👋 Hi, I’m George. I’m a software developer and team leader with more than 15 years of experience.
As part of the Coding team, I work on core features of GitHub.com including Codespaces, Repos, and Pull Requests.
In May 2015 I started leading thoughtbot’s New York development team. I continued to write code for clients 2–4 days per week, and devoted the reset of my time to manging the team.
I managed a team of developers, and eventually a team of managers, and provided regular coaching on consulting, technical, and leadership skills to help people do great work for our clients and grow in their careers.
As a part of the studio leadership team, I also worked with the other New York Directors on all aspects of our local strategy, from hiring plans to financial projections to marketing strategies.
As a developer at thoughtbot my primary responsibility was to build great software for our clients primarily with Ruby, but often also with Python or JavaScript.
Building great software is more than just writing code, and I also work closely with clients to define product, prioritise features, and simplify processes.
At Tripbirds, I worked on every aspect of an early stage start-up, including code, product development, and processes.
I introduced usability testing to the company, and recorded interviews with users to get valuable product insights. I also introduced better front-end development practices that significantly reduced the time it took to get new features to production.
I worked on a range of features for Artfinder, including a new multi-variant home page with a complex Varnish caching setup.
At Reevoo I worked on a range of high-traffic Ruby on Rails applications, doing everything from interface development to improving back-end performance.
I introduced better CSS and JavaScript coding practices, building tools for working with CSS sprites and unobtrusive JavaScript.
During my time at Reevoo I was increasingly involved in product decisions. One of the last things I did at the company was to run a week-long offsite for a group of developers, designers and business people where we prototyped a new product.