From User to Certified Consultant: My Atlassian Champion Glow-Up

[#1]

Many years ago, I filed my very first Jira ticket—just a bug report with two blurry screenshots.

Today, I’m an Atlassian Certified Consultant. This is the story of how a curious end-user grew into a Community Champion and consultant through structured learning, professional certifications, and—above all—the generosity of the Atlassian Community.

Phase 1 | Everyday User

As a developer, QA engineer, team lead, and architect, I lived in Jira and Confluence. I always asked why a workflow existed before tackling how to fix it, combed the Atlassian Community for answers, and experimented with time-tracking “the Jira way.”

Phase 2 | Project Lead & Product Owner

A new job dropped me into product ownership for Atlassian tools—and my first taste of Jira Service Management. I dove into admin tasks, sat my first certification exam…and failed. Every thorny question from users or customers sent me back to the Community, which never let me down.

Phase 3 | Senior Atlassian Consultant

Taking a senior-consultant role turned the journey up to eleven. I earned multiple certifications and all three Atlassian designations—Agile DevOps Specialist, Administration Expert, ITSM Specialist. I answered Community questions daily, attended events to stay sharp, and became an Atlassian Community Champion in the process.

Current Phase | Forge Explorer

Now I tunnel even deeper into the Atlassian mountain—building my first Forge apps. The Community still has my back, and I repay the favor by sharing every new insight.

I’m grateful—and humbled—to be a small part of this amazing ecosystem.

Lessons Learned

• Certifications multiply impact: structured learning + instant credibility.
• Teach to learn: writing an answer exposes gaps you never saw.
• Automate aggressively but incrementally: one rule that saves a minute per ticket adds up to weeks per year.
• Build for one, share with many: what you give the Community returns compounded every day.

Three Words That Sum It Up

Curiosity → Certification → Community

Those three words turned Jira tickets from chores into a career—one I now share through consulting, app-building, and mentoring, always alongside the Community.

[Brita Moorus]

Love this journey, and how clearly your curiosity and persistence paid off!

It's inspiring to see how certifications, community, and hands-on experience can turn everyday tasks into real expertise. Thanks for sharing! 💜

[Bobby Taylor]

Great story and thanks for sharing your adventure @Kai Krause ! It sounds like it has taken you to places that you probably didn't expect when you first submitted your original bug report! I am firmly in the "Curiosity"/Phase I of your outlined path but can already see and feel the support of this community, which happily surprises me every day!

[Whitney Fugleberg]

What an inspiring journey Kai! Thank you for sharing the ups and downs along the way!

[Anwesha Pan (TCS)]

Thats very inspiring @Kai Krause . Love it and thanks for sharing, it motivates a lot of us here in this community. 🫶🏻