10 | 2022 Juha Inkinen, Team Lead, Architect

I started at Kipinä in December 2021. I jokingly call myself Kipinä's Tampere office because, at least so far, I am the first Tampere-based member of our fast-growing team. What are your thoughts on my first year at Kipinä?

I must have been fascinated by IT since I was six years old, when I got my first computer, a Commodore 64. As a little boy, I said I wanted to be a computer game designer, because computer programming was - and still is - as close to magic as you can get in reality. Perhaps this poetically describes what, as a Kipinä consultant, I want to deliver to our clients: a dash of life-enhancing, business-enhancing computer magic.

I've been working in the software industry since 2004, when, alongside my engineering studies, I got to work first as a tester and later as a software engineer in a large Finnish mobile networking company, where many other IT professionals started their careers. In 2005, I was introduced to agile software development methodologies through the Scrum Master training, and although I am not an extreme fan of any particular methodology, I can say that agility is deeply rooted in my thinking.

At different stages of my career, I have held almost every role related to a software project: tester, designer, architect, project manager, technical sales support and Scrum-style Product Owner. Of these, by far the most enjoyable part of my job has been the actual programming, or coding if you want to call it that. In my own approach to problem solving, the above roles more or less merge: it is difficult to produce a meaningful solution just by writing code if the ultimate goal of the user is not known, not to mention the possibilities and constraints created by the system design and the desired schedule.

Juha and Kari pair coding at the Kipinä Code retreat.

Before I found Kipinä, I struggled for a long time with the traditional employee-employer setup. I found the self-proofing built into the setup frustrating: it's not enough for an employee to do a good job that is appreciated by customers, they also have to play the "work-life game". The rules of the game include proving one's worth to those higher up the organisational chart, and justifying why one deserves a euro or two more than the amount billed. Traditionally, pay for work that delivers tangible benefits to clients is far below that of those higher up the organisational ladder, which tends to steer career progression towards administrative roles rather than deepening technical skills.

Such a hierarchical view of humanity is far from my own egalitarian values. I considered becoming self-employed, but the sales and marketing tasks that this necessarily entailed only seemed to take more focus away from the actual work. I've been delighted to have the opportunity to jump on board with Kipinä; I think Kipinä's entrepreneurial, specialist ownership model works well at giving employees the responsibility of running the business and making decisions, while allowing them to focus most of their energy on delivering value to customers.

In my spare time, music is perhaps my biggest source of energy, although as a father of two young children I haven't had much time to touch my guitars in the last few years. Besides my work, IT also plays a big role in my hobbies. I play games on both my computer and my console, and I am interested in the development of different programming languages, among other things. My interest in understanding the human mind is a counterbalance to technology: in particular, I read research on interpersonal neurobiology and other psychology literature. I am also involved in volunteer work, particularly supporting the mental health of fathers and families.

But you don't always have to do something productive or useful: our family has two lovely Chinese Shepherds, with whom you can relax just by lounging on the sofa.