Five minutes with Danny

As part of our Culture of Success Programme we’re going behind the scenes at Pocketworks HQ in our new Five Minutes with… features; celebrating our staff, what they do and what makes them unique.  

Five minutes with… Daniel

I’m Daniel, my role at Pocketworks is Quality Analyst, aka ‘ The Gatekeeper ’. I’m local to the company, brought up and still based in Leeds.

A major part of my role is to ensure that the products we launch are thoroughly tested and reach the highest level of quality . Efficiency is key in my role, so experimenting with automation and contributing to data driven tests are important, anything which can help efficiency and great results are right up my street! 

In my experience with mobile apps, the best in the game are the ones that are slick and simple to use, giving the user the best mobile experience and ensuring that the app delivers what it promises to, stress-free.  

At the moment, my favourite apps are Monzo and Spotify . I use Spotify the most as I love listening to new music and I’m interested in the way they do software development. I’ve read up on the Spotify developer model and there are a few practices that have helped me shape my skill set. 

It’s fascinating to go ‘ behind the scenes ’ of an app which is widely used to explore what makes it so popular and functional. I guess you could say I’m pretty curious and always keen to experiment or dive into the nuts and bolts of a project.  

Monzo is another favourite because it has a clear way of displaying real data and helping you manage your finances. It tries to handle edge cases, such as money pots to help people save, which I can appreciate. Data driven apps are the way forward and can help multiple companies gain the data they need to control their businesses and finances. 

In my spare time I find myself going further down the music rabbit hole discovering new artists. I have a keen interest in local venues and festivals, and love seeing artists such as the Foo Fighters and the Black Keys live. Music has a real ability to create long-lasting memories and shared experiences ; just hearing a certain song can take you back to an amazing time with friends, which I love. I hope to continue exploring the music scene and making more memories for years to come. 

My company Star Wars avatar is Kylo-Ren . I chose him specifically because he’s the balance to the force , which is kinda like my role at Pocketworks. I have to make sure that the clients are happy with their product and add additional help when it comes to directing the developers, so that the client has everything they need for a working sustainable app. This is the balance that if executed correctly means all the challenges and efforts were worthwhile!   

In five years, I’d like to see myself being the Head of Quality , with a team of testers, ensuring that we are all delivering and maintaining excellent software for clients. I hope to continue supporting clients with critical issues within businesses across the UK. I’m fortunate that my role has such an impact and I hope to build on this, leading a team to do the same, and helping a range of businesses become more successful as more practices become digital led.

I think my greatest achievement so far is working my way up from a very naive apprentice to becoming Pocketworks’ Quality Analyst; managing, developing and tailoring my skillset to always improve quality and test practices within the business. I’ve been involved in more than 40 projects over my career, which has been brilliant because I’ve been able to grow and develop alongside the projects and the company. Some have been pretty simple but others contained very complex systems and stretched me to find new ways in maintaining quality and efficiency.

I think if I could pick a superpower mine would be teleportation . I’m not sure why but it’d be pretty cool to jump from one country to another… Although invisibility might be handy, that way I could see who keeps eating all the chocolate hobnobs in the office!