Matt Wynne

“Matt is amazing ethical person who was a pleasure to work with when we were transforming testing. He is very knowledgeable about BDD and great partner to drive organizational transformation on how we build and test software.”

“Matt was a huge help navigating our platform needs and setting us up with a better provider. He came in at a critical time as we were transitioning from our IT contractor. Making sure we didn't miss a beat. Professional, strong communication and efficient. Highly recommend.”

“Matt provided us with clear thinking and strategy to address our biggest IT pains when we were very very stuck. Great professionalism and collaboration with our staff and contractors.”

“I am a co-worker and worked with Matt as my lead developer/ scrum master on a 20 month development project. He is a passionate advocate of the agile development process and a brilliant teacher, he kept team morale up every step of the way. I believe his management skills and personable approach got the very best out of us. He has got a great capacity for understanding complex systems and requirements and doesn't shy away from taking on difficult challenges. I felt very confident with him being at the helm.”

“In our 1.5 years at Songkick, Matt has been a great teacher and mentor. Patient as a rock, he has helped us embrace the beauty of TDD, pair programming, stand-ups, retrospectives, Kanban, and in general, a process culture which focusses on continuous improvement, and where taking responsibility for overall success is not optional. He did this with a lot of respect for the individuals involved, and has allowed us to discover problems and ask for solutions ourselves, rather than dogmatically imposing methods that we were not ready for. Personally, Matt has pulled me out of so many rabbit holes I had gone down that I've lost track, and he never stopped nudging me to take a step back, breathe and re-examine my approach to a problem. I have greatly benefited from his vast experience in software design and architecture, helping me advance as a programmer in many ways. I will miss Matt's relentless drive for everyone to learn and improve the way we work, and have fun in the process -- whether that is through coding dojos, fearless refactoring sessions, inviting external speakers to share their experiences, trips to user groups or conferences, or heated discussions in the pub.”

“I worked with Matt at Songkick between 2008 and 2010, where he played a key role as a senior member of our rapidly growing development team. Through a deep understanding of test and behaviour driven development, refactoring techniques and object oriented design, he’s able to tackle complex problems and come up with highly functional, robust, maintainable solutions. Matt is committed to software craftsmanship, and passionate about extending the boundaries of best practices in software development, as exemplified by his involvement in the Cucumber project. Matt also has a deep understanding of what makes a great development team, and is able to use his considerable skills as a coach and mentor to bring out the best in those around him. At Songkick, Matt has worked tirelessly to improve the way we build software, from introducing agile methods and leading retrospectives to helping individuals improve as developers. I’ve personally learnt a great deal through working with him, and through these, and countless other contributions, he has been instrumental in making sure that we are able to develop our product as effectively as possible. Last, but definitely not least, Matt is a fantastic person to work with. He’s easy to get on with, very approachable and always willing to lend an ear. Matt’s very positive contribution to the office atmosphere at Songkick will certainly be missed.”

“Matt joined during the early days of Songkick and whipped our primordial Agile practices into the sophisticated and, more importantly, effective system it is today. When Matt joined, we had a proto-kanban board, no daily standup, burn down chart, or retrospectives, and now these practices are a part of our daily lives. Yet Matt is always willing to question these practices and shake-up the status quo if he feels they're no longer achieving what they should. Matt joined a very young, small, and inexperienced team and set up the systems and practices necessary to help us grow and work efficiently. One of his great strengths is as a communicator between developers and non-developers, always making sure that the two understand each other. His confidence in a group setting makes him a natural facilitator for discussions. He also has an understanding of the out-of-work learning and socializing necessary to make a development team bond and trust each other, such as brown bag lunches and beer-fuelled coding dojos. As a senior member of our development team, Matt would often put his bags down as he was about to leave the office to help a team member stuck on a problem. Saying you're a 'team player' seems to be a staple description on all CVs, but Matt possesses the astute sensitivity necessary to make this actually true.”

“Working with Matt at Songkick.com has been an education in and of itself. As a QA with a non-technical background, I had little to no understanding of the development process when I started at the company. Matt's endless patience and ability to explain complex concepts in metaphoric terms helped to advance my understanding of the development process as a whole as well as teach me about agile software development. Matt was a key member of the Songkick team, and was instrumental in mediating and facilitating understanding between the developers and the QA team. He has been an inspiring teacher for me and a wonderful person to work with.”

“Matt delivers acute technical skills and perception plus the ability to communicate effectively his vision to a wide audience. He’s not afraid to trailblaze into cutting edge techniques, shaking up tired processes and systems. Matt’s a great people person and can mentor and educate those on his team while ensuring projects are on time, on budget and on spec. I hope to work with Matt again in the future as he always has the uncanny knack of knowing something really clever before you do.”

“Matt is an extraordinarily competent, committed and effective software engineer. In two years working in my team he has successfully demonstrated his skills as a software architect, a team leader, a software coach, a ScrumMaster, and as a pragmatic and productive developer. Furthermore, he is a passionate and vocal champion of agile and lean techniques and of the need to deliver software that makes a valuable and lasting contribution to the success of the business. He's a tremendously gifted and very likeable guy, and I can't recommend him highly enough.”

“Matt has an abundance of enthusiasm which, coupled with his pragmatism and openness, inspires the people he works with. I enjoyed working with Matt, especially because he is genuinely interested in how to improve the way we write software.”

“Matt has led a team of developers on one of our most high profile projects with great success. He's established a team that work fantastically well together and are producing perhaps the most technically sound product that we've seen to date. He displays a deep understanding of the technologies and architectures that he works with as well as how to deliver software effectively, something that he is both passionate and knowledgeable about. Matt has been more than just a lead developer for us though, he's been an active member of the development community here guiding other developers on how to improve not only the code they write but the way in which they approach delivery, so far he has presented at our lunch time sessions on a couple of occasions, both of the presentations being very well received. Matt has been a real asset to the team that he has led as well as to the department and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him, I'd certainly like the opportunity to work with him again.”

“Matt is a passionate and technically outstanding developer who has proven naturally talented in leading a large team of developers on a long running project and dealing with the expectations of the business from the other end. I would jump at the chance to work with him again.”

“Matt is a solid developer with exceptional communication skills. His communication skills make him a natural team leader. He can grab the new ideas and technologies and start utilize them in projects easily. He's one of the first Scrum Masters that I know and he really understands the Agile methodologies in detail. I would be more than happy to work with him again in the same team.”