Avatar of Janne Kavander

Software Engineer

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As a Software Engineer at Workfellow, I play a pivotal role in driving the company's growth and success. Joining the team as the third employee almost three years ago, I've had the unique opportunity to witness and contribute to our expansion from a small team to a thriving workforce of nearly 20 members. This journey has enriched me with invaluable experience in the fast-paced world of startups and the tech industry. My current responsibilities encompass a significant contribution to the development of our platform, with a focus on the Frontend (40%), DevOps/infrastructure (25%), Backend (25%), and Database (10%).

Workfellow Dashboard's Task Mining Feature

-- Core Skills and Expertise --

Comprehensive Full Stack Development:

  • Primarily responsible for the Workfellow platform/dashboard, offering real-time analysis of business operations and enabling users to gain actionable insights for optimizing their workflows and processes.
  • Develop and enhance numerous client views based on continuous feedback, increasing customer satisfaction.
  • Implement substantial UI/UX overhauls, introducing radically different navigation, UI structure, and new features, resulting in a more intuitive and visually engaging platform.
  • Implement extensive design systems from scratch, first using React with Material UI and second with Tailwind CSS and React, comprising over 50 components with numerous states and variants. This approach significantly accelerates our iteration and development speed.
  • Successfully managed the codebase with over 50 thousand lines of code through significant refactors, including migrating all class-based React components to functional React components and the complete transition from JavaScript to TypeScript across the codebase's 500 components.
  • To enhance application efficiency and maintainability, adopted Global State Management solutions, such as Context API and Redux.
  • Acquire expertise in aggregating and retrieving large amounts of data quickly, optimizing the performance of dynamic client views with numerous API endpoints.
  • Extensively leveraged Redux Toolkit Query to efficiently query and manage data from over 200 API endpoints.
  • Develop several robust and secure authentication and authorization mechanisms.
  • Design and develop internal tools, such as a data monitoring dashboard, extensively utilizing Azure functions and working with various monitoring tools.
  • Create a fully functional admin panel for our platform, offering customers various settings to adjust according to their needs.
  • Design and develop a comprehensive Kanban board with a wide range of features found in other reputable applications.
  • Develop a recommendation API that provides suggestions to customers on optimizing their business processes.

Effective Data Visualization and Analysis:

  • Demonstrate extensive expertise in managing and interpreting massive volumes of data using Chart.js, Microsoft SQL Server, and MongoDB, generating valuable insights for our clients.
  • Use Chart.js extensively to develop engaging and responsive data visualizations that facilitate better comprehension of clients' business performance and trends.

API Development and Management:

  • Manage over 200 API endpoints using REST architecture, split into microservices using Django web/rest framework and FastAPI. One of the biggest challenges is consistently ensuring quick data retrieval for customers.
  • Manage a Microsoft SQL Server containing tens of millions of data points across over 200 tables and 250 virtual tables.
  • Work with a NoSQL database (MongoDB) containing tens of millions of documents using Beanie for Python and MongoDB aggregations.

DevOps and Infrastructure Mastery:

  • Manage and maintain Azure DevOps pipelines and infrastructure in Azure, ensuring seamless integration with our rapidly evolving platform.
  • Create various DevOps pipelines using Azure DevOps, automating nearly all aspects of our infrastructure.
  • Adapt to the challenges of managing ever-changing infrastructure in a startup environment, as pipelines and infrastructure are continuously updated and deprecated.

Security and Authentication:

  • Prioritize secure development practices, especially when working with enterprise clients and handling massive amounts of sensitive data.
  • Develop an authentication and authorization system using Django, Azure Active Directory, and Google API, simplifying the login process for the dashboard and other internal tools.

Embracing Adaptability and Continuous Learning:

  • Quickly learn new technologies through documentation, as needed, to accommodate the needs of a small team in a fast-paced startup environment.
  • Acquire UI/UX skills by learning Figma and other design tools, proving highly beneficial without a dedicated full-time designer in the company.

Code Quality Assurance and Rigorous Testing:

  • Implement style documentation and pre-commit hooks for formatting, linting, and sorting, ensuring high code quality.
  • Use Postman API, Jest, and Cypress for thorough platform testing.

User-Centric UI/UX Design Approach:

  • Self-teach in Figma and other design tools to enhance user experience and improve platform aesthetics.
  • Led two major UI/UX overhauls, redesigning the entire dashboard, including the admin panel.

The Startup Experience:

Working at a startup hones my skills as a software engineer and provides me with a wide array of experiences, including:

  • Embracing Agile Methodologies: Proficient in using Kanban and Sprints development methods, occasionally serving as a scrum master.
  • Navigating Rapid Growth and Adaptation: As the company evolves, I learn to adapt quickly to new technologies and practices, meeting the demands of an ever-changing landscape.
  • Strong problem-solving abilities: In a startup, solutions often need to be created from scratch, challenging me to develop innovative solutions to complex problems.
  • Cross-functional team collaboration: In a startup environment, working closely with colleagues from various departments is common. This experience improves my ability to communicate effectively with non-technical team members and understand the needs of different stakeholders.
  • Flexibility and Versatility in Role: Startups require engineers to be versatile and wear multiple hats. My experience at Workfellow teaches me to switch roles when necessary and contribute to the project in various capacities, whether as a developer, scrum master, or even a designer.

Problem-solving and Critical Thinking:

  • Resourcefulness: With limited resources in a startup, I learned to find creative solutions, work efficiently, and make the most of the available tools and technologies.
  • Prioritization: Balancing multiple tasks and tight deadlines sharpens my ability to prioritize effectively and allocate resources to the most pressing needs.

Conclusion

In summary, my experience at Workfellow offers me a rich and diverse set of skills in software engineering. The dynamic nature of working in a rapidly growing startup environment equips me with the expertise to excel in various technical roles and the adaptability to embrace new technologies and methodologies. This experience instills confidence in my ability to tackle new challenges head-on and continue making a substantial impact in the ever-evolving tech industry.