One of the most fascinating things about working in multi-disciplinary teams is that you get to see how other people work and communicate with their teams. What are their challenges, their expectations but also where they falter.
A few years ago, as I was learning more about UX research, I reached out to shadow a 3-person team tasked to conduct user research on a potential new cohort of customers, who were not tech savvy and barely had access to the internet, to see if we could design a solution that would work for them.
A few months ago, after going down the rabbit hole of youtube reaction videos from ThePrimeagen, I stumbled upon one about using Ktor with HTMX and how we could “develop reactive UIs without using react”. This quote was so appealing to me that it drove me to an interview with HTMX’s creator about hypermedia systems and how HTMX attempts to solve the most common limitations of HTML.
Suddenly, everything became clear, and I couldn’t stop thinking of new solutions to old problems.
One of the reasons I wanted to become an engineering manager was to see if I could build a team, or at least shape an existing one, to deliver value to a business whilst keeping team happiness, engagement and sense of belonging at a high level. I have always wanted to see first-hand how individuals and their interactions shape team dynamics and how much my vision of what an engineering manager should do solves some of the common issues I saw throughout my career.
It is known that most companies have been reevaluating their remote work policies and have been slowly requiring employees to return to the office more regularly. Among them, some of the biggest names in tech like Google and X have required a return much earlier on than expected, with the latter having an incredible shift to a full in-office policy following the recent change in leadership.
The popular argument about “the boss’s need to see people working” as always seemed shallow to me given the unmeasured risk that that would add to companies in industries that struggle to keep their workforce for a long period of time.
I have been an engineering manager at Cuvva for over 18 months, and it has been an incredible experience. Cuvva’s (unique) context, its challenges and achievements have made the past two years of employment, the most diverse and eventful of my entire professional career.
As I mentioned in Growing at Cuvva: lessons from a first-time engineering manager, I have been exposed to so many different angles of product development that my connection to mobile development and its community has been fading over time as a result.
Note: This article was published in the Cuvva blog.
January 2023 marked my first full year as an engineering manager both at Cuvva and as a professional, and it couldn’t have been more rewarding. I started 2022 as a new manager on a newly formed team, with the chance to apply everything I have learned. Looking back, I’ve made several mistakes but succeeded in many situations.
As you can see from our job listings (here’s a recent one that’s now closed), Cuvva offers a personal development allowance for employees to learn and grow their skills.
These days I found myself challenging my closest friends or colleagues to take a risk and create a startup. I am not a risk-averse person, but I am also not comfortable starting something without a plan or at least a goal. However, I’ve learned and experienced enough to be comfortable with breaking away from corporate life, where control and salaries are limited.
In the book The millionaire fastlane, I’ve learnt you should build what people need, which is not the same as “our passion” or what we want people to have.
After days on end with my wife asking me to find a video game we could play together, I chose It Takes Two without knowing much about it. I knew it had won the Game of the Year award in 2021, but that was pretty much it.
What initially looked like a simple platform game quickly became a showcase of the most common video game genres in just one title. With puzzles and racing tracks, one-on-one fights, shooting scenes, and even strategy and simulation moments, It Takes Two is a brilliant introduction to video games.
Note: This article was published in the Cuvva blog.
The world of software engineering is vast and constantly changing. Continuous learning is a requirement, and becoming proficient in every aspect of Android development is a goal that all of us have tried to pursue.
However, the complexity of the Android ecosystem is now so large that being on top of everything is rather a difficult task.
As our team gets bigger every year (we are six at the moment), decisions by consensus become a lot more time-consuming because it is increasingly hard to ensure everyone agrees on a specific solution.
One year ago, I predicted that most companies would move towards a hybrid model of 70% of work from home and the rest from the office. At the time, I thought that 70% would be the best deal the average company could ever get from its collaborators, but today, I think that returning several days a month is actually in the interest of most employees.
During the first six months of lockdown, I was glad to have time to work on my personal goals.