September 2024 – What We’ve Been Up To

Wayne

A month of clarity

A holiday to Cyprus came just at the right time and was the first holiday I’ve had in ten years where I was able to (mostly) cut off and relax.

Apart from the odd glance of my inbox to ensure there were no fires to put out, we spent most of our time doing next to nothing. And by “next to nothing” I don’t mean laying down on a sunbed for eight hours a day, because I get bored very easily.

But eating loads of Greek/Cypriot food, getting in the gym every day, going for walks, snorkelling and making use of the spa was my idea of perfect relaxation. It’s amazing what a week away can do and it’s encouraged me to make sure I cut off as much as possible the next time I go on holiday.

It’s exactly 12 months since we moved into our Leeds office, and since then we’ve been going through a period of transformation. This has been challenging for me as growing a business is difficult. It’s fast paced and you have to work very hard at being consistent, maintaining standards, while at the same time looking back at the mistakes you’ve made to ensure you improve next time. After a really nice break I’ve come back with full clarity heading into Q4 in terms of where the business is going, the next steps in our growth, who we need to recruit, and most importantly how we maintain our very high standards while integrating new people and developing the team.

And very much on topic with Twilo’s growth plans, I’m really happy to welcome Roxanne to the team! I first met Roxanne five years ago and I knew she was right fit for Twilo from day one. It’s taken that long to make it happen for one reason or another, but now the time has finally come and it’s already clear to the standards that Roxanne sets are going to add a great deal of value to Twilo and our clients.

Heading into the last quarter of 2024, we’ll be making the most of it!

Amit

Learning and personal growth

September 2024 has been a month of incredible learning and personal growth for me. I’ve dedicated my Twilo’s learning hour to immerse myself in OpenCart, and every day brings new insights. The most exciting part of this journey? I’ve started working on an OpenCart project entirely from scratch! It’s been an exhilarating process, from brainstorming ideas to seeing them come to life through coding and development. This hands-on experience is not only expanding my technical skills but also fueling my passion for building something tangible.

In addition to this, I received some fantastic news from my university-they’ve officially confirmed my work placement! As part of the placement, I’m required to start a significant project, which began this month. It’s a major step forward in my academic journey, and I’m excited to take on this challenge. The combination of my university project and OpenCart work feels like a powerful step toward my future goals, and I can’t wait to see how both evolve.

Beyond these projects, I’ve also been deepening my skills in CSS animations. For a client project, I crafted CSS animations from scratch, which was both challenging and rewarding. Seeing the final result come together was a proud moment and a testament to the learning and hard work I’ve invested this month.

Outside of work, it’s been a busy month too. I’m still making my way through Breaking Bad and just finished season 3 – trying to catch up when I can! Overall, it’s been a rewarding month, full of new challenges and opportunities!

Andrew

A month of learning and growth

In September, I’ve finally reached completion with my new house and have ended the month with a highlight settling myself in. It was mostly smooth apart from having no water for the first couple of days. This was because we couldn’t turn the mains on without having a washing machine installed. There are a few small problems such as that which we need to work through but nothing too big. We also have no internet for a week and need to live off the floor until we get furniture but that’s just part of humble beginnings. I very much look forward to making the house a home.

We have been exploring some exciting projects this month. One of which is exploring how we can implement AI such as ChatGPT into our applications to improve user experience. This will be a very useful tool that will allow users to get more tailored advice and make it easier to find answers and suggestions to customer questions. We have also been looking into other payment integrations for future websites that deviate from the commonly used Stripe and PayPal. Integrating Revolut gives us more experience in more payment platforms which we can deliver to future projects.

Ryan

New website and nostalgia

It’s been a busy month in and out of work for me. With Autumn now here, we’ve been out splashing in puddles and collecting leaves.

We travelled to Northern Ireland to visit family, and it was a nice walk down memory lane to take my daughter around all the spots I grew up in.

There’s been lots of variety in the work we’ve been creating this month, with brand assets and a fresh new website coming soon!

We’re gearing up for some really exciting projects next month, which will be innovative and look great visually!

Aleena

CRM & unwinding with friends

This month has been incredibly exciting! I had the opportunity to work on a CRM project, which was an enriching and rewarding experience.

On a personal note, I invited my old school friend over to my house for the first time, and we had an amazing time catching up.

We also treated ourselves to a relaxing spa day, which was the perfect way to unwind.

Overall, it’s been a fulfilling and memorable month!

Matt

Google Ads & The Yorkshire 3 Peaks

I’ve learnt a lot this month. I finished working with a mentor to expand and grow my Google Ads skills. The experience was extremely useful, and I feel like I can take a lot from those sessions and really push forward Twilo’s Google Ads campaigns for clients.

Yorkshire 3 Peaks

Outside of work, I completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks with my sister and her work colleagues to raise money for charity. We all did brilliantly, completing the 40km (24.85 miles) walk in 11 hours and 20 minutes, with our target time of 12 hours. We were fortunate with the weather too, it was a nice sunny day, so excellent walking conditions. Also, we were able to raise £3,125 for two charities, PAPYRUS and Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice. I’m grateful to everyone that donated.

Sayem

Exciting projects all around

This month I have have completed some exciting work for a few of our great clients. I updated a contact page for a client who recently opened two new branches. I added the contact details for these locations and redesigned the page to improve its overall layout.

For another client, I focused on fixing bugs in their product listing app. There was an issue where some columns for wallpaper were not being added correctly. I identified the problem and implemented a fix, ensuring the app now functions as expected.

I also integrated Stripe payment into a booking system for a hotel client. Additionally, I set up email delivery for booking confirmations and made several enhancements, including displaying the total outstanding balance and tracking the number of guests who haven’t paid for their event on the booking dashboard.

Lastly, I configured a domain and designed a ‘coming soon’ page for a health-related client. This involved setting up the necessary domain settings and creating an attractive placeholder page to inform visitors about the upcoming launch.

Roxanne

New beginnings

Having just started my new and exciting role at Twilo, I’ve had my head down, soaking up as much knowledge as possible!

I am really looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into our new campaigns and working with our brilliant clients. Having recently reviewed some of the brands we work with, it’s clear to see that I have some beautiful and brilliant content at my disposal, which I am eager to use soon.

I have worked in marketing for over 10 years and take a hands-on approach. I also worked in sales previously, so I am excited to be more customer-facing again and getting stuck in!

I’ve two amazing little boys at home who were lovely enough to make me a ‘Congrats on your new role’ card – of which my six-year-old said that he was very proud of me – happy tears were cried with that I can say!

Twilo have some really exciting projects in the pipeline, and I cannot wait to see more in the coming weeks and exactly where we are in the next 3 months!

Watch this space!