Q&A with ImageX's New Lead Developer, Bryan Sharpe

ImageX welcomes our new lead developer, Bryan Sharpe, who joins us from a deep e-commerce background. We sat down to discuss the experience he brings to ImageX, what his first priorities are as a lead developer, and what gets him excited about the future.   

   TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND THE PATH YOU TOOK TO BECOMING IMAGEX’S NEW LEAD DEVELOPER.

I started off developing when I was a teenager and the band I was in needed a website. I then jumped into Adobe (Macromedia at the time, to date myself) Flash and Fireworks in the early stages of ActionScript making all sorts of games, websites, etc. for fun as I learned.  During my time working at Shaw Cable, I started playing in PHP and Drupal (4.x) and eventually built an intranet site for the company as well as some internal tools. In this role I came to realize that web development and programming is where my passion was, so I moved over to Acro Media Inc in Kelowna. From there, I developed my skills and worked up into a senior role and a team lead managing a team mainly on large e-commerce websites such as Koodo Mobile. I also am the Lead Developer on another project that creates websites from your social feeds, called Me in a Nutshell.   

   Your background is heavy on building e-commerce solutions. What about that experience do you hope to bring to ImageX?

At ImageX I hope to bring in a high level of skill in architecting solutions for custom software and building out code that is not only pertaining to client needs, but gives back to the Drupal community.   

   What are some of the first steps or decisions that a lead developer should take in their new role?

I believe that communication is key in a team environment, so my first steps are to get involved with the team's day-to-day and get a really good sense of the tools and process each uses and the different skill-sets each person brings to the table so I can better communicate when working on a project.   

   What advice would you give to a new lead developer who was building out a team at a young agency?

Being a lead developer is more about earning the respect and trust of your team than anything else. Leaders are leaders because people follow them, not because they are appointed to some position. Authority can be granted, leadership is earned.  And you must lead by example; it's about not telling people what to do, but showing them.   

   What gets you most excited about the future?

I love new technologies -- getting my hands dirty and learning new things always keeps me excited about my role. The big change of Drupal 8 to adopting Symfony is really exciting to me. This is a needed change that will be a game changer for the Drupal community. Bringing OOP, restful web services, twig, and an abundance of other features to Drupal core that makes it an extremely powerful platform to work on.