This week, we asked our Technical Director to walk the gauntlet and tell us his story. Que, Kamal.
Describe your role, where you fit into the team, and what your responsibilities are?
My role consists of leading all things technical here at Find Others. This includes working with the team to make decisions about how we build and deliver the product, how the development team works together, and how we ensure that the product meets our high standards.
I am also the primary back-end developer, so a large part of my day is writing code to build the back end of the website.
My role also includes some project management, making sure the correct product is delivered to plan, that everyone is aware of what is being delivered, when and why.
What was your experience before coming to Find Others?
After finishing university, I applied for a few jobs and accepted one of the first offers I got, which was from Tickets.com in Milton Keynes. It was here I learnt about ticketing systems, including the details of how they worked. I also got to improve my development skills with a few different languages and technologies in the real world.
In 2014 I received an email from Amar, explaining that he was starting a new ticketing company, just down the road. He wanted to build a brand new ticketing system that focused on being tout and counterfeit-proof. To me, this was a really exciting project, so I jumped at the opportunity to join the team and became Technical Director. This company became Una Tickets, where we managed to grow a fantastic team, and build an amazing product which was acquired by Sky in 2016.
At Sky, I became a Principal Engineer, leading the development of the Sky Tickets platform. Overnight, the development team jumped in size from a team of 5 to a team of over 20. Learning and adapting to the changing team was a great experience and opportunity, where I got to work with many great developers and team members.
What does a day at Find Others look like for you?
At the start of my day, I have a quick catch up with John, who’s working on the front-end of the site, making sure nothing’s getting in his way, and work on the system is going to plan.
A big part of my day is developing the back end of the Find Others system. Creating the database models, building APIs for the front-end to consume, writing documentation, and developing our large test suite to help maintain the quality of our code.
When needed, I may need to work on our continuous integration and delivery system. This system is responsible for automatically testing, deploying and managing secure credentials for our different production environments.
Part of my day usually includes doing some face-to-face code reviews with John. Even though we generally work using different languages, we have found it beneficial and good practice to walk the other through our code. Once we can clearly explain how and why we have implemented a solution, and the other is happy to approve the code, it gets merged and automatically delivered to our development environment.
How do you expect this to change over the next year?
Over the next year, I imagine my day to day work will start to involve more front-end work. While developing the front-end of the Find Others system, John has been busy creating a front-end toolkit that will simplify and accelerate development. I expect that these tools will allow both of us to work on the front end, while maintaining a high standard of code quality, and increase the speed at which we can deliver new features.
How do you like working with the Find Others team?
I can only reiterate what the other members of the team have already said in previous posts … Working with the people at Find Others is amazing. Everyone is so passionate about making a difference; working together, we can overcome any challenge, and we all have fun at the same time. This team makes going to work every day a really fun and fulfilling part of my life.
What are your thoughts on the idea of Find Others, 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?
We have an excellent opportunity to build a tool that can really help people. The Find Others system is a fresh idea that hasn’t been done before, so it will be exciting to see how it improves the way collective actions are handled.
In the future, I would hope that Find Others becomes a household name and that people look for us first when looking for any legal information.
What personally motivates you?
Working on an idea that, as a team, we can develop and shape together. An idea that has the potential to make a real difference for other people’s lives.
What behaviour or personality trait do you attribute your success to, and why?
I enjoy learning about new things, and I tend to get a bit obsessed with understanding them fully.
I’m also a bit of a perfectionist with my work. I will continuously try to improve on something I’ve done, whether it be a recipe that I’ve been cooking or a piece of code that I’ve written.
Who inspires you?
The team. I’ve never worked with a group of people quite like this. They are always inspiring me with fresh ideas, new and better ways of doing things. This helps me deliver my best work.
If you could learn one new skill in 2020 what would that be?
This year, I would like to learn more front-end development, specifically Vue.js. Part of this is just for personal development; I would love to be able to develop front-end technologies as well I can back-end. The other part is that I think it will allow me to develop the back-end even more effectively, and let us deliver features quicker and better.
If you could only have three apps on your smartphone, which would you pick?
Super Hexagon: I started playing this game years ago. I think it shows how you can improve your skills, and gain the ability to do things that seemed impossible. I still come back to it and challenge myself to complete the final level.
Google maps: One of the most used apps on my phone.
Spotify: Always listening and discovering new music.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
‘If at first, you don’t succeed… Dust yourself off, and try again.’
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