We recently announced the launch of our tech hub in Poland. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to shed some light on the awesome technology our teams (or squads) are building at Kitopi and how they’re all working towards our mission of satisfying the world’s appetite.
First up, Squad: Magic Makers - consisting of 9 awesome Kitopians that work hard to ensure our applications are more and more user friendly, everyday. We’ve asked them a few questions so you can get to know them a little better.
First things first, why Kitopi?
Jakub: Kitopi gave me the opportunity to be more than a programmer, and through that it gave me a voice in all my responsibilities.
Kasia: There were a lot of reasons, but the reasons that stood out the most were being able to work on new and innovative ideas that were strictly related to kitchens, joining a close-knit culture, and having visible impact on the development of projects.
Łukasz: For me, I constantly look for new challenges, and Kitopi was the perfect place for that. A company where I can test my skills and reach my full potential.
Mansoor: It was the mission and Startup environment that drew me in. Kitopi’s goal is to disrupt the food delivery space with special attention to customer experience, while leveraging tech. Being a startup, things are constantly changing, and it's being in that sort of environment that is perfect for personal growth.
Michał: The optimization of kitchens and cooking for brands seemed interesting to me. Also, it was a great opportunity for development because of the modern technologies used at Kitopi.
What's your favorite part about working at Kitopi?
Amadeo: Working on solutions in a wide spectrum of business ideas, while looking for opportunities based on data, and problem solving with an end to end approach.
Jakub: Challenges that I can overcome every day, with a great team.
Kasia: Kitopi challenges me everyday and gives me the opportunity to work with amazing people.
Łukasz: I see great potential for innovation here, and that's what makes my work interesting.
Jakub Z: It’s rewarding to know that my work has an impact on the business, it really motivates me.
Mansoor: There are no barriers between teams, which allows us to interact with each other a lot. In product division, each squad has their own focus, and for Magic Makers, we focus on customer experience. Knowing everyone’s objectives aligns our team. It has allowed me to learn from others approaches to problem solving.
What are your main day-to-day tasks?
Łukasz: As a Technology Analyst, I’m responsible for everything that can bring a big impact on a global level. I don’t have a set up schedule, so everyday is different for me. I focus on process automations, aggregators integrations, order processing, brand experience, customer experience, and more.
Jakub: Everyday I have new problems to solve, and work on new functionalities that need to be implemented.
Mansoor: Magic makers build products for improving customer experience. With the complexity of our operations, there are many areas which directly impacts our customers. Such as making sure items are in stock before an order comes in, or making sure our listings have the best menu setup. My main day to day tasks are communication with the end users, looking for data metrics and analyzing where processes are broken. This lets me find opportunities and problems in which our products can help. After consolidating my findings, I bring them to our squad and we work together as a team for solutions. I also train our end users on our latest deployments and documenting as we go. Jakub Z: I work with checkers. My main task is to keep high availability of our brands to customers across many aggregators.
Łukasz: I like solving non-trivial problems. We have a lot of them at Kitopi, which makes every day different. There's no time for being bored, ever!
Kasia: As a quality assurance engineer, I mainly test the features in my team and SKOS. We work as a team, so every day we work on having our applications more and more usable.
What's it like being an engineer in Poland with HQ in the UAE?
Krzysztof: In my opinion it doesn’t matter, because we have great communications throughout the organizations. Most developers are in Kraków, so this is helpful.
Kasia: Nowadays, in the time we live in, we can talk to anyone, no matter where they are. For that reason, I think that as soon as I have contact with my team members, it makes no difference if we are all together in the same place.
Michał: Modern technologies make it easier to work remotely, so it’s not a problem for me. This situation also often arouses interest among my friends when they hear that my company is based in the UAE.
Amadeo: Working from Poland, nowadays is not that challenging as we see the whole business through calls and data. The only challenge is not being able to visit and experience the business any time we would like, hopefully with our growth this will change.
Łukasz: In Poland, we have a team of very skilled engineers that I’m very proud to work with. When I go to Dubai, I see the “Magic Happen”, and I can see how much we can automate and optimize in the near future, which inspires me. So, I take all my ideas back with me to Poland and work with the team to implement the ideas born there.
Mansoor: (working in UAE): It’s amazing! I am the eyes and they are the brain. I bring feedback on how the products are being used and problems our end users face. Backed by data, I show them the size of the problem and we brainstorm solutions together. Furthermore, we prioritize our work based on what may drive the biggest impact. Other than ad hoc meetings, we have biweekly meetings and retrospectives after each sprint, I enjoy the cultural exchange.
What do you think the future holds for cloud kitchens?
Jakub: I am full of optimism about the future of cloud kitchen as it seems to me that this is something the world has been waiting for. I wouldn’t be here if I had any doubt about that! Kasia: I feel like the future of cloud kitchens is in our hands. People need that and we are working on making their lives easier, better, and more delicious.
Krzysztof: I see big potential in cloud kitchens. While creating software for Kitopi, I noticed a big demand for this solution.
Łukasz M: I think that cloud kitchens will revolutionize the market in the near future.
Mansoor: The pandemic really impacted how restaurants operate, many of them turned to delivery or had to shut down. People leaned more towards delivery, more than ever before which put cloud kitchens in a great position to grow and be a viable player in the market.
What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Krzysztof: I like to spend my free time being active, so I enjoy basketball, football, tennis and swimming. Jakub Z: I like reading books and expanding my skills in the ever-changing IT industry. I am passionate about electronics. Also, I love my cats.
Kasia: I enjoy trying new things, I live near the mountains so I spend my time hiking, cycling and ski touring.
Amadeo: Spending time with my loved ones.
Łukasz: In my free time I like to explore the depths of CPU & GPU architectures. I’m also interested in statistical mathematics and neural networks. And sometimes I read weird Korean Novels.
Łukasz M: I love hiking, playing computer games and painting miniatures.
And finally, we had to ask, what is your favorite dish/cuisine?
Kasia: Italian food, always!
Amadeo: Sushi from Ichiban Jakub: Italian food
Krzysztof: Maybe Vietnamese food or burgers. I’ve been trying many cuisines and like several dishes from everyone.
Lukasz: Pizza, of course.
Lukaz M: Sushi and burgers.
Mansoor: Nihari, it’s a Pakistani beef stew dish and it's delicious!
Mikal: I mainly prefer Polish dishes, and my favorite dish is Uszeka. These are small dumplings filled with meat or mushrooms, most often served with Borscht. Yummy!
Jakub Z: Polish cuisine of course!