
When [Ben Frost](https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfrostproduct/) first joined [Bourne Leisure](https://bournecareers.co.uk/) as Head of Product, he soon realised that getting users’ opinions was paramount. Bourne are the owners of Haven Holidays. Here he explains how he implemented a system that involved both users and devs.

## First discoveries

Coming from the Times Educational Supplement, (TES) and with a successful business background behind him, Ben arrived at Bourne Leisure seeking a challenge. He started at Bourne right before lockdown - just as the hospitality industry was about to shut down. It became obvious that the “company culture needed to change as well as the tech. The tech was so archaic and so vast, and this revealed that the culture had to change, so that’s what I focussed on.”

## Solving a problem

‘Historically, Bourne had never had an ‘in house’ digital or website software team. They did have a couple of IT engineers and Project Managers, though these acted as conduits between agencies and the company.” This short-term approach resulted in countless website add-ons and no cohesive strategy.

To find a solution, Ben focussed more on identifying the problem, and one of the first issues he addressed was to actually ask holiday homeowners what their experience on a daily basis was. To accumulate this data in a business that wasn’t data driven, was difficult. For example, even Google analytics hadn’t been set up correctly. The figures were all wrong and this was something Ben realised he had to rectify.

## Building a business without data

By getting out there and talking to holiday homeowners, Ben started from scratch. Calls were set up with holiday homeowners by Ben’s team - this was all taking place during the pandemic. As a result of these calls one of the first changes implemented was to allow holiday homeowners to submit their insurance certificates online - previously this function had been carried out manually. This was the start of the dev team building “feature after feature to replace these manual processes”

## Facing challenges.

Ben is one of the people who can say that he had “a helping hand with the pandemic.” This gave him time to approach Haven, demonstrate the new features, and then continue to implement “more complex stuff.” The business realised that there was a complete lack of alternatives and by focussing on the basics, Ben was able to solve problems for the holiday homeowners, and therefore Haven. He was also able to demonstrate that the smartphone generation isn’t simply in their 20s and there was a need for company-wide tech modernisation.

## Tech innovations

By starting from “ground zero,” Ben joined the new digital team when they were able to all fit in a small office of 8 called ‘the cupboard’, this has now expanded to over 100 team members all over the world working remotely. Outsourcing is a thing of the past, it’s more cost effective for the company and has proven that the team can create products to match both the company’s and holiday homeowners’ needs. Historically, everything had been built on Prem. This hadn’t changed since the 1990s, now nearly every bit of Prem has been moved into AWS.

Trying to implement a single view of the customer base is on Ben’s future wish list. This will be the biggest change that the business will implement. Previously, Haven had not been able to experience the ‘art of the possible’ - the in-house tech team makes creative change a probability.

<NorDevCon />


Driving culture change


_Norwich startup [SupaPass](https://www.supapass.com) launches on Product Hunt today, so this Kitty doesn’t need to lift a paw! _

Hey, I’m the [Product Hunt Kitty](https://producthuntkitty.supapass.io). You may recognise me from the Golden Kitty Awards, won by innovators like Elon Musk. 

I love prowling around hunting tech products and mice, and other fun stuff. I’m an influencer cat so I have lots of friends who like to hunt products too. Anyone can be a Hunter, but some Hunters have discovered thousands of disruptive products!

For example, [Chris Messina is the #1 Hunter](https://www.producthunt.com/@chrismessina). You may know Chris as the guy that [invented the Hashtag](https://tedxbend.com/presenters/chris-messina/)! He’s hunted over 3,000 amazing products, so 34,000 product hunters follow what he posts. 

Today [Chris has hunted SupaPass](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/supapass). 

When I heard what they make, I had to have it! …so the team at SupaPass made me The Pawsome App! 


![Product_Hunt_Kitty_App_by_SupaPass giff](https://res.cloudinary.com/supapass-live/image/upload/v1653153930/product_hunt_imagery/Product_Hunt_Kitty_App_by_SupaPass_ck0cdx.gif)


Now I’m stepping it up with [my own website and app](https://producthuntkitty.supapass.io) where you can find my favourite [Product Hunt podcasts](https://producthuntkitty.supapass.io/audio), [Golden Kitty Awards](https://producthuntkitty.supapass.io/collection/7539), and other cat videos and pod-cats.

It’s purr-fect for writing comments - humans and cat paws welcome - in my Kitty community.

I now don't have to lift a paw because being a content creator is so much easier. I get to focus on what really matters to me: sleeping in the sun and eating fish.

Download my Pawsome App and [come say hello](https://producthuntkitty.supapass.io) to other kitties and product hunters that love this Kitty!

It was so easy to make that _even my paws_ could get the App created and published to the App Stores within 24 hours, with the SupaPass Product!

It is purr-fect for me, and I wanted to know more about the SupaPass team, so I went hunting. 


![Product Kitty Hunting image](https://res.cloudinary.com/supapass-live/image/upload/v1653153844/product_hunt_imagery/Product_Hunt_Kitty_launches_their_own_app_by_SupaPass_jg81uk.jpg)


When I heard that SupaPass is from Norwich, I came down here to see what other cool tech the NorDev Community is making… I love prowling around new neighborhoods, meeting other cats, and hunting. So if there’s any products lurking here I’ve not seen yet, come join me on Product Hunt so I can share it with all my friends. Meows on the street tell me you can ask your friends at [SupaPass](https://www.supapass.com) who’ll be happy to share all the things they learnt preparing for their [SupaPass Product Hunt Launch](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/supapass)

Product Hunt is a curation of the best new products, every day. It’s the best place to discover new products, connect with makers, and keep up with the latest in tech that everyone's talking about.

As you may already know, every day new products compete for the coveted **#1 Product of the Day **badge. I’m heading over there now to [check out today’s SupaPass Launch](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/supapass) and give them my support. Come check out the Pawsome App they made for me!

SupaPass Product Hunt Launch: [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/supapass](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/supapass)   

SupaPass: [https://www.supapass.com](https://www.supapass.com)  


Product Hunt Kitty comes to Norwich!


Tech investor, [Akcela](https://akcela.co.uk/) founder and Conference sponsor, James Adams, is rapidly gaining an awesome reputation on the Norwich tech scene. We talked to James about Akcela’s latest startup, [Tech Educators](https://techeducators.co.uk/).

> Norwich has a lot of people with great ideas in terms of building a business but you need to back that up with the technical capability to achieve success.

Akcela is in this for the long term, and Tech Educators is a shining example of a successful startup.

## Investing in tech

Award winning Akcela is a renowned local [incubator](https://akcela.co.uk/meet-the-akcela-incubator-team-startup-and-scaleup-incubation-norwich/) that “supercharges businesses in the east of England.” Headed up by James Adams the business is making its mark across the county. The latest project, Tech Educators, offers an intense web 3 coding bootcamp that aims to get people started on a new career in the industry, as well as a whole host of other coding [bootcamps](https://techeducators.co.uk/).. As James himself says: “a career in tech can take you to all kinds of places.”

Grant money from big Web 3 companies, who are very interested in training, is a potential source of funding for Akcela. Also, US giant, Code Fellows, has partnered with Tech Educators to offer Full Stack training. Tech Educators is offered space by Akcela, and the courses on offer are exciting .

## Learn to code - first steps

For example, Tech Educators is offering anyone in the UK “access to \[our\] one day or two evening 101 courses for free, instead of £99,” With this opportunity many who wouldn’t normally consider changing to a career in tech can at least dip their toe in the water and see if this is for them.

What makes Tech Educators different from many other start-ups is the support offered by Akcela. Mentors are on hand to guide and actively help with business plans and other types of essential advice. Being part of a wider community is just one of Akcela’s assets. Support from Polygon, Ethereum Foundation, and Nor (DEV): among others means that there is a very wide and knowledgeable cohort for Tech Educators to draw upon.

## Success

Tech Educators has already proven its worth with one of the March 2022, Web3 course graduates, Patrick, who has already landed a job with [Boson Protocol](https://www.bosonprotocol.io/). And another success story is Vatsavaye Pryatham Varma, who’s a web 3 coding bootcamp graduate who’s the new Tech Educators course director..

## Looking to the future

James believes that by speaking about Web3 to corporations there’s potential for Akcela to be successful in raising funds, which in turn, means the incubator will be able to offer support to even more start-ups.

Talking to schools and offering a free one day course for students is another of James’ ideas. As he says, “the long term goal has to be a place where we can offer training to people from diverse backgrounds at true scale. To deliver that, we need an infrastructure of businesses ready to support new talent. That’s alongside our mentors, but it has to be a real commitment to supporting and nurturing talent. We need a pathway for people from job seekers to affordability, which is where the government steps in.”

“We’ve got the product, we’ve got the demand, we’re doing some awesome stuff, we’re spreading the word.”

To find out more about Tech Educators and the opportunities on offer, you could always start by learning how to code with its full stack [MERN Bootcamp](https://techeducators.co.uk/full-stack). Alternatively, should you wish to develop Web 3 skills, [Tech Educators](https://techeducators.co.uk/web3) is the place for you.

Learn more when James Adams and Henry Hoffman give their talk on Web3 at the [conference on 17 June](https://nordevcon.com).

<NorDevCon />


Talking Tech Educators

Educator Mary-Jo Hill explains how YakBit can revolutionise workplace inclusion ahead of her conference speech.

Having taught in education for 25 years and worked as an advisor, and then later as a leadership coach. Mary-Jo realised that many in the classroom have difficulty in having their voices heard. She also acknowledged that adults in the workplace, during meetings and other events do not have the courage or encouragement to express their feelings and for sure, many voices shout louder and more frequently than others. Just take a look at Amanda Blanc’s recent meeting experience at Aviva!.

## From school to work

“YakBit evolved through my observation that, in a classroom, I needed to learn what is the best way to engage all in a teaching and listening forum, and how this can be managed to better effect.”

Having completed a MBA at the UEA, and taken part in the UEA Business Enterprise Start Up week, Mary-Jo decided that she wanted to use tech to analyse speech patterns and promote inclusivity in the workplace.

## Tech to the rescue

Those who feel marginalised and are less confident will benefit from YakBit. Research shows that there is a need to measure real time inclusion. This carries through from the educational environment right through to the workplace.

By using speech analytics, AI, and machine learning to increase awareness of how people talk and listen in a meeting space. Mary-Jo stresses that YakBit is still in its infancy but is examining ways to use insight to make meetings more effective. The AI will also be able to register silences as well as speech - who is speaking, who isn’t and then analysis can assess why this is so. The aim is to “ensure that there is core participation and there are structures and systems in place so those who are less confident become more engaged.”

## Testing the methodology

YakBit is now trialling the MVP with a creative agency in Norwich, with AI expertise on the Board. Smart Grant Funding for further R&D is vital to move this forward. By talking at the conference Mary-Jo hopes that members of the tech community will contribute, with their thoughts, ideas, expertise and knowledge.

## The future

Corporations who might wish to adopt YakBit, include those early adopters, “who value equality and inclusion.”’ She is also very aware that companies that, potentially, could benefit from this programme, will be nervous. On the positive side “many industries have a mandate to report on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.” Mary-Jo values all Norfolk Networks and colleagues here to find companies interested in adopting YakBit.



<NorDevCon
  title="To hear more about this intriguing project, come along to Mary-Jo’s talk"
  tagline="The eastern region's biggest tech conference, on 16th & 17th June 2022"
/>

YakBit - making inclusion in the workplace matter


Ahead of her conference speech, [Katie Fisher](https://twitter.com/pandatwinkles), senior experience strategist at Norwich based, [The User Story](https://www.theuserstory.com/), talked to us about the importance of UX.

## Evidence and psychology

UX is psychology driven. Katie clarifies how user experience or rather, user experience research, is about using human behaviour and attitudes to inform design and the building of products.

> There is a reason behind anything that we design because we understand that there is a motivation behind what people want to achieve by using this website etc.

By speaking to users, Katie and her team try to understand the reasons behind why and how the public use websites. UX designers are approached by businesses that want to understand how people use their products. Without the data, the interviews and the science, it’s impossible to answer these pertinent questions.

## What the user wants

Starting from scratch Katie explained that she wants to comprehend people's problems when landing on a specific website. ”You’re not going to get very far if you’re always asking people something new” is just one of her discoveries.

Technology doesn’t always have to be new as far as the end user is concerned. It just has to work. “People thrive on familiarity, they have mental models for this, the design heuristic is recognition over recall.” You should always recognise something rather than remember. Our memory works like this. If consumers have to work too hard on your website - they’ll leave.

For example, “there are only five icons that are universally recognised by the user.” Introduce a new aspect and the public is puzzled. People don’t always recognise novelty and they’ll have to re-learn things and use a greater cognitive load. The user will have to use more thought to figure something out - they’ll leave the platform.

> To understand if people will understand something, use it and complete a task on the website, we’re looking at behaviour compared to the interview based analysis.

## Developers and UX

Katie feels that there is some misunderstanding about what people who work in UX are trying to do.

> The way that the User Story works is that whatever we’re designing from a really early stage we want to speak to the developers, who are going to have to build it, at this time.

This is the time for compromises. Discussions of time & cost are held during this period. ”This is the time to bring developers on board so they understand ‘we’re not throwing things over a fence at them.’”
“We always want to work with developers, even when they’re constructing the website, as we know that things will come up in the actual build ,that may be either design or the data driven that doesn’t quite work.” Traditionally, this type of collaboration hasn’t always been the focus of either dev’s or UX designer’s minds. Times have changed and all of The User Story projects are collaborative.

“Though some developers aren’t used to having to collaborate, front end developers are better at this way of working than some back end engineers.” Explanations from UX designers can clarify the process. Sharing snippets and video clips is an important step in the collaborative procedure.

## Learn more about UX

<NorDevCon
  title="If you want to discover more about UX, catch up with Katie’s session"
  tagline="The eastern region's biggest tech conference, on 16th & 17th June 2022"
/>


Devs, design & users


nor(DEV): was founded 9 years ago by local software engineer, Paul Grenyer, and we thought it was important to kick off our interviews with speakers and sponsors by talking to him and discovering more about the roots of the conference.

## Background notes

Back in the dark ages, when working in London as a programmer, Paul joined the [ACCU](https://accu.org/) and appreciated that he benefited from their conference and networking opportunities, he helped them set up local groups with speakers. He also used to attend [Extreme Tuesday](https://www.extremetuesday.com/), an Agile based group which acts as a forum for developers to chat and learn.

## A lively Norwich tech scene

On returning to Norwich Paul felt that this fine city could benefit from similar community based.enterprises and established some [Agile related activities](https://paulgrenyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/agile-east-anglia-short-history.html).

In 2012, Paul got together with John Fagan, Stephen Pengelly, Juliana Mayer & Seb Butcher, who, at that time, were involved in separate groups, and they formed [SyncNorwich](https://www.facebook.com/SyncNorwich/) which, from its inception, was an immediate success. After six months, though, Paul had itchy feet but worked with the team at establishing a conference in February 2013. Estimating that 40 would attend, to Paul’s delight 180 rolled up to the sadly defunct [Open](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEN_Norwich), the event was called Sync Conf.

## Norfolk Developers is born

Recognising the need for a forum for developers -

> “at that time we didn’t know how many tech people and companies there were in Norwich, [but knew that] there was a real appetite for tech in the city,”

Paul aligned with Dom Davis and Ben Taylor and set up nor(DEV): in 2013 of which the annual conference was an integral part, kicking off in 2014, with a healthy 250 attendance. Paul remained as the primary conference organiser until 2019 when he handed over the reins to Alex Scotton & Shaun Church.

## Reflecting on the conference

“Amusingly Paul made the comment, “your ego’s writing cheques your body can’t cash” (Top Gun) which is maybe, one of the reasons that the group has expanded so widely. As well as just addressing solely developer issues, the conference now has workshops, business talks and a whole host of related subjects. At its zenith the conference could boast an attendance of 640 people over 2.5 days. Activities for school children were also included where building and programming a robot was one of the stellar attractions.

## Where it’s going

Talking about the conference, Paul said,”The whole point of Norfolk Developers was to bring good quality technical content to Norfolk.” With world class speakers, engrossing talks and the networking opportunities for the tech community, it looks as if Paul’s ambition continues to be realised.

**We hope you’ll enjoy this year’s conference and look out for Paul’s speech which is the opening keynote on Thursday 16 June at 12.30pm.**

<NorDevCon
  title="Hear more about the nor(DEV): origins with Paul's opening keynote!"
  tagline="Join us at the eastern region's biggest tech conference, on 16th & 17th June 2022"
/>


/tag/NorDev

Driving culture change

Product Hunt Kitty comes to Norwich!

Talking Tech Educators

YakBit - making inclusion in the workplace matter

Devs, design & users

Where it all started