It was a really good year for me This was my second year at Netguru - much more engaging and crazy than the previous one. Netguru is a company that...
It was a really good year for meThis was my second year at Netguru - much more engaging and crazy than the previous one. Netguru is a company that... Originally posted on dawidw.pl
It was a really good year for me
Something about work.
This was my second year at Netguru - much more engaging and crazy than the previous one. Netguru is a company that gives you lots of opportunities to growth yourself as a developer. We have high standards in terms of code we make and in terms of our process. When we work on a project we think about the whole product not only about the code . Despite the fact we have grown to more than 30 people in 4 locations last year, you can still feel the young team spirit, we are still open minded and on the bleeding edge of the newest technologies. Our structure is flat, we share a lot of knowledge inside the company and we support each other. I don’t know any company that would be a better fit for a young man starting his journey.
I had an opportunity to work in few interesting projects but I’m going to keep it short. Let’s start with Flumes - a startup which is dealing with real time analysis of social media. Serious stuff. I was responsible for implementing new design there. Next I was helping with Multibaza - this is an interesting product - it’s helping to manage all the educational content provided by PWN and making it easier for teachers to prepare more interactive classes for their students. Another front-end work of mine. If I remember correctly, next project I was involved in was the early phase of the Demand Beer - this funny app lets you team up with your friends to order a case of beer for your other friends. I’ve met James there - an awesome guy - my Instagram feed will never be the same without pics of his beard! Next I’ve done couple projects for Malcolm - one of the most positive guys I’ve ever known. We teamed up with Andy and second Andy, to create this funny and engaging startup called The Daily Spank, you definitely should check it out! We’re hitting iTunes soon. I’ve really enjoyed working with you guys, the startup atmosphere and the spirit - I hope this will work! In a meantime I was helping with another startup called Benchify which lets you to benchmark your contacts - great deal. You can place your boss on the bench not in the first team. Awesome. We deployed production on Christmas Eve. Crazy! What I’m most proud of is that my communication skills have got like +100 points during the last year. That’s important for me.
Something about the future.
I’ve also had my first “wait, that won’t be the best for the user” moment and I realized that User Experience is something that is very, very important for me and that I want to design for people in the future. I really enjoy thinking how users will be using products that I provide and how can I make them better. That’s why I will be studying “User Experience Design” this year.
My first attempt was to redesign the Netguru.co . I’ve teamed up with Ann and Kuba to decide on the content we want to put there and overall design of the site. Mateusz did a great job transferring our vision to pixels. Our work will be released soon so stay tuned.
Something about conferences
- Wroclove.rb (Wrocław) great Ruby conference organized by friends from DRUG. One of the best I’ve ever attended. Good speakers, good venture, up to date topics.
- 4 developers 2012 (Poznań) - this was something that came out of nowhere. I’ve signed for “Managing IT projects” block and it was quite interesting - especially the talk about first SCRUM in Allegro and the one about doing LEAN in startups. But this was one of those conferences that I’m not used to after my previous experiences with Ruby/Rails events. I was scared because almost ALL of the attendees were IT people and in this BAD way if you know what I mean. Like PHP and JAVA people. Sorry guys, I just don’t know how to talk to you. And lots of HR companies willing to hunt your head.
- W stronę designu krytycznego. (Kraków) - That was something new to me - it was a conference about design, but in this pure, non digital way. Really interesting.
- WUD Silesia (Katowice) - My first UX conference - I’ve enjoyed almost all the talks, I’ve understand the problems and I was interested in solutions that people suggested. Awesome thing. I’ve also ensured myself that I want to go this way.
- Lightning.io - and finally my little child :) together with Tim Lossen from Wooga I’ve organized this little thing. Lightning.io was a conference made up only from lightning talks - short, lasting only 5 minutes talks. We had lots of fun doing that!
Something I’ve discovered this year.
