Over 10 years of experience creating and managing websites and web applications for agencies and corporations with national brands.
Postmedia Network
Maintained the content management system (CMS) used in 150+ newsrooms across Canada.
Salesforce
Developed email templates used by hundreds of thousands of people daily.
Indeed
Crafted core features on the #1 job search site in Canada.
Portfolio
Projects proudly engineered by me and fully owned from conception to launch.
Red Mango
Personal development gamified in WordPress
Applied understanding of gamification to create a website to help people stay motivated to complete their long-term goals. Users add their goals to a game board, and earn moves and rewards in the game when they complete goals in real life. Initially targeted at a wide audience, it earned favour with care providers who would use it to motivate patients in long-term therapy.
Product Development, Plugin Development, Theme Development, Game Development, Custom CMS
“The game actually made me realize how productive I was today… it was a nice little note.”
Jacob Arueus, Facilitator
“Hey Curtis! When is your vacation officially over? It feels like you’ve been working the whole time. Thank you for your dedication to this.”
Michael Reid, Executive Director
Muay Thai Ontario
Customer Management System for Professional Fighters
Administrative dashboard managing all fighter records and events sanctioned in Ontario. I collaborated with the Executive Director of Muay Thai Ontario and brought fresh ideas of my own to iterate the system over 3 years. In addition to ranking fighters and managing memberships, core features successfully reduced operating costs at events by automating registration steps resulting in a 38% increase in profits.
Product Development, Plugin Development, Custom CMS, Remote Customer Support
A job application management system that reduces time spent on customized job applications by an average of 45 minutes. AI is integrated into the web application via API to provide editing suggestions so that the user’s authentic tone and information is retained while formatting their resume for ATS.
Product Development, Plugin Development, API Integration, AI Integration, Custom CMS
“Wow! You did this with WordPress?!”
Jeremy Brant, Product User
Check out my code!
Kodera
Language learning system that integrates php-mecab with WordPress to provide translations and learning paths for studying Japanese.
I have 4+ years remote working experience leading teams, supporting clients and coding projects while working from various time zones. Have gone the distance whether it’s waking up at 4am to make a client call, or staying up until 4am to support a migration. I use tools like git and Trello to version and track all responsibilities and deliverables, even when working on a project alone. Burnout is an enemy to remote work, so I balance my work day by varying my responsibilities, taking regular breaks, and exercising.
Describe a project that showcases your approach to digital project management.
I was the project manager for a custom CRM for Muay Thai Ontario. Over 3 years I translated the Executive Director’s goals into technical requirements and recommended my enhancements to build and maintain a system that tracks fighter rankings and manages all administrative activities around fighting events. I adjusted the project management process as the project grew over the years, hiring and coaching a junior developer and onboarding the Executive Director to use agile methodologies.
Some key aspects of my approach to this project:
Stakeholder management through detailed written communication and occasional in-person meetings to set priorities and explain technical concepts in a manner easy to understand
Outlined feature requests and bugfixes in detailed tickets
Assigned tickets with a clear understanding of developer strengths and weaknesses
Consistently released updates on time and within budget by accurately scoping the amount of work that can be completed each sprint and setting clear expectations for the stakeholder and the developer
Scheduled and conducted milestone meetings with stakeholders
Performed QA and additional PHP programming
What’s your process for version control?
Define features for the version on a project management tool like Trello. Break each definable feature into a separate task and add a unique task number to each.
Create a development master for this version in git. This ensures that there is always a pristine master branch separate from the current work in case a quick fix to production is needed while we are developing the new feature.
Create a new branch for each task, and include the task number as part of the name. This allows us to confirm updates or track errors by referring to the Project Manager software, making it easier for the client and non-technical stakeholders to track and participate in conversations.
Merge each branch into the version master, and publish this to a staging site. The staging site mirrors production so we can thoroughly check if any of our changes will conflict with anything on production. It also allows us to weed out errors that may occur if the settings on the developer’s machine is different to that of production. It’s a safe environment for stakeholders to preview work before it is published.
What experience do you have with leading and coaching a development team?
3+ years experience coaching development teams to adopt engineering best-practices and agile methodologies on long-term builds
Led a team of 18 developers and designers to launch and maintain 50+ websites hosting in-person workshops to coach the team on evolving web development practices
Hired and coached junior developers on long-term WordPress projects resulting in measurable improvement of junior developers’ ability to complete advanced engineering tasks with confidence and deliver quality features on demand
A track record of accurately assessing the skillsets of the development team, assigning tasks within the scope of their abilities, and developing performance improvement plans per each individual to skill up to agreed-upon goals
