Hey there. My name is Armin. That name is a long story, but let’s just say I have roots in the Carpathians and I have a warrior name to show for it. When I’m not working (yep, that happens), I try to divide my time between playing guitar & drums, collecting rare or cheesy 80s vinyl records or simply spending time with my high-energy 11-year old daughter Emma.
At Fourcast, I have the dubious honor of being the oldest (and wisest) full time employee, because I have a broad 16-year professional track record.
I started out a in small consultancy firm as UX specialist. In a pre-mobile, pre-cloud world that meant doing wireframing, prototyping, defining behavioural patterns, designing the information architecture for websites, organising user tests and having long and extremely bloody fights with technical analysts and developers on where to put the Cancel button on a screen.
I soon went on to build a career in the biggest bank in Belgium, in roles where I was always positioned somewhere between business and IT, like a mediator. I always found myself trying to translate to each party what the other one wanted or had understood… usually by drawing undecipherable doodles on a whiteboard (hey, if it gets the job done…)
I also learned quite a lot about (traditional) IT systems development and project management, and experienced the classic pitfalls with these: how time & again it was so hard to keep up with changing needs and changing business contexts, and how no one ever delivers on time or within budget. Until Agile & Scrum happened: what a difference!
Why I made the jump
For one specifically challenging cloud project at the bank, I worked together with some of the Fourcast guys, and instantly liked their no-nonsense and innovative way of thinking. Work hard, play hard. Get the job done, but also think 2 steps ahead.
In many ways Fourcast is the exact opposite of a large bank, and that felt exactly like what I was looking for: quick & agile by nature, young and ambitious, with a small, flat organisation structure. A place where I can have more impact, and help them build incredible stuff that can blow our customers socks off.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
I only very recently made the switch to working 100% in the cloud. While it certainly takes a very conscious mind switch to do that (“Aaaaaarrrgh, where’s the Save button?”), I can now say that it really feels liberating. Like shedding all overhead & tech troubles and just being able to focus on what you are doing, instead of focussing on how to get it done.
Also, having Google as an enormous driver to push innovation, to help businesses forward, is a great asset for any company. I really see Google and its products not as an end goal, but as an enabler. Things like the different Artificial Intelligence APIs from Google (Vision, Natural Speech, Assist, …) are powerful building blocks. These will no doubt allow us to create products and solve problems that we now believe are just part of ‘the way things are’, but that will very soon become solvable. So, I’m really looking forward to playing with these concepts and applying them to real business needs, whether it’s in retail, HR, communication or operations.
And what Google did by introducing the Material Design language – clear, functional, esthetic, standardized design guidelines – is really of invaluable worth to both the development community and the users of the products & experiences they are creating.
Written by Armin Fabritius
