Quick facts

• Pronouns: He/Him
• Working hours: 8am - 5pm Central Time
• Current Role: iOS Developer
• Preferred communication tool: Work chat app

Intro

I’m Jay! I live in Austin, Texas with my wife. I have 4 pets, 🐶🐶🐱🐱, that are all very needy and love being on Zoom. I like the Seattle Kraken hockey team and usually stay up way too late to watch the games. I spend a lot of free time making apps and working with tech I find interesting. When not doing that, my wife and I like to play board games and watch Top Chef reruns.

Role

I’m an iOS Developer. I have a major strength in architecting SwiftUI apps using Core Data as the database. My focus is to make sure we ship a great iOS app that users enjoy using.

I bring a lot of my past experience into this role. Before I dove into making apps full time, I was a product support/sales support specialist at Electronic Theatre Controls. I did tech support and trained users how to use the products. This gave me a lot of sympathy for the end user and how to view products from their eyes. This also means I try to use a product like they would and not just how a developer or product person wants it to be used.

Working Style

I like to work with people to make products. This means open collaboration and communication is something I want to happen as much as possible. I am very open to feedback of any kind.

My work style

I like to collaborate to solve problems as quickly as possible but in a sustainable way.

My values

Humans are first

I like to know the people I work with and am genuinely interested in who you are as a person. If you want to get to know me, schedule a 1 on 1 or just message me.

Always be Learning

I’m always open to learning a new process, tool, or paradigm. I love learning and want to foster that with my teammates. I know that learning and applying new ideas will cause me to be wrong sometimes. I am great with being wrong so please don’t be afraid to tell me. My favorite ways to receive feedback are found here.

Systems over goals

I spent a lot of time trying to achieve goals in my personal life and have realized that hitting goals helps in the short term but to maintain success you need a good system.

A good system is one that allows itself to be followed and iterated on overtime to work best for the people in the system.

If working in a good system, each task that the system has setup should allow the goal to be hit fairly easily.

My strengths

Making/adjusting systems

As I mentioned above I like systems. I take time to learn and reflect on what is and isn’t working on a larger level than just myself. I also like discussing what needs to be better.

Swift/SwiftUI architecture

I’ve been working with SwiftUI since it was announced and try to keep up with best practices as much as possible.

iOS user expectations and experience

I use iOS as my primary driver and a wide range of apps from indie built to instagram on a daily basis. I use apps that follow the HIG to a T and ones that break it or don’t follow it. I bring a good balance of wanting to do right by the platform and user expectation.

My weaknesses

Real time feedback

I personally am not one that can handle confrontation or challenging ideas in the moment. I like to take time to think about what’s being presented and collect my thoughts. This allows me to bring my best thoughts to the table. The issue with this is that sometimes there isn’t a lot of time to do this. If you need my input faster, then please let me know.

Getting to know people

As much as I’m about people and getting to know each other, I’m really bad at initiating it. I’m really good at talking about work especially if I haven’t talked to you a lot outside of very focused meetings.

Working Together

What can you expect from me as a teammate?

• Willingness to share ideas
• Trust that you know what you are doing
• Documentation when decisions are made
• Questions around clarity to make sure everyone is on the same page

What do I appreciate the most from teammates?

• Openness to collaborating
• Challenge my idea/approach
• Feedback about how I can improve collaboration
• Questions around clarity to make sure everyone is on the same page

For my manager

Expectations for my manager

My manager is there to facilitate inter company relationships, manage team dynamics, and to make sure that I have what I need to complete my tasks/goals. My manager also cares about my personal goals and how those can benefit the company.

I expect my manager to know the product strategy and to help guide the team towards that strategy.

What my manager can expect from me

I will always be a team player and do what’s best for the team. I will give feedback on what’s working/not working in our 1 on 1s or whenever asked.

Communication

Channels

• Matrix/Slack/Teams(work place chat app) - Most used form of communication. I keep this open all the time and it’s the best way to get ahold of me
• Zoom/Google Meets/Video platform - I’m always down for a quick video chat if you think it’ll help solve the problem sooner or if you just want to say hi!
• GitHub/Notion/Google Docs/JIRA/Confluence(Any application that can @ me) - I check these a few times a day and prefer having issue specific conversations there. Keep conversation close to where the issue was raised. If it bleeds into Matrix or email, then let’s make sure to document where appropriate.
• Email - Least used form of communication. I only check this once or twice a day

Time

I work from 8am Central to 5pm Central Monday through Thursday. I usually have meetings in the morning and leave my mornings empty for more meetings and non-focused work. I try to respect your working hours as much as possible as well, but if you see a message from me outside of your working hours, please feel the need to ignore until you are “clocked in.”

Rough schedule:

• Mornings: Meetings and collaboration time
• 9:30am CT: Break to feed the cats and take the dogs out
• 1pm CT: Lunch time
• 1:30pm CT: Break to feed the dogs and cats and to take the dogs out
• Afternoons: Heads down work like coding or complicated PRs

Feedback

Most feedback can be given publicly, and I always appreciate it. If there is feedback about something I’m doing wrong, please let me know privately though. My ideas can be challenged publicly but if it’s an action I’ve taken, that should be handled privately.

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Notes

• If I communicate outside your working hours, do not feel you need to respond right then. Working async and across timezones means communication happens when it happens.
• I’m okay with teammates following me on any and all social media. Most places you can find me @heyjaywilson (links at the bottom of the page) or my personal instagram.