Between Conversations with Eddie Chou

Eddie and I sat down through many chats in the past week, going over details that needed to be done from his transition, closing off any remaining tasks that needed to be closed. Even with all of the Trello cards, trainings, and documentation; we found moments in-between to collect his journey in my notebook, walking through his time at KiwiCo. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of nostalgia, and a lot of heart.

The first thing I asked Eddie if he remembered how he came to KiwiCo. He leaned back in his chair as he thought back on how he had a Leapfrog referral from Clements who graduated from HackReactor. He was just happy to get into somewhere and be given such an amazing opportunity.

When I asked Eddie how it was meeting Kevin, Eddie remembers the blur of relentless optimism and how he was always a "full force of energy." He's never met someone like that before in his life. The one memory that will always stick out to him is how he tried to keep up with Kevin in fitness during a brief period, visiting some very shady gyms for CrossFit. One was above a Toyota dealership where the entire setup looks like it was about to break down at any moment, crashing through the floor of the upper levels to the lower area. He jokes that he never worked that hard in his entire life, shaking his head at how "Kevin is a beast."

We continued to Artur. Eddie was very reflective, telling me that he thought he was "very much like Yoda." He always had all of the answers. He remembers how Artur was always siloed dealing with Bill and Set, keeping subscriptions afloat and the company going. The most memorable moment he recalls now is how he mistakenly did a funky SQL JOIN that resulted in sending double crates to Montana. Eddie told me that he had only been there a few months, but Artur pulled him aside and told him not to worry about it and not to lose momentum just because a mistake happened. I nodded with Eddie that those words were very wise and we were glad he was there to tell a younger Eddie that.

With Jyoti, Eddie found the "ultimate proponent of the company." She was excited about everything, selling it constantly. Eddie's biggest lesson he learned from Jyoti is that developers can do so much more than what is only defined, working in the spaces that even extended to managing the entire project. He remembers working on moving to Iterable from Marketo with her and it was the first time working with event queues and data processing for 600,000 records. She showed Eddie how to manage such a large project, handling the tasks in spreadsheets and managing the specs.

When Eddie met Linnie, his initial impression was that "she speaks really really fast." He never met anyone who spoke that fast and his brain could not process it. It took a few months of intense focus and training just to follow her and he thinks it's also because she slowed down "over time" for him. He'll always remember how passionate she is about the things she loves, whether that was with Neopets or her art. This allowed Eddie to open up over time as well and not shy away from sharing his interests, something he had to learn to be more open with. I smiled, hoping everyone finds people who help us open up like that.

Eddie remembered it being an awkward situation when he met Yuli because he wasn't sure what to test her on in the interview! But he's glad how she joined the team and immediately changed its' personality and culture, providing a good balance to the workhorse nature of Artur and Jyoti. A moment he remembers sharply is a sunshine committee event is with the Claw Machine. "She had a vision for what she wants and will execute it amazingly."

Eddie thinks he's always going to remember Emily for her sarcasm. He felt like she was playful with people in her own way, bringing an "air of levity" to all of the meetings. Eddie doesn't remember the exact instances, but he remembers constantly thinking "wow, she said that" and chuckling inside plenty of times. We both know how she'll move from topic-to-topic by being both dismissive and caring in the same moment. We're lucky to have her make everything smooth and fun.

Eddie's first impression of Rohan is that he seemed more like a PM than a developer, talking about the product rather than the nuances of the technology or implementation. After joining, Eddie saw he was a lot more hands-on than other developers and appreciated all of the pair programming, pulling everything he needed to learn. A memory he'll always remember about Rohan was how immediately friendly he was, inviting others to his place for a celebration. But the most unforgettable memories he'll always have is all of the hard times getting through the cart and checkout re-platform at night. Those won't ever be replaced and it's those hard times that bring people together. I agreed with him and I still regret not being able to do everything in person with everyone--drinks, games, and all for the Adyen-25 deadline. Darn COVID-19.

With Alfonso, Eddie wishes he could have worked more with him. One thing he'll always remember is seeing Alfonso's code for the first time and noticing that he "writes modular code," something he hadn't seen since school in 2 years. KiwiCo was just so used to writing gigantic multi-page long blocks of code up to that point. We laughed and mused that Eddie must surely be joking. He reassured me it was true. I was sad.

Eddie remembers meeting Michael, thinking that he was very mature for his age and extremely emotionally intelligent. His professionalism and "candor" was a "rallying cry in the chaos," bringing stakeholders and devs together so that the big problems could be solved. Eddie admires how Michael is always moving forward while still considering everyone's feelings. We joked that it must be something that he deals with on the teacher front all of the time. Maybe Michael is just good at managing us children at KiwiCo.

By the time Eddie met Dave, he felt he was very biased because everyone knew him and he was this already respected individual. Eddie was "very concerned" because everyone told Eddie that he was "more serious" than Kevin, so it led to some anxiety. We laugh now in retrospect, with how Eddie walked away from his first meetings with Dave that he "wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be." He'll remember all of their conversations about travel.

Eddie remembers interviewing Sabrina and she came across as very well-prepared, having answers to every question that he had. She has been very friendly and he would have wanted to work more with her to move some big stories. We discussed how the pods will need to randomize and shuffle members in the future so that everyone got to work with everyone else so that they're all given opportunities to be with all of the great people.

Eddie thought Iurii was an amazing associate that just joined the team and never stopped running. He felt like he was working too many crazy hours in the beginning though, but we both agreed that we were so lucky to have him in the cart re-platform when the stack was so shaky. I lost count of how many times we were reassured by Iurii's signature, "I got it," during that time.

Thinking about Hammer, Eddie remembers how he only met her for one single day in person. That was when we updated the real-life whiteboard, tardy pool, and then he never got to work with her in person again as COVID happened. We mused about how that was a tough way for her to enter the company, but she's flourished anyway. He feels that she is very much about her hobbies in Taylor Swift, travel, and all things Marvel.

Eddie thinks Erich is "such a goofball." Erich is always able to keep the atmosphere light by playing the clown, but it's immediately obvious that he's "really really smart." We talked about his engineering skills extend way beyond the stack and also into how teams work. Eddie agrees, thinking Erich is an "incredible person."

Eddie thinks that the work Denis has been putting in communication has shown through the rest of the team. He hopes that his English keeps getting better!

With Deepak, Eddie's immediate word that comes to mind is "professional." He admires Deepak's initiative to push things through, showing how amazing he is at getting everything done. He also appreciates that Deepak always tries things before asking, approaching problems in systematic ways of trial and verification. An impression that will stay with Eddie is that he is always in a good mood, even when breaking down big problems.

When I asked about John, Eddie can't believe he just came out of school. The "level he's working at" and "speed he's picking things up" is ridiculous. We both think it's at a crazy rate, with dedication and hunger that is great to have to push you forward in your career. At the same time, we both hope he gets some more rest. Balancing everything so you don't head into burnout is part of being more senior too! Regardless, we both know John's future is bright here and he'll help move the boulders that we'll need soon enough.

I told Eddie about how Chris admired where he got to on the team, coming from HackReactor and everything. I asked him what his advice was to others who want to become seniors on the stack? He gave me the simple answer of "keep learning." I thought that was profound until he added that you should have a "sense of dread of not pulling your own weight" because "imposter syndrome" is "apparently" healthy. We laughed. He does say that you should prioritize what to learn on the stack and take initiative where you need to by supplementing it with courses. He knew he was never going to not be able to tackle Magento, so he took courses to make sure he learned it.

We see that Benze is already super analytical and moving on very complex problems. Hopefully he'll open up more and get used to the team over time.

When we hired Jeff, it was immediately obvious that we needed it. The leadership and push for more quality is something Eddie feels the team has always needed and it was good that it happened now.

We hope that Dheanna will come save us from all of the craziness of Schools and Groups.

Thinking back on Anna, he thought she was extremely hardworking and did well with all of the crazy manual tests that were needed. He'll always remember her style, pulling off any outfit imaginable without trying.

One of the only reasons Eddie isn't worried about Bill and Set is because he knows Bill Bang is still here. He muses that Bill understands the subscription data as well as him and knows even more about how it goes through the system. His analytical mind and data-centric approach hold together how the business needs to understand subscriptions and he'll always value the leadership tempered with hands-on digging to find all of the answers. When I asked if there was a particular moment that he'll remember Bill Bang by, he just thinks it'll just be a blur of so many important meetings.

I found out that Eddie had 1-on-1s with Bill Onderdonk before Kevin and Dave. Bill was pivotal in getting Eddie onboarded and he still remembers advice on setting goals with a single tactic: write an aspirational resume with 2, 3, and 5 years of what you want to have on there. That way, you know what to target and how you can grow to get there. He thinks he might write another one soon.

Eddie thinks the biggest thing he'll remember about Cynthia is how she was always exploring ShipStation integration and sneaking around the tech area just to joke around with Artur because she came back to the company.

With Sam, Eddie was able to work closely to generate the revenue report that the company needed. The scope ballooned like crazy, with both of them navigating all of the crazy Magento numbers and questioning every column that had "total" in it. This understanding of how accounting and businesses recognize revenue "closed the loop" for Eddie in terms of understanding how big businesses work.

Eddie thinks Steven is a "jack-of-all-trades," able to be more technical and drill down into all of the data objects to get what he needs. He recognizes that Steven's proactiveness about the scalability of iterable leaves him with confidence that Iterable is in good hands. Steven's also a good note-taker, having notes on all of the email workflows mapped out with better details on how it works on the system than what Eddie has anywhere.

Eddie remembers meeting Sandra for the first time and how it was a shock given how everyone before was so positive. Sandra proved to be "stone-cold with no expression," giving Eddie no "tone" or "inflections" to read the situation. He remembers the question she asked him that froze him, "Do you consider yourself lucky?" He answered that he does consider all of his situations he's been in throughout his entire life, being given opportunities and mentors. We laughed thinking how it must be in Sandra's nature to give fun zingers. Sorry, Eddie, I had to include all of your exact words above to get us both in trouble.

Eddie, I hope nothing was left unsaid. Know that KiwiCo and all of us have been so lucky to have been in your company. Know that we saw your journey here. Know that we appreciated how you added your sound to all of ours. The future is bright now from all of the dedication you put to the team and stack every single day. Thank you.