Meet The Glow Team; John Nerush

This week we delve into the world of John Nerush, Glow’s Senior Front-End Developer.

Describe your role, where you fit within the team, and what your responsibilities are?

My role primarily revolves around how the users view and interact with the system. Working with technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, I develop user interfaces with our Product Designer Anthony and handle data flow with the Technical Director and Senior Back-End Developer Kamal based on the requirements of the stakeholders.

As a front end developer and member of a small start-up team, my role also entails elements of SEO, marketing, content strategy, project management and business development as well as any number of other tasks needed to help build the foundations of the business. Some days get a bit more hectic than others.

What was your experience before coming to Glow?

Before Glow, I spent nearly 15 years in roles from mockup design utilising tools like Photoshop and Fireworks through to front and backend development with technologies including JavaScript, EmberJs, PHP and WordPress. Frontend development has always been my preferred role as I get to sit between the backend and design roles, which, allows me to employ more of my skill set within my position.

Previously I have worked on my own and in small to medium-sized businesses, as well as FTSE100 corporations including Sky and Centrica.

While I don’t want to repeat what Ant said last week in his interview — I’m going to have to say my standout experience from the previous 15 years of working in web and web development was my time at Una Tickets. Ever since the end of Una, we’ve all wanted to get back to that point in time, and it was inevitable that it would happen eventually.

What does a day at Glow look like for you? How do you expect this to change over the next year?

At the moment, my days are very dynamic and are subject to sporadic change. We have planning/discovery sessions as and when needed as well as the need to re-think our approach when features are further defined or direction shifts due to discovery and research of our market and feature list.

I’m also learning new technologies at the same time as building the system so, a large portion of what I am building is exploratory, meaning I am not always sure of the best or most useful way to approach implementation. A lot of experimentation is happening and, plenty of refactoring as best practice is being established.

I am thankful that we can work in ways that suit our development technique and team structure as so far this has been exceedingly efficient and will be a topic of some blog posts in the future. We will be evolving our project management and product delivery methodologies over the coming months and, that’s something I am looking forward to exploring.

How do you like working with the Glow team?

It’s rare to find a team who work so well together. I’ve worked in enough places that do not have a good dynamic, so I know not to take it for granted.

We all want to make the world a better place, but equally, we all want to help each other be better people, and for me at least, that is something invaluable. I feel appreciated and looked up to, and I take great pride in the work I do. In the same way that it takes a village to raise a child, it takes much more than a brand and an idea to achieve a great culture. It has to come from every part of the team and the business.

This dynamic is not a formula that I can easily explain; however, it is something I feel when I work with the Glow Team. I feel incredibly privileged to be a core member of this team.

What are your thoughts on the idea of Glow, and how do you see it impacting the market? What are your hopes for this business, and what would you like to see it do in the future?

I think that the idea behind Glow is excellent despite the need for it being less than ideal. We’re at a time where corporations can essentially ignore individual complaints of consumers who do not have the means to hold them to account legally. Group litigation is intended to help resolve this imbalance; however, the system is incredibly hard to access.

The Glow system aims to significantly redress that balance and help people access the legal system and modernise a currently very outdated process. Not only helping individuals but also making solicitors, case funders and case insurers’ jobs easier too.

What personally motivates you?

I am very fortunate in my situation in life, and I understand many people are not, and most of them are not by their own fault either. I am driven to help those less fortunate than myself.

What behaviour or personality trait do you attribute your success to, and why?

In some ways, I wonder if some of the more negative aspects of my personality are in fact responsible for making me good at my job, or at least in part.

I have always sought comfort and safety in computers, spending most of my child and adult life at one. However, rather than wasting that time, I spent much of it discovering and learning, eventually gaining enough ability in design to land my first role, which after two years became my first programming role — where my career was born.

I spend a large part of my spare time developing my skills, and I honestly really care about the role I play in how people access our system and more importantly, our legal system. The more attention, care and passion I put into my role, the better the experience for Glow’s users will be.

Who inspires you?

I have a few inspirations and for different parts of my life. I have developed and changed as a person significantly over the last decade, and I attribute much of that to Alan Watts and Graham Hancock.

Aside from philosophy, Keiichi Tsuchiya is probably my biggest inspiration. He is better known as the ‘Drift King’ — a professional race driver from Japan who is a repeated and relentless winner of almost any motorised sport he goes near and is quite possibly the best driver in the world.

If you could learn one new skill in 2020, what would that be?

I would love to learn more about audio production and audio technicalities in general.

If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which would you pick?

Camera, Spotify and Netflix, without hesitation.

What’s the best advice you‘ve ever had, and who was it from?

If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you are not sure you can do it, say yes — then learn how to do it later — Richard Branson.