Richard is our new Chief Technology Officer. Joining us from ASOS, he brings a wealth of knowledge to our Tech team here. We caught up with him to find out all about his new role…

Can you briefly talk us through what you do here at notonthehighstreet?

I’ve joined notonthehighstreet to lead the Tech team at a really exciting time. NOTHS has had a great history of in-house engineering — we have always built our own software and what we had created had served our customers really well. Now we’re looking at evolving and scaling both in terms of the software we’re using but also as a team. It’s all to do with creating the best experience both for our customers, but also for our Partners, and showcasing their products in the best way possible. It’s an exciting time for Tech within the business and I’m looking forward to guiding the team through it.

How have your first few weeks been and what have you most enjoyed?

It’s been interesting and there has been a lot to take in. Understanding what has happened both with Tech and the wider business has been crucial — there has been a lot of listening involved. Getting to know the team but also getting to know our Partners (the 5000 small creative businesses who work with us) and our customers too.

What did I enjoy the most? It has to be how welcome everyone has made me feel — it’s been an amazing reception. Everybody has come to say hello, been really friendly and is clearly up for doing good stuff too. The company is a lot smaller than the one I came from and it’s been great to meet so many of the team already.

Where and what were you doing before?

I joined notonthehighstreet from ASOS. When I joined ASOS, it was in a very similar position to where we [notonthehighstreet] are now.

They had a 15 year old legacy platform and their focus was on scaling a whole new e-commerce platform, which is what I worked on for a year with the Tech team there. We also spent a lot of time building new and exciting things for the site too. It was a very similar role in a completely different environment.

ASOS is now a large company, it more than doubled in size during the three years that I was there. I started in a Tech team of a couple of hundred, and by the time I left we were around 1000 members of staff, just in Tech.

There are a lot of challenges that come when you scale that quickly; it can be a challenge to keep pace with what everyone is doing for example. It’s a really exciting business though and it was genuinely an amazing experience for me.

Before that I worked for Tesco — on their online shopping platform. Our focus was on building a new platform for markets outside the UK so I spent lots of time in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Malaysia and Thailand. It was great experiencing the digital side of Tesco to see how things work behind the scenes.

How do you think you’ve got to where you are today?

This is a difficult question! I think the answer is very dependent on who you are, so really I can only answer this from my own personal experience.

The thing that has really helped me, but has definitely been the most difficult thing to comprehend, is the value of feedback. It’s starting to accept that nobody, including me, is perfect and that there are so many things that I can do a lot better. Accepting that, and understanding that I can utilise feedback and really learn from people, made a big difference at one point in time. It’s something that’s really stuck with me throughout my career. Ultimately if you don’t take feedback on (both positive and constructive), you’re never going to grow and develop so don’t see it as a negative thing.

Why did you choose to pursue a career in Tech?

I’ll cut this short — it wasn’t my intention initially. I was always doing things with computers when I was at school. My teachers would pull me out of classes to ask if I could fix a computer that had broken and I loved playing around on computers when I was at home. My initial career ambitions led me to want to work in finance. I really liked the idea of going and working in the city [London], and it’s even why I came to the UK to do a degree. When I arrived though, it wasn’t quite what I’d imagined so I looked around at other industries. I’d always had such an interest in technology outside of work that it seemed like the next logical option. It’s been great because I’ve really learnt to love tech more and more.

What was it about notonthehighstreet that made you join?

There were a couple of reasons. First, it’s a company that everyone knows and a well loved brand. What we do for small businesses and really the ethics behind our purpose makes it a really appealing place to work — I’m really proud to say I work here because I think what we do is great. I also like the idea of working for a marketplace, the potential is absolutely enormous.

The next reason is more technical. I’ve spent a lot of time working in companies where we’ve built our own infrastructure and software to make a difference to the company and customers. I’m looking forward to putting some of these learnings into practice here at notonthehighstreet.

If you could give someone who wants to work in technology one piece of advice, what would that be?

Do it! It’s fair to say that now, more than ever before, pretty much every single company will rely on technology in one way or another. This is only going to continue so get involved — it’s an exciting, fast growing and fun industry to work in.

If you could give someone who wants to work at NOTHS one piece of advice, what would you suggest?

Be completely open and honest with yourself. Be open to talking about the things you can do well, but also be upfront about what you want to learn and improve at. It’s so important to be yourself here.

What are you looking forward to over the next 12 months?

I’m genuinely looking forward to making a difference to the customers of NOTHS, our Partners and the whole business. There is so much more from a tech perspective that we can improve on so I can’t wait to see what we accomplish over the next 12 months!

Want to be a part of making this happen? We are recruiting in the Tech team!