Coffee Break #004 – Marina
Over the counter: We took a coffee break and had a chat with the people behind the curtains at uppercase, who they are and why they are there. In this series the employees share their perspectives with you.
Meet Marina, she likes her coffee up in the mountains.
Q: How would you describe uppercase to someone new?
M: We are a group of independent passionate people who create products and strive to bring a special experience to the digital space. We help conceptualize product ideas and implement them. I feel very lucky to say that my colleagues are also my friends. We share working days together, but we also go out to conferences, trips, bonfires, sailing, playing squash. I feel that each person at uppercase gives a rather interesting story — like Petter, one of the co-founders, who has traveled the world with a sailboat three times.
We all have an entrepreneurial streak inside and feel like a cod in the Lofoten waters in a start-up environment. Uppercase has a few joint ventures that we brought to life or/and that we support with some resources. Our ambition is to create products that have a lasting impact.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your background, and how you got involved with uppercase?
M: I come from a small town in Russia, called Kostroma. The first time I touched on programming was in high school, where I created a program about World War II. Back then we used Delphi and Pascal — good basics, but no one uses these languages today. As a bachelor, I studied law and once I moved to Norway, I changed my focus back to programming. Before I joined uppercase, I had worked with a few startups at the Startup Lab, and I also started my own non-profit organization, Women in Tech Oslo (WiT). In 2018, we had a conference, and that was when I was contacted by Daniel, one of uppercase’s co-founders, with a question about whether any of our community members would be interested in working in the creative agency. I fell in love at first sight with their concept, and so the story began.
Q: Looking at the work you have done at uppercase so far, what would you highlight?
M: There are three areas I am most involved in: working with our own products, developing web apps for customers, and community building. When I joined uppercase, I worked with our joint venture, Vendu. I was lucky enough to work on creating a new product that aims to help people with renovation. Our team — Tom, Idir, and I — made this process joyful, and I hardly felt where there was a line between work and fun. In the later stage, together with Tommy Stomlien, I maintained and refactored Smart Boliganalyse, which helps people understand the condition of the property. Tommy was my mentor from day one, and I’m glad to learn from him about the best practices in coding and collaboration processes. Tommy is always calm and open to help. I’m really impressed with his programming skills and his ability to sense what technical decision to make.
When it comes to working with clients, the most noticeable project I was doing is a project for Coop. We developed a tool that enabled Coop members to create campaign material. I was very excited to geek into the creative tech world as we used canvas and Vanilla JavaScript to create the tool. From the development side, I was supposed to do the project on my own, and at first I was a little unsure if I could do it all alone as the deadline was tight and the amount of work was wide. But one of my colleagues told me “you can do it”, so I took the challenge. After a couple of months of focused work and some fun pair programming sessions with my colleagues Lasse and Tommy Stomlien, we delivered the project on time and the clients were happy. Looking back, I can see how the support from my colleagues enabled me to take on something I could have said no to.
I should also mention the short and sweet time working with the Sanity team on improving their webpage. This was the first time I worked with such a dynamic, ambitious, and super international team. The guys I worked with on a daily basis were from Tasmania, Norway, and California. You can imagine how it was to sync with each other and just before the release we had to work in real life time. It was intense, but also very exciting to know that what we created is used by thousands of developers.
Lastly, bringing my passion for community building, I engaged a couple of us from uppercase in the community I founded, WiT. I’m not biased, but I think the workshop on art generation with Data Learning that we held together with Idir and Alex Bai, my colleagues, was one of the most atmospheric events we have hosted with WiT. It was in the old studio in Grünerløkka, we had some delicious sushi and drinks, chill music and the nicest people. The speakers gave an insightful presentation about Data Learning, and all the attendees had the chance to create their own art. In November 2020, uppercase supported another initiative that the WiT team drive, Unity Summit. Marion has created all the visual identity for the summit and made it look sick! The summit gathered over 200 people to code, create and learn together.
Q: What’s a project you would love to work on in the future?
M: In the future, I hope to contribute more to the creative and development community by creating spaces (physical and digital) where people can exchange knowledge and support each other. On another level, I want to contribute more to open source projects, projects that enable developers and designers, projects that contribute to sustainability issues. I would also like to do more of creative tech and work with artists, musicians, travelers.
Q: What’s important to keep the team happy and motivated?
M: In Russian, we have a phrase “A bad example is contagious”. Rephrasing this with the opposite meaning — engagement is contagious. To keep your team happy and motivated, you need to be driven yourself. Coming from climbing, I got to feel how important it is to cheer on each other and be happy for others’ small gains. Finding the time and energy to get involved in what your colleagues are doing and be curious to help and learn more is something that creates an inviting workspace.
At uppercase, we always try to improve our workflow and try to adapt to each other’s needs. For example, we do these Friday presentations where we share what we are working on. Recently Marion, Jørgen, and Tobias presented how they approached the rebranding of a big nonprofit organization. Another initiative we have at uppercase is the EDB meetups (In Norwegian: Elektronisk databehandling treff), where we get into discussions about programming issues, talk about new technology, and just have fun.
Q: Where do you find inspiration?
M: Nature. I’m writing this article while sitting at Arctic Coworking Lodge in one of the most beautiful places in the world, Lofoten. As it’s a complete lockdown in Oslo, I went here to work and to explore. The mountains, the ocean, the magnificent northern lights are giving me so much energy and new insights into what I’m doing. I feel privileged to have a job that you can do from anywhere. Another source of inspiration is my colleagues. I really enjoy hearing what they are working on and how they approach things. I’m especially grateful for one of my closest colleagues and a very good friend, Marion. She always brings light to a workday and makes things exciting and meaningful.
Q: What excites you the most looking forward?
M: Working cross-functional, working on projects that make an impact, working with love and passion. Creating lasting experiences and enjoying the process.
Q: Who should we talk to next?
M: Linn Cathrine is the person I would talk to next. Linn is very thoughtful and she knows how to create a pleasant working environment. It can be a challenge to stay focused on programming when there are many things to be handled about a project, so Linn is a person to-go-to when it comes to project management and communication with clients.
Thanks, Marina!
We’ll be back next month with more insights into uppercase and how we work — in the meantime, dig into our previous posts here, and sign up to our newsletter here.
