Behind the scenes with MindGym’s CTO
My journey into technology
When I was seven years old my then teacher, Mr Overend, introduced me to the BBC model B microcomputer. He explained how he envisaged a world where machines would play a big part in our everyday lives. He wasn’t wrong. I learned some basic programming with sounds, movement, data structures and sprites. However, as I grew up my interest in computing did not. I found new things to do, new hobbies and eventually some years later entered the workforce. I did almost every job under the sun, from factory worker to removal man, door-to-door salesman and even roofer. It wasn’t until I was 21 that I rediscovered my love for technology.
My first step into software engineering was a ten person start up selling into the NHS. I got the chance to do a little bit of everything, which meant that I learned a broad range of skills. I then joined a major financial organisation as a Junior Software Engineer, where I stayed for nine years. I moved from junior role through to Head of Digital Development, looking after eighty Engineers, until eventually setting up an incubator area as Head of Engineering. From there, I moved to a data analytics start-up that took smart meter data and sold the analytics back to utility companies. I stayed with them for four years as Head of Engineering, building the team up from two to twenty, experiencing all the early-stage scaling challenges you would expect. Until I recently joined MindGym as CTO.
Why did I join MindGym?
There were three main reasons I decided to join MindGym and many people on my team have echoed these. First, the unusual domain. Most companies in London that are recruiting Engineers are from ecommerce, fintech, banks or supermarkets etc. MindGym was totally different to any other opportunities I had seen.
Second, the opportunity to start from a blank piece of paper. MindGym boasts an impressive clientele including the likes of Microsoft, Netflix and Audi to name just a few — but until now they had never truly leveraged technology in order to deliver their solution. This was a great chance for them! The SaaS platform built on this occasion would provide both new opportunities as well as strengthen ties with current customers through greater interactivity. It also meant the opportunity to build a world class team from scratch.
Third, is the application of behavioural science into the software world, specifically when we can prove an impact from this software. Assuming we can prove an impact on an individual level, we can then prove a return on investment at a business level.
Our technology stack
I recognised early on that with no legacy and no technical debt, we had an opportunity to start from scratch. After looking at a selection of front-end and back-end languages, we arrived at the sensible decision to use JavaScript as a basis for both. This makes it easier for Engineers to move seamlessly between the two.
Initially we started building our tech stack with a Kubernetes cluster and Istio as a service mesh. It had security in depth across every pod and connection. Then a subset of Full Stack Engineers told me that they preferred a serverless environment, it enabled them to move quicker and removed friction from their workflows.
As CTO, I knew that I needed to empower the teams I was working with. So we ran a serverless experiment over a four to six week period. It sped up the teams massively and reduced running costs, so the decision was made to continue in this direction, a decision that has definitely paid off. We’ve moved quickly and the running costs have stayed low. Our next challenge is telemetry and observability, both of which are not as mature as they could be with a serverless environment. We are currently experimenting with a combination of InfluxDB, Grafana, Loki and Promtail to solve this.
Another important decision we made around our tech stack is the way we handle data. We started with a Snowflake dependent approach, for those who don’t know Snowflake it offers a cloud-based data storage and analytics service, generally termed “data warehouse-as-a-service”. It allows corporate users to store and analyse data using cloud-based hardware and software. We’ve now added a less structured data set in a data lake, we then prepare specific data marts in Snowflake for answering different questions.
We’re now compiling years of legacy data from our existing consulting business as well as other sources, including our new digital products. We need to move that data and store it durably so that we can make use of it. We then need to explore data sets and transform them into a useful form for cleansing and detecting anomalies. Moving forward we need to be able to aggregate the data, label interesting features, whilst building learning algorithms to optimise and make sense of it.
We’re up to 22 Engineers now, and my observation is that the type of person who really thrives in our environment is happy with ambiguity and making decisions in the face of an incomplete set of data. Many of the people who’ve joined us have no previous experience with our current tech stack but that wasn’t a barrier because they were really keen to learn and had solid engineering foundations. A large portion of our Engineers have also developed a real interest in behavioural psychology, they love that they have access to the same incredible content that we offer our clients.
Our culture
We’re now hitting the next stage of growth that introduces a whole new set of challenges. It’s no longer a little family where you can go out for a meal easily together. It starts becoming about communication across teams, being deliberate with your culture and how you coordinate to deliver the right outcomes for the company. We aim for a very generative team culture with high co-operation, shared risks, encouraged bridging and blame free post-mortems.
“People here are generous, collaborative and very competent.”
You don’t get that in every company, there’s normally someone hiding in a corner, but not here so far. We have a team of really talented Engineers and Product people with a lot of collective experience. It’s probably the most capable Engineering team I’ve ever worked with.
“It’s fast paced, challenging and creative.”
If you are the type of person who gets lost down a rabbit hole of incidental details, then this probably isn’t for you. In terms of what we’re doing to grow teams that thrive in that sort of culture, the first step is to hire for it. This means looking for a diverse set of personalities, capabilities and backgrounds. You don’t need everybody on the team to thrive on ambiguity, but at least some need to love it so they can support their peers as they go on the journey together.
What I have learned about leading a greenfield team and project
One of the most important things I have learned about managing a new team that is trying and learning new things is to remain blameless. If something goes wrong, it’s about learning as a team, asking yourself what has happened and systemically changing.
“Dave is very progressive in his leadership style and open to ideas. He gives us the support and autonomy to make decisions. He is an amazing CTO in my opinion.”
Rana Ejtehadian
Frontend Developer, MindGym
Now we’re scaling, it’s important to encourage bridging across teams. This means encouraging conversations across products, verticals and disciplines. For example bridging across Engineering and Product Management or Product Design and into the Behavioural Scientists that are embedded in delivery. And lastly is to always deliver on the improvements from retrospectives, so you genuinely see changes and improvements (rather than retros just acting as group therapy).
An exciting future ahead
What excites me most about the future of MindGym and the products we are building is the potential for a high volume of real users. I want to see commercial success for the products, and I want to see a lot of people using the products and getting a real benefit from them.
The opportunity to digitise our behavioural science and better equip our customers for tomorrow is a great challenge, and one that I am enjoying immensely, so thank you Mr.Overend.
