As the year draws to a close, it is an opportune time to contemplate the accomplishments of past years in order to gain a better perspective. Looking back on my achievements, I feel a sense of pride and gratitude for all that I have accomplished, with the help and support of those around me.

This year, many things that were previously in progress seemed to fall into place, leading me to pursue a new career direction that focuses more on engaging people rather than code. This is a path that is better suited for me at this stage in my career.

If you've ever been to a tech conference, you know the thrill of being part of a gathering where ideas flow faster than the coffee. Whether you're a seasoned conference-goer or a first-timer, the journey from submitting a Call for Paper (CFP) to standing on stage is a rollercoaster of excitement, nerves, and hopefully, success.

So what's a CFP precisely?

To provide a bit of context, I think it’s valuable to have a rough idea on where I’m currently working. I’m part of a large scale company with a reasonably sized tech department. The tech department consists of 400+ individuals and we favour to do a lot of developments in house if we can. Our main focus is e-commerce and the solutions within the supply chain (think about distribution, stock optimisation, delivery and whatnot).

Since a couple of years, I’ve been invested in the component library we’ve built over the years and I gave talks on our organisational efforts surrounding the maintenance and developments. Within that capacity, I was able to share my story and chat with lots of peers from different types of organisations, but similar active topics. During those chats, the more people I talked to, the more I discovered patterns emerging. My attempts to structure these patterns have led to a model I came up with to capture Design System Maturity. Disclaimer: This is a work in progress and may be subject to change!

Ever since I started the process of writing a book I have had to work on streamlining the content creation part a bit! For articles on my personal website, I usually write and post when I have something the share. Usually these are simply articles conveying my thoughts or small tutorials focussing on a very specific topic. For the book Building Real-world Web Applications with Vue.js however, I have had discover a new process.

It started with determining the outline of the book with all the topics we wanted to cover and address. That structure really helped in getting the scope for each chapter right as I've discovered. Scope creep is a real thing, when you want to teach and deliver well rounded projects!

This article is inspired by the BBC produces series on nature, with a particular episode dealing with the wildebeest migration. The series was presented by Sir David Attenborough, and I will try and channel his spirit in this article. I have fond memories of these sort of documentaries, watching them together with my father. Those were simpler times.

I’ve used this theme and contents in talks that I gave with a similar title. Note this article details the approach that works best for us at Jumbo Supermarkten. It might not be the best in your situation, so treat its contents as inspirational.

Taking time off from work is crucial for our overall well-being. It allows us to recharge, de-stress, and reset our minds. When you take a break from work, you give yourself the opportunity to focus on other aspects of your live, such as spending quality time with family and pursuing hobbies that we enjoy. This can help you feel more balanced, refreshed, and fulfilled.

We work in a tech industry, and I find myself often times glued to a screen. During office hours, but also occasionally on evenings. I just got back from a 10 day break in Iceland. It was my second visit and the first with my kids. Being able to decompress is important. Being able to decompress in the environment that Iceland brings is next level. My Instagram feed is a testament to the rugged landscape.

I work at Jumbo Supermarkten in software engineering. At Jumbo we have a big tech department (affectionately called the Jumbo Tech Campus, or JTC) where we work on all of our digital products: from eCommerce and planning applications to AI driven models for stocking and inventory. I'm going to focus mostly on the eCommerce branch, since this is where we can make a big impact on our customer experience.

For our tech stack: we have an eCommerce engine which is enriched by (micro) applications and components built in Vue.js and Nuxt.js. There are multiple teams working on fulfilling the eCommerce goals and in order to deliver user interfaces as effectively as possible, we've built a component library that (in general, but we'll get to that) follows the designs and design system.

I've been a web developer for over a decade (feel old yet?). Over my career I've gradually moved from an entry level junior at a web agency where I learned not to drop tables, jQuery (yes) and the woes of supporting ie6 even!

Over the years I've grown in experience and have been focused more on becoming a well rounded frontend specialist, having adopted the Vue.js / Nuxt.js tech stack for the past four years and considered expert enough to been invited to speak at conferences and writing a book.