As I currently work on a minor new feature for the Trusera website, I’m reminded for the fourth or fifth time today that 12 November marks my one year Trusera “birthday.” It seems bizarre to realise that exactly one year ago, I was sitting—eyes wide, brain trickling out my ear—at the end of my first day. We’d just undertaken the company’s first sprint planning meeting (we use the agile development method called Scrum), and it lasted from around 9am til damn near 5pm, if memory serves correctly. I’d never sat through a meeting that long—at least not one with a business context, and especially not one that I could not zone out of.
Things have changed a lot in the past year. Sprint planning now only takes 3 hours, and I can contribute! My design process has gone from a lot of guess work to a reasoned, systematic approach. I’ve gone from a 3 day Seattle resident to someone who tells multi-year Seattlites how to get places faster. Sabrina and I no longer live hundreds of miles away, but now mere inches. I’ve learned how to take a corner in my Subaru on tiny, narrow Seattle streets. I actually know where most Goodwill locations are in the Seattle metro area. I consistently eat Thai food. I don’t drink carbonated drinks. I weigh a lot more (one of the reasons I dropped the drinks). As far as Trusera, we’ve gone from a private alpha to a private beta to an invitation-only beta to an invitation-only fully launched site and on to its current state as a publicly open and kick-ass place for sharing your health experience. This morning, Jude showed off what the site looked like around the time I started. The change is massive. I can’t take all the credit (a lot of my time here was augmented by the very capable work of my friend Scott Neilson, and of course, our development team blows my mind with some of the technical magic they can whip out), but it’s amazing to see what you can accomplish.
I’m a very lucky person. I work with great people and we make something that matters. How can I complain?
Speaking of birth, my sister just had her second son, Tyson, yesterday. Congrats, Jess!
