Spotlight on web development at The Marketing Pod: Q&A with Kris Bradbury, Lead Developer
Your brand’s website is its shop window. It forms that vital first impression; helping you to nurture leads, win more conversions, and keep customers coming back for more. A study by Stanford University revealed 75% of consumers admit to making judgements on a company’s credibility based on its website1, and a Hubspot report found 88% of online customers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience2 - which is why it’s so important your website is up to scratch.
It’s obvious that a good website should contain strong content and eye-catching design, but without effective web development, it could all be going to waste. A well built, fully optimised website plays a vital role in bringing in traffic from search engines, presenting all your great content for users to easily access and providing key data to help improve your website and user experience. But these benefits can only be realised if your web development is effective – which can be easier said than done.
In this interview, we talk to our Lead Developer, Kris Bradbury, about what makes a good web developer and how he sees the future of web development evolving.
In your view, what makes web development at the Pod stand out?
We work on a wide range of projects, from smaller maintenance tasks through to full web applications. With a good range of skills available in the web dev team, we can fulfil the requirements of most web-based projects.
Ultimately, though, it’s all about the people. Our team is such a talented bunch, completely committed to doing an awesome job for the brands we work with. We have a weekly ‘Pod Storm’ session where we talk about what we are doing, ask any questions and shout about any cool projects we’ve recently undertaken. We’re also a collaborative team, with a big emphasis on helping each other out when needed. I like a good pair programming session as well – this is when two devs work at the same desk, or are remotely connected to the same editor. It makes working through tasks easier, as you can actually show people what you are doing. It’s also good for learning and problem solving. If any of the team needs help we’ll usually jump into a quick session to figure stuff out live.
In your Pod bio you talk about being a web developer as ‘one of the best jobs out there’ – what makes you say that, and why are you so passionate about it?
Being a web developer is a challenge; every day you come up against a whole host of different problems and tasks that you need to think hard about how best to solve. It’s that puzzle that means you have to really want to do it, as it can be frustrating at times – but, to me, that’s part of what makes the role so enjoyable. It’s so satisfying when you figure something out and make it work.
So, what skills does a good web developer need?
Patience, a willingness to learn and a problem-solving mentality. You need to be able to think around a problem, and possess the ability to break that problem down into smaller steps that you can work your way through. I think ‘passionate’ is one of those words that can be overused, but in this case being passionate about web development is important, as it’s a rapidly moving industry and there’s always so much to learn. Another great thing is it’s open to anyone who really wants to do it, and it’s something you can start out on by teaching yourself. I am totally self-taught – I had an opportunity to switch careers in 2010, bought myself a computer and got on with it.
For example, after I had my second daughter, she entered this phase where she would only fall asleep when lying on top of me. In those moments, which could sometimes be hours of just lying there, I used to pick up a book or a tablet and just read as much as I could about development. There really is always something new to learn.
Web development is something that’s constantly evolving – and fast. What does the future look like and how do you keep up with those changes?
Everyone seems to be talking about artificial intelligence (AI) at the moment and I’m very interested to see how this technology will help us do our jobs more efficiently. Having said that, I was recently working on a side project and turned off GitHub Co-Pilot – an AI tool we use – and since then I haven’t really missed it. Don’t get me wrong, the tool does have its uses – its good for more mundane tasks and does start to offer up good suggestions. But I like the challenge that comes with doing the problem solving myself, as well as the opportunity to learn new things.
I keep up with everything by reading as much as I can. That could be anything from documentation to blog posts. I have a really cool plug-in for my browser that shows me loads of interesting blog posts, and I’m also on a few mailing lists. There is a lot of information out there, and a lot of people sharing their opinions on the latest web development trends and updates so it can be quite overwhelming. I find it’s best to both have an idea of what you want to learn alongside what you are currently learning – that approach tends to guide me in what I search for. I’m currently reading about Zustand, a state management library for React, and also TypeScript.
Which coding languages do you know – and what would you love to learn?
I am primarily focused on front-end development, so I’m well-versed in HTML, CSS / SCSS and JavaScript. However, I’m experienced in some back-end languages too, such as PHP and Node JS. I also know how to use frameworks and libraries, such as React, Vue and Tailwind CSS. I really love JavaScript – despite fearing it at first back in the good old jQuery days – but now I am a huge fan of it and its ecosystem.
I’d really like to learn Python and Swift for iOS development, plus pick up some more Laravel. Then I’d love the opportunity to learn more about Svelte as well, which a lot of people are praising. I’m also currently training in Typescript, which I really enjoy. As you can see, there’s so many different coding languages to learn about, so you really have to have that passion for continuously learning new code.
Finally, describe your approach to web development in 3 words
Clean, scalable and maintainable.
Thanks Kris!
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