Let's Get Inspired by Sophia Willow's DevHack24 Interview

Qodly 10/18/2024

Could you tell us about your journey as a highly talented software engineer?I initially wanted to be an astronaut, but discovered there were height requirements and it looked like I was going to exceed them. I got into computers through my stepfather, who tinkered with them outside of work and I decided a career working with computers wouldn’t be too bad.<o:p></o:p>My first job was in 2016. I interned at a local place called Innovation Park, which is a business hub that leases office space to local companies and connects them with funding and training opportunities. They were managing all of their customer data in a big shared Excel spreadsheet on a networked hard drive, and my job was to migrate them to something a bit more modern.I worked through university doing freelance work and eventually secured a position as Founding Engineer at a SaaS startup called Kwotimation. I helped secure their seed capital raise and built an MVP product from 0 to 1. I wrote about the process of getting this done <a href="https://sophiabits.com/retro/kwotimation">on my website</a>.This was the opportunity that really launched my career; being the first employee at a new company forces you to take on a lot of scope and upskill very rapidly. The biggest highlight for me was getting weekly mentoring sessions with Tana Isaac–a legend in the New Zealand technology industry, and the cousin of one of the founders! The CTO of Oxide Computers, Bryan Cantrill, has an interesting talk where he discusses <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PaWFYm0kEw&themeRefresh=1">oral tradition in software engineering</a> and this has really resonated with me because most of the skills I’ve built have been a result of talking with highly talented individuals like Tana.From there, I moved over to Crimson Education. Crimson is a big EdTech company, and I initially lead the engineering team responsible for building their online high school platform. I moved over to building and running the AI team at the start of 2023 following the mainstream release of GPT-3.5. I was involved in a lot of interesting projects there, including an AI essay review tool which was a bit of a throwback to an essay review tool I had tried to build during my university studies.Today I’m the <a href="https://nz.linkedin.com/in/sophia-willows" target="_blank">head of engineering</a> at Rye, which is an a16z-backed developer tools startup. We build an API that lets developers embed commerce into their applications. They reached out to me in January of this year to come work for them, and it’s a dream job for me. I write a lot about developer productivity and API design best practices <a href="https://sophiabits.com/blog">on my blog</a>, and at Rye we care a lot about these topics.<h2>What is your vision for the evolution of low-code hybrid platforms?</h2>I think they are increasingly important. Software engineering has always involved a lot of grunge work like setting up environments, managing dependencies, or writing boilerplate code. AI is now handling an increasing proportion of that tedious work, and automating away many repetitive tasks that engineers previously had to handle themselves. This is great, but it leaves a gap where we still need engineers to work on the more nuanced or complex parts of an engineering project.<o:p></o:p>This, I think, is where low-code and hybrid platforms will shine. They offer a compelling middle ground compared to other options. You can use things like AI or a visual UI builder to get 85% of the way to completion, and then still have the flexibility to write code and cover the final 15%In my experience, no code tools struggle to get the last 15% because they are too inflexible. The moment you need to do something that isn’t supported by the no-code platform, you are out of luck. On the other hand, writing all of the code by hand has high barriers to entry because folks need a lot more training to do this. Balancing ease of use with flexibility is important.As low-code platforms evolve, I expect to see more hybrid approaches that combine the simplicity of low-code with the robustness of traditional development environments. These platforms will not only cater to professional engineers looking to accelerate delivery but also empower non-technical users to build useful tools for their organizations. The balance between flexibility and usability will make them increasingly integral to the future of software development, as AI helps us automate the grunt work, and low code allows us to more easily implement the creative, complex parts.<h2>How was your experience as a jury member? </h2>It was great! The folks at Qodly handled all of the logistics–Meriem was especially helpful–so I just had to show up and do my thing. I was excited to be involved because I think low-code platforms play a very important role in expanding the pool of folks able to build software. The world has an unlimited appetite for software, and we need more people to come in and help solve the world’s problems.<o:p></o:p>I was also able to come to Paris following the hackathon to meet the team behind Qodly, and this was a great experience. Everyone was friendly and extremely passionate about their work which I loved to see. I think that if you have passion for what you are doing then you will naturally end up producing a better output<o:p></o:p><h2>What did you appreciate the most in the applications you evaluated? </h2>I was impressed by the depth of functionality on display given how young the Qodly product is. The hackathon participants did a great job learning the platform quickly, and it’s also a testament to the platform’s ease of use generally.<o:p></o:p>Cyril’s project was particularly impressive. I loved the custom chart component that he’d included. I also learned after the fact that the app was inspired by a real-world problem that the 4D folks were running into–which I also really love. Developers often end up focusing a lot on technical details, but at the end of the day, our technical achievements are meaningless if we don’t build things that are valuable and solve problems for people.<o:p></o:p>The Sportly submission was also interesting. I liked how the author implemented a forum feature inside of Qodly. It was a great demonstration of what’s possible with the platform.<o:p></o:p><h2>What advice would you give those who wish to enter the development world? </h2>There’s a lot of doom and gloom right now, because we’re in an economic downturn and hiring is slow. There’s also a lot of fear about AI and how it will impact our industry.<o:p></o:p>I think it’s important to remain optimistic. There’s still opportunity out there, and eventually hiring will pick up again as the economy recovers. One of my recruiter friends in New Zealand just texted me the other week to say he’s had a few roles come in after a few quiet months. The world still needs a lot of software to be written, and I don't see this changing much over the long term. It’s important not to lose faith, and continue building your skills and technical depth.<o:p></o:p>Depth is important, because it’s true that AI is automating away a lot of grunt work in the industry. Depth can come in many forms–when we built the AI essay review tool, I needed to work with folks who had a deep understanding of college admission essays in order to ship something valuable. People who have a deep understanding of one or two domains will always be useful to the world, and if you can pair that with adaptability and an openness to learning then you will be OK.<o:p></o:p>Net net I think it’s unlikely that AI will completely remove the need for developers or engineers over the mid-term. I don’t think anyone should be scared away from getting into this field because of advancements in AI. Rather than being something to fear, I see AI as an incredibly powerful tool that developers can harness to augment their skills, solve complex problems faster, and create more impactful solutions. These are all good things.<o:p></o:p>The world needs more software engineers so we can solve hard problems in healthcare, climate change, education, and countless other sectors that shape our future. Technology is an incredibly broad and diverse field that truly has a place for everyone. One of my closest friends is a developer, and his background before this was in franchising a pizza store. There are so many people working in this field who never expected to end up in technology but have found their niche and are thriving. If you even possibly think that technology might be something interesting to you, then I recommend giving it a go. <img src="/sites/default/files/2024-10/DevHack24%20Closing%20Webinar.png" data-entity-uuid="f97ed67d-046a-4df7-aa22-2c2537770e28" data-entity-type="file" alt="" width="1920" height="1080"> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p>

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Could you tell us about your journey as a highly talented software engineer?

I initially wanted to be an astronaut, but discovered there were height requirements and it looked like I was going to exceed them. I got into computers through my stepfather, who tinkered with them outside of work and I decided a career working with computers wouldn’t be too bad.

My first job was in 2016. I interned at a local place called Innovation Park, which is a business hub that leases office space to local companies and connects them with funding and training opportunities. They were managing all of their customer data in a big shared Excel spreadsheet on a networked hard drive, and my job was to migrate them to something a bit more modern.

I worked through university doing freelance work and eventually secured a position as Founding Engineer at a SaaS startup called Kwotimation. I helped secure their seed capital raise and built an MVP product from 0 to 1. I wrote about the process of getting this done on my website.

This was the opportunity that really launched my career; being the first employee at a new company forces you to take on a lot of scope and upskill very rapidly. The biggest highlight for me was getting weekly mentoring sessions with Tana Isaac–a legend in the New Zealand technology industry, and the cousin of one of the founders! The CTO of Oxide Computers, Bryan Cantrill, has an interesting talk where he discusses oral tradition in software engineering and this has really resonated with me because most of the skills I’ve built have been a result of talking with highly talented individuals like Tana.

From there, I moved over to Crimson Education. Crimson is a big EdTech company, and I initially lead the engineering team responsible for building their online high school platform. I moved over to building and running the AI team at the start of 2023 following the mainstream release of GPT-3.5. I was involved in a lot of interesting projects there, including an AI essay review tool which was a bit of a throwback to an essay review tool I had tried to build during my university studies.

Today I’m the head of engineering at Rye, which is an a16z-backed developer tools startup. We build an API that lets developers embed commerce into their applications. They reached out to me in January of this year to come work for them, and it’s a dream job for me. I write a lot about developer productivity and API design best practices on my blog, and at Rye we care a lot about these topics.

What is your vision for the evolution of low-code hybrid platforms?

I think they are increasingly important. Software engineering has always involved a lot of grunge work like setting up environments, managing dependencies, or writing boilerplate code. AI is now handling an increasing proportion of that tedious work, and automating away many repetitive tasks that engineers previously had to handle themselves. This is great, but it leaves a gap where we still need engineers to work on the more nuanced or complex parts of an engineering project.

This, I think, is where low-code and hybrid platforms will shine. They offer a compelling middle ground compared to other options. You can use things like AI or a visual UI builder to get 85% of the way to completion, and then still have the flexibility to write code and cover the final 15%

In my experience, no code tools struggle to get the last 15% because they are too inflexible. The moment you need to do something that isn’t supported by the no-code platform, you are out of luck. On the other hand, writing all of the code by hand has high barriers to entry because folks need a lot more training to do this. Balancing ease of use with flexibility is important.

As low-code platforms evolve, I expect to see more hybrid approaches that combine the simplicity of low-code with the robustness of traditional development environments. These platforms will not only cater to professional engineers looking to accelerate delivery but also empower non-technical users to build useful tools for their organizations. The balance between flexibility and usability will make them increasingly integral to the future of software development, as AI helps us automate the grunt work, and low code allows us to more easily implement the creative, complex parts.

How was your experience as a jury member?

It was great! The folks at Qodly handled all of the logistics–Meriem was especially helpful–so I just had to show up and do my thing. I was excited to be involved because I think low-code platforms play a very important role in expanding the pool of folks able to build software. The world has an unlimited appetite for software, and we need more people to come in and help solve the world’s problems.

I was also able to come to Paris following the hackathon to meet the team behind Qodly, and this was a great experience. Everyone was friendly and extremely passionate about their work which I loved to see. I think that if you have passion for what you are doing then you will naturally end up producing a better output

What did you appreciate the most in the applications you evaluated?

I was impressed by the depth of functionality on display given how young the Qodly product is. The hackathon participants did a great job learning the platform quickly, and it’s also a testament to the platform’s ease of use generally.

Cyril’s project was particularly impressive. I loved the custom chart component that he’d included. I also learned after the fact that the app was inspired by a real-world problem that the 4D folks were running into–which I also really love. Developers often end up focusing a lot on technical details, but at the end of the day, our technical achievements are meaningless if we don’t build things that are valuable and solve problems for people.

The Sportly submission was also interesting. I liked how the author implemented a forum feature inside of Qodly. It was a great demonstration of what’s possible with the platform.

What advice would you give those who wish to enter the development world?

There’s a lot of doom and gloom right now, because we’re in an economic downturn and hiring is slow. There’s also a lot of fear about AI and how it will impact our industry.

I think it’s important to remain optimistic. There’s still opportunity out there, and eventually hiring will pick up again as the economy recovers. One of my recruiter friends in New Zealand just texted me the other week to say he’s had a few roles come in after a few quiet months. The world still needs a lot of software to be written, and I don't see this changing much over the long term. It’s important not to lose faith, and continue building your skills and technical depth.

Depth is important, because it’s true that AI is automating away a lot of grunt work in the industry. Depth can come in many forms–when we built the AI essay review tool, I needed to work with folks who had a deep understanding of college admission essays in order to ship something valuable. People who have a deep understanding of one or two domains will always be useful to the world, and if you can pair that with adaptability and an openness to learning then you will be OK.

Net net I think it’s unlikely that AI will completely remove the need for developers or engineers over the mid-term. I don’t think anyone should be scared away from getting into this field because of advancements in AI. Rather than being something to fear, I see AI as an incredibly powerful tool that developers can harness to augment their skills, solve complex problems faster, and create more impactful solutions. These are all good things.

The world needs more software engineers so we can solve hard problems in healthcare, climate change, education, and countless other sectors that shape our future. Technology is an incredibly broad and diverse field that truly has a place for everyone. One of my closest friends is a developer, and his background before this was in franchising a pizza store. There are so many people working in this field who never expected to end up in technology but have found their niche and are thriving. If you even possibly think that technology might be something interesting to you, then I recommend giving it a go.