Behind LA’s rising digital tech scene are some amazing developers building great products and driving growth. Since only 10 to 12 percent of developers in LA are women developers, Built In LA is giving them some well-deserved attention in this series. In the first installment, a few incredible women shared their stories about how they got started and who is pushing them to succeed now.To recommend a female developer for a future installment, email [email protected].
Michelle Yung, Ruby developer at The Honest Company
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HOW DID YOU BECOME A DEVELOPER?
My best friend in middle school started an Angelfire page. I was intrigued and started one myself. It wasn't my best, most shining moment as a developer -- with all the Netscape marquees and "under construction" gifs -- but it was a really exciting time in web development. The web was like the Wild Wild West; it felt like a blank canvas and I could create anything on it!
At the time, it was just a fun hobby. I created pages for blogs and high school organizations, but I did not seriously consider it as a career. I thought I wanted to be an artist or a graphic designer, so I majored in new media art and got some certifications in graphic design. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I did not enjoy graphic design as much as web programming. I do not regret my education choices though; I find that my graphic design background comes in handy, especially when it comes to front-end development.
WHAT'S THE BEST ADVICE YOU'VE RECEIVED?
It's really cliche, but true: "Don't be afraid to ask for help." Some people might be reluctant to ask for help because they think it'll be viewed as a sign of weakness or it'll diminish their credibility. As individuals, we not have all the answers, so it's helpful to reach out when we don't know something, or if we want to find a more efficient way of accomplishing a task. We shouldn't let pride get in the way of making ourselves better.
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE ON A DAILY BASIS?
Definitely estimating LOE (Level of Effort), which is a fundamental skill in any job. Everybody, no matter what job they have, estimates LOE on a daily basis for their own tasks. The difference for developers is that there is a much more formalized process; we record and keep original estimations and compare them to actual time spent. Not only does this ascertain our accuracy, we also use this to figure out our velocity and how much work is possible to fit into a sprint.
At The Honest Company, we do estimations on tasks and projects all the time as a group, using planning poker. We recently transitioned from hours to story points, which use the Fibonacci numbers. We have to think of our effort in terms of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…etc points. LOE is a tricky thing to get right if you're thinking about projects in hours but the layer of abstraction is another added thing I'm having difficulty getting used to.
WHAT IS THE COMPANY DEV CULTURE AT THE HONEST COMPANY LIKE?
I desire to become cross-functional -- by working in both front-end and back-end and in all areas of the code - -and my current company is supportive of that desire.
I've worked at more than one company where each developer was given their own area of speciality in the code. In that kind of setup, it was difficult to ask others for help because you were supposed to be the resident expert in that area. If you didn't know, who would? After a year or so of working with the same code, one would become complacent. As a result, the individual developers ended up being very siloed, without much collaboration. If one developer put in his resignation, there was only two weeks to pass on the knowledge to another developer.
Contrast that situation with my team setup today. Most of the developers are able to work in both front-end and back-end. Collaboration is frequent, as is knowledge sharing and pair programming. Everyone is constantly learning and pushing their own boundaries.
The cross-functionality also applies to other peripheral areas: understanding the business rules like a product manager and branding pages like a graphic designer.
In a startup environment, I oftentimes don't get specs or even design comps. I end up making suggestions to the product managers or designers to help fill in the blanks, informed by my knowledge of the business rules and branding. It allows me to have a voice in the decision making process and occasionally flex my design muscles. Suffice to say, collaboration makes everyone's life easier!
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?
As a student, my first job was as audio-visual technician at my university. I ran around campus, setting up equipment needed for lectures, special events and concerts. Later on, I became a help desk technician and transitioned from there to a student developer. My first job out of college was as a developer for the medical school.
In my first year out of college, I digitized, automated and created an online tool for UCSD School of Medicine, Financial Aid Department. Formerly it was an all paper process, but now students and admins can manage most aspects of financial aid online through the tool. I was the sole developer on that challenging project. I count myself really lucky that I was given the opportunity to prove to myself and others that development was where I belonged.
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR WOMEN STARTING OUT IN THE TECH WORLD?
- Find a mentor, ask questions and collaborate.
- Let the high level business needs inform your daily decision making on the job. Keep the big picture in mind.
- If an initiative is critical for the business, attack it with a positive attitude and zeal.
- Constantly challenge yourself and push your boundaries. Become cross-functional.
