Tyler Watts is The Think Tank’s inhouse Web Developer. Unflappable and down-to-earth, he’s relentlessly applied his expertise in coding, programming languages and more to deliver numerous website projects for a host of clients.
We sat down with him to find out more about his approach to software development.
Hi Tyler. Tell us about your journey before arriving at The Think Tank.
It’s certainly been a journey!
Back in the day I always had an interest in music. After school I went to Brunel University to study Sonic Arts, which was a music tech course, but it wasn’t for me.
I realised I was less invested in the arts side of the course and more interested in the software side, which I thought might fit me better. So after a year I switched to software engineering at Kingston University.
Once I graduated I worked at various web solutions and digital marketing agencies. At my last agency I met Justina, who’s now Senior Operations Manager at The Think Tank. I wouldn’t say I followed her here, but it was definitely nice to have a familiar face when I arrived.
What would you say are your key skills? How do you apply them at The Think Tank?
I’d say mainly coding. Front-end and back-end coding allows for a lot of full projects to be built in-house. I think being in-house just makes it easier to make quick changes, which our clients certainly appreciate when they need urgent updates to their website.
My key skills also include programming and scripting languages like JavaScript and PHP, which are essential for ensuring websites function and behave as intended, both in terms of design and functionality.
How has software development changed since you started out?
The rise of JavaScript frameworks and back-end languages in the past 10 years has been crazy.
Before, you had different frameworks for the front-end and back-end of websites. Now, you’ll have frameworks that run on both. There’s more to it now and it’s sped up processes so much.
What are some of the projects you’ve worked on at The Think Tank that you’re most proud of?
I’m particularly proud of the website we built for Oscar Acoustics, which is one of the biggest projects I’ve worked on. It had different functionality and design elements to it, including an e-commerce store. We used Advanced Custom Field (ACF) blocks to build different sections of the website without having to write code for each bit, which made it a really efficient process.
Glidertech was another good one, with some tricky design elements to overcome. Paul, our Head of Creative, had designed these really nice curves which went down the page, but they made things like resizing tricky to do without cutting off content. It was a bit of a puzzle to solve, but once we did we delivered a really great-looking website.
What are some of the typical challenges facing our clients nowadays? How do you help them overcome them?
A lot of the time, clients come to us with websites that they say aren’t performing for them, or limit their ability to customise content themselves. To help in these situations we find it best to use customisable and scalable content management systems like WordPress.
Nowadays, even the simpler systems are sophisticated enough to optimise code in a way that makes website performance really high in terms of functionality.
What skills do you think are going to be really important for the future in your line of work?
Anything to do with AI.
I occasionally use it to help with coding problems, but there hasn’t been a need to integrate it fully into any projects yet. That being said, I can tell that as people become more exposed to it, the demand for AI to be integrated is going to grow – and utilising it within projects is going to become the norm.
What do you think sets The Think Tank apart from other B2B marketing and PR agencies?
Here, I’m given a lot of trust. In other workplaces, I’ve often received strict instructions on how tasks should be done, but here I’m trusted to approach projects in the way I believe works best.
The Account Managers here trust me to find the most efficient way to build, and I think it feeds into high-quality work and productivity. It’s a nice culture and I love having that backing from the team.
And lastly, to finish on a light note: Who’s your dream dinner party guest?
Hmm.
Karl Pilkington seems alright. I bet he’d be a laugh.
