2012 in Review

Work

I’ve come a long way in my 3.5 years with The SAVO Group - this year was certainly the busiest but also the most rewarding.  Highlights include:

• Leadership: I was placed in charge of the design/architecture of a bunch of our largest projects, which forced me to better the methods our team uses in designing and implementing reusable packaged solutions. On top of that, the biggest challenge of the year was being placed in charge of a team of outsourced developers that assisted with our larger projects.  It has been a big success so far - we are delivering high quality software at a much faster rate!
• Additional Projects: Winning the SAVO Innovation Challenge, creating an internal Google Chrome extension, and a strong focus on training/personal development (attending That Conference and ALM Chicago, DiSc/Leadership on-site training, Pluralsight, etc.)
• Skills: More web development technologies (ASP.NET MVC, JavaScript, Salesforce.com), Office Automation (Excel, PowerPoint, OpenXml).

Personal Development Projects

Despite having a very busy personal life, I still managed some work on some neat side projects:

• My Blog: My goal for 2011 was to write at least 1 blog post per month. I didn’t quite reach that, but am satisfied with my initial efforts. I have a lot of topics just waiting to be written about in 2013!
• FixMyQ Android app and KinecTunes Kinect/iTunes mashup: I hardly worked on these at all, but still managed some great download numbers. Netflix pulled the plug on the movie availability APIs without warning, effectively killing FixMyQ. I’ve since lost interest in it but may come back to it this year - I had an almost fully working iPhone version right before the changes, it has hit 6,000 downloads in 2 years time, and I can’t help but still love Netflix’s service! Downloads: 6,000 and 1,000 respectively.
• EverNoble: a Twilio/Windows Azure/Evernote mashup, this won 1st place at the That Conference Hackathon. Downloads: (n/a - not publicly released).
• Amazon Wish List Extender (awe): a Google Chrome extension, available here. An ongoing effort created in late December as I attempted to better my HTML/JavaScript skills. Seeing some decent traction already - may pursue this further in Q1. Downloads: 40.
• Paid Consulting Project: I completed my first paid side project for a friend/coworker. It was very rewarding and fun - I will look to continue this type of work in the future.

Life

This was a huge year for my personal life, as I married my best friend of 5 years in June. We were proud to host over 200 of our closest friends and family for what we dubbed “the biggest party of 2012!”  Seriously though, it was a perfect day filled with lots of love and happiness.  A fantastic honeymoon in Thailand was the perfect end to our wedding planning journey!

Goals for Next Year

I accomplished a lot this past year, extending my name/brand through a combination of software, leadership, and professionalism. As always, I look forward to working on:

• Work/Life balance:I’m very passionate about software development, in and out of work.  Between work and life events (marriage, grad school, kids) it’s becoming harder and harder to stay in touch with everyone. I’d like focus more on my personal relationships and less on work.
• Health: I made great strides in the Fall of 2012 to improve my health - there is much more I need to do. This will be my biggest challenge/focus of the year!
• Writing: I’ve really enjoyed blogging thus far - improving my writing and getting great feedback. I’d like to establish a consistent writing schedule.
• Speaking: I’ve been working on this for years - in 2012 I had the most improvement yet. However, I still have a long way to go until I am a comfortable, professional speaker. My most ambitious goal this year would be to give a talk at a conference, such as That Conference in August.
• Development skills: A larger focus on web projects and mobile.
• “Hacking”: In addition to software, I’d like to create something cool via more hardware projects, such as the Arduino or Raspberry Pi boards (home automation, perhaps?).