Can you tell us about your job?
I am a mobile tech lead at Optimetriks. It is a company that helps manufacturers, distributors, and service providers to be in closer connection with their distribution network by leveraging technology and data. Our main product is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, FieldPro, which relies on a mobile and a web application that can be fully customized as per the business needs by defining modular workflows and activities.
At Optimetriks, with my team, I am responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of the mobile applications for different use cases according to specifications. One of our ways of working is remote work, it allows us all to work from wherever we want.
What is a typical day like?
The alarm goes off at 7:30 a.m. Depending on my state of mind, I either go for a 45 min run while listening to a podcast or 20 min of Yoga. Then I go back home to take a shower and I go to my co-working space which is a few blocks away from my house. I usually stop at ShopShop for a cappuccino and a carrot cake which will serve as breakfast when I get to the office.
Every morning, I take the time to read my “tech digests”. I thus go through the information which is essential to me in 15 / 20min.
On the FieldPro project, the team functioning is based on the Agile methodology. We start the day with a daily stand-up meeting which allows us all to know what we did the day before, discuss our difficulties, and schedule the tasks for the day. This is an opportunity to help my team find and identify solutions to problems they may encounter that can be technical or organizational.
Once the team is launched for the day, I carry out my tasks according to the priorities. When there are some (no shame ...), I start with urgent production bugs. This is the least fun part of the job.
Afterwards, I move on to the main tasks. We are currently developing version 3 of our product. For this release, we've overhauled our entire data model. Indeed, the business model of the company has evolved over the years and has come to maturity. Our current data architecture was limited to be able to carry out new features with confidence; therefore, we decided to redesign our application.
This overhaul occupies almost all my time; hence, I will be working mainly on the data model, architecture, and DevOps of the new application.
Lunch break arrives. I work in a coworking office, which is a space where freelancers, entrepreneurs, and isolated employees come together to work. So I often have lunch with my co-workers, the atmosphere is super nice. Sometimes an animation takes place: technical presentation, tasting of local products, chess, etc.
In the early afternoon, if the weather is good, I go to a park to work. I have with me an external battery that can easily withstand more than a day's work. This is essential for a digital nomad! I then take time with my team to help them with their tasks. This is an opportunity to share our experiences and discuss through a code review, peer programming, or a technical presentation.
Around 4 pm, I take my “Donut” break. It is a ritual established in our company to give us the opportunity to have a virtual coffee with one of our colleagues. We all work in different places around the world, for this reason, it's important to get to know each other and keep a team spirit by discussing all kinds of topics!
I spend a little time at the end of the afternoon on “product” oriented themes. One of the recent evolutions in my mission has been the creation of a product division within our company. We try to provide a structure, guidelines, and tools to organize better the feedback from our customers and our team in the field. We study our users and the problems they encounter, the solutions we provide, and how they fit into our product. All of this with the goal of defining a road-map for the development.
The day ends with a glance at the Scrum Board to assess our progress on the sprint goal and prepare for the daily meeting the next day.
Back home, this is the opportunity to work on personal projects: musical composition while waiting for the stage to reopen to perform after the Covid pandemic; and a new mobile application in kotlin multi platform!
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