janraasch.com

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I’m happy to talk about work engagements for Q3 2024 and beyond!

Reach out via email 📧 or book a zoom call ☎️

Content

Intro

# TODO: This should be turned into a proper »services«-section.

In recent years my focus is on leading by example and making software for product value.

If so, please read on to learn more, or shoot me an e-mail and let’s talk :)

Skills

How / Process

What / Tech-Stack

I have a strong preference for functional programming.

In recent years that has manifested itself in using TypeScript a lot. TypeScript works well with ReactJS and GraphQL, too. Sprinkle in some Go code for serverless APIs, then this is the kind of tech-stack with which I can feel at home.

This tech-stack enables me to deliver on bleeding edge web software, which can easily be shipped natively on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux via application shells like Electron if needed.

I also have a couple of years of experience with Ruby on Rails applications.

When we are building an early prototype or MVP, I advise keeping it as low-tech as possible and rather use existing APIs and services to get focus on the problem at hand, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Like anybody, I like to keep up-2-date and play around with the new kids on the block. Elixir & Phoenix look very promising. My dear colleague Alex keeps getting into rhapsodies about the Live Views, so I am eager to get my hands dirty with that. Lastly, I have yet to build a larger portion of software with a (pure?) language like Haskell or Elm (which I hear great things about from my friend Johannes).

So there’s room to grow, but let’s not get carried away: I build software for products first, fun tech-stacks second, or third, or x^th, where x > 3…

Guiding Principles / Focus

To sum this up we arrive at the following three guiding principles and one very important question.

❞ Stay open(-minded)!

❞ Product first, software second / if / when / however necessary!

❞ Lead by example!

❞ What’s the product value proposition?

Work Experience

Freelance (Senior) Full Stack Development & Product Consulting

January 2020 - Present

I work with my clients to bring their ideas to market.

Whether you are a small/young start-up or a business unit of a larger already running company we will focus on what your product value proposition is, and how we can test our assumptions about this as early and light-weight as possible.

I have built early prototypes for my client founders to showcase their ideas to possible clients & investors.

For my bigger clients, I supported their existing teams to meet their milestones. In these kinds of scenarios, my focus is on leading by example and thus sharing my experience about how to build scalable software on the web, how to work in a remote set-up, and how to communicate efficiently with the whole team.

Interested? Let’s talk business!

tevim.com

October 2017 - December 2019

»Digitalization is an opportunity. We use its potential for meaningful change.«

Roles: Full Stack Developer. Project Manager. Business Strategist. Sales Agent. Marketeer.

During my time at tevim, we were a tight-knit agency/team of five experienced software developers, so everybody had the opportunity (and responsibility) to chip in on different roles. There was a lot of room for personal development and knowledge sharing all whilst working very closely with a range of different customers.

I led workshops for distilling the product value proposition to work on in the early stages of web software MVPs.

Together with our customers we built MVPs of brand-new product ideas and ported existing legacy web systems to the modern mobile world.

tolingo

May 2014 - September 2017

»t for translation. Professional translations into any world language.«

Role: Full Stack Developer.

At tolingo I had the opportunity to grow from a Frontend / JavaScript engineer to a full-fledged Full Stack Developer.

We were a small team of 2-3 engineers working on the internal software stack and the customer-facing web-shop.

I worked very closely with our stakeholders to enable the team of sales agents, translation project managers, and translators to deliver high-quality results efficiently through our custom-built software solutions.

ePages

April 2012 - April 2014

»Create your online shop in the cloud.«

Role: Frontend Developer.

ePages was my first professional engagement in the world of web software. I was eager to get out of the theoretical world of pure mathematics academia and I succeeded in picking up the tools and practices of web development very fast thanks to my strong basis in rational problem-solving.

We moved the existing frontend stack to the leading frontend stack of the time. Also, I was part of a spear-heading team that led the way to an all-new version of the software while implementing agile practices into the work-flow.

Education

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

October 2009 - September 2011

Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science - Algebra

Role: Teaching & Research Assistant.

Iowa State University

Graduated in August 2009

Master of Science in Mathematics (Grade: A-)

University of Augsburg

Graduated in February 2008

Vordiplom (This was the original German system. In English this would be the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree.) in Mathematics (Grade: A) with a minor in Computer Science.

You made it this far :) Let’s talk business!