Meet Magnus, One of Our Software Developers
Magnus has been involved with RoomSketcher for eight years, and he has become a vital part of our development team. Curious to learn more about R&D here at RoomSketcher? Read his interview to find out.
Could you describe your role at RoomSketcher?
I am a software developer at RoomSketcher. My primary focus is front-end development, but I also dabble in some back-end from time to time.
You've been developing custom features for our Sales & Marketing team. For those unfamiliar with this type of role, could you explain how your work benefits RoomSketcher?
My work usually involves fulfilling a need that either the customers or the RoomSketcher team have. Need a way to administer some content? Here’s an app. You want a new cool feature? We got you.
How do you decide on which features to develop? What's your process?
The most important step is that there is a clear path for communication between the different parts of the organization. Customer Support and Sales and Marketing give us valuable information about trends and what our customers would want to see in our applications. These steps are necessary for us as developers to understand what needs to be focused on.
As developers, we aim to give clear ideas about what is possible and how much time any project would take. We are also on the lookout for new technology that would benefit our customers and the RoomSketcher team.
Is there a particular feature you've developed that you are proud of? Can you walk us through its inception, development, and eventual implementation?
I would say Floor Plan Gallery is the project I’m most proud of. It was my first big development project for RoomSketcher, and I learned a lot from it. Our goal was to increase the number of users that visit the website, but also to give inspiration and a reason to stick around.
I entered the project early on, and I started doing research about which tools I should be using and which path we should take for this project. I worked together with other members of the development team and the marketing team throughout the process. Users can now look through an ever-increasing number of floor plans that our marketing team has carefully curated in the administrator tool.
How many people typically contribute to a feature's development, and what are their roles?
Most projects involve large parts of the RoomSketcher team. From the developer team, we're usually 3-6 people on any given project. The project manager delegates and ensures that progress is being made and usually takes care of communication with the other departments. DevOps controls configurations, setup of the development environment, and all things related to system management.
The back-end developers work on everything the user doesn’t see, from how to store the data to how the different parts communicate with each other. The front-end developers mainly work on everything the user interacts with. And then Quality Assurance ensures that what we develop is working as intended.
Have you ever encountered a particularly challenging request or feature? How did you navigate that challenge?
There are always new challenges involved with development. One of the last ones I remember clearly, was when I tried to learn a new way of handling the state of an application. I usually like to try out different ways of using it to become comfortable with it whilst reading and/or watching people explain how to do it. Sometimes, it goes smoothly. Other times, you have to repeat the process a few times for it to stick.
How do you celebrate releasing a new feature?
By reviewing the error logs! Okay, maybe not that. It’s usually nice to grab something to drink and eat some good food.
Browse Gallery!
Check out the Floor Plan Gallery, one of Magnus' favorite projects. Get inspired, find useful templates, and start editing any project.
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