that awkward moment when you want to speak to someone at their desk, nervously approaching them when they have their earphones in, mouthing “are you on a call?” whilst making the shape of a phone with your hand as you enter their field of vision.

How have you supported your personal wellbeing during the past 18 months?

This time last year, it was playing music and doing karate with my son. Now, owing to a dodgy shoulder, it’s mainly music keeping me sane but I hope to continue my journey to black belt immortality at some point in the near future. My boy should become a black belt in the next 12-18 months if he keeps practicing hard and if he does, he’ll be one of the youngest ever to reach that level in this part of the country. I am trying to use the discipline from Karate to teach my son how to play guitar at the moment but that is often proving fruitful and testing the limits of good wellness.

I am lucky to have two active kids so we do lots together. Football, swimming, going to the park – The lot. I have found being active, and finding time each day to do something other than sitting at the desk has kept me sane over the past 18 months.

Give us a fun fact…

I set a world record score for a song on Guitar Hero 3 on the PlayStation back in 2008 and it still stands to this day. Yes I do check from time to time and yes I stand ready to dust off the guitar and blow the cobwebs off the PlayStation should it ever be beaten!