Pet Media Group

Position: Senior React Native Developer
Manager: Zoran Marjanovic
Team: Mobile team

Goals

01Build brand new mobile app from scratch using React Native and launch it
02Build out and maintain shared code for web and mobile ( business logic, constants etc. )
03Interview new hires
04Be the company’s “tech guy”
05Onboarding new tech hires and mentor new mobile devs
06Manage app store releases

Projects

I was one of the first 2 tech hires at PMG as a senior React Native dev, the 2 of us were tasked with creating and launching an entirely new mobile app from scratch that needed to catch up with the web app which was in development for a year already at that point.

One of the main goals of our codebase was sharing as much code as possible and the most impactful place to do it is between mobile and web app - we were abstracting away in to shared codebase as much business logic, constants and configs as possible.

As one of the first hires I had a lot of responsibilities outside of just building out the mobile app, interviewing potential new hires, being the “tech guy” ( contact person for any tech related questions non-tech PMG employees might have )

Later in the project I was the only mobile dev left and I had the responsibility to educate and mentor a new hires that were coming from a web background how mobile development works, also was the contact person for any web developers working on shared code when they had questions how the changes could impact mobile

Project 1

Contribution: Built a brand new mobile app from scratch using React Native
Scope: Use React Native to create mobile apps for Android and iOS
Impact: Creating mobile apps using React Native cut our time to going live with both Android and iOS by half and not only did we manage to catch up with the apps web counterpart, before launch we expanded scope and included an entire new module that was planned after launch

Project 2

Contribution: Created and maintained code that was shared between web and mobile apps
Scope: Business logic and configs on web, mobile and shared codebase
Impact: Having code that is shared between web and mobile greatly sped up development time since any feature or bug fix being done on one platform is reflected on the other. The impact is multiplied further because not only were multiple platforms affected but also every market has its own web and mobile apps

Project 3

Contribution: Interviewing new tech hires
Scope: Researching candidates, Interviewing tech and soft skills and reporting feedback to management
Impact: Taking the hiring process very seriously and by analysing how every potential new hire not only would help the company but also how the company would fit the hire and help their career we managed to filter out hires that aren’t quite a match for us and we ensured not only an incredibly low churn rate but also all hires that got an offer and accepted were productive within a few weeks and were very happy and motivated to be working with PMG

Project 4

Contribution: Be the company’s “tech guy”
Scope: Codebase, app architecture, tech related decision making, periodic agency review
Impact: Being one of the first two PMG tech hires I was entrusted to review everything related to tech and give my opinion to management, this included reviewing PMG’s relationship with the software development agency we were working with, any new tech tools we considered using, our codebase and its evolution / roadmap, how we structured the whole project etc.

Project 5

Contribution: Onboarding new tech hires and mentor new mobile devs
Scope: New hires, mobile app
Impact: At one point I was the only mobile developer left at PMG and was tasked to mentor and educate a few web developers how mobile works and how to develop mobile apps using React Native, I’m very proud to say that both developers were impactful and productive in record time and the app was left in good hands after PMG and I parted ways

Project 6

Contribution: Manage app store releases
Scope: Mobile app, App Store Connect, Google Play
Impact: As part of owning the mobile side of the project I was also tasked with managing app store listings, preparing and launching new versions of the app and similar

Collaboration & mentorship

Onboarded new mobile devs to the mobile project and introduced to all mobile relevant topics
Collaborated with web devs to sync web and mobile launches, feature development and similar
Explained mobile specific issues and solutions to web / backend devs or anyone interested

Design & documentation

Documented mobile app style guide and release flow

What I learned

I learned best practices when sharing code between multiple platforms - especially between web and mobile app ( React and React Native )

Relevant links

Pets4Homes google play link
Pets4Homes app store link
Pet media group website link