How I Work

Below are some of the principles that guide my work and general life outlook.

Start and end with empathy

I believe that the best software is software that people that actually want to use. This means gaining empathy for users by conducting research, iterating on many ideas, and remaining focused on the problem and not getting lost in the technology used to solve it.

A little process goes a long way

I’ve been known to use spreadsheets, dashboards, checklists, and thoughtfully organized readmes. I thrill to turn chaos into beautifully organized project plans and documentation. That being said, I’m not tied to any One Particular Way and value pragmatism, flexibility and adaptability.

Don’t break; iterate

Similar to the Human Centered Design and Agile development methodologies, I believe in delivering small, meaningful changes.

Campsite rules

Whether it’s by cleaning up variable names, building reusable components, or adding documentation, I strive to leave a codebase in a better place than I found it.

Questions I frequently ask myself:

• What would this problem look like if it were easy?
• What assumptions about this problem, user, or system am I making?
• How will I feel looking back on this work in 1 week, 1 month, or 1 year?
• What’s the smallest change I can make to gain new insight?