AsKin Questions to Tobias Lewinzon, Technical Consultant

One of my favorite activities is wine tasting. I even take courses about it to try and learn as much as possible. I'm lucky enough to live in Argentina, where local wines are not only amazing but easily accessible.

The best part of being an engineer is seeing the end result of the work you accomplished with the team. Your responsibility is to work through the backlog and plan sprints appropriately. It's incredible to see how the quality and quantity of what I produce affects our wider team and the products we are able to deliver for our clients.

The product we're building right now is an application for an agricultural client. It aims to digitalize the recurring tasks of agronomists, allowing them to go out into a field with the application. What’s so interesting about this specific problem is that we’re tackling the challenge of offline connectivity. Our application is being used in rural fields, so we built it so it works without any internet connection. The agronomists can download what they need to go to the field, and everything they create is automatically saved and uploaded when they get back online. The application is supported in any remote region or field they need to work on, increasing its accessibility.

The agronomists are very used to relying on different devices or systems to accomplish their tasks, but what we’re building will allow them one consistent solution. They now have it all in this one application, with the functionality that supports their day-to-day work in the field.

I wasn't expecting the team to have such a great vibe, especially with people I've never met in-person. But we're all friends. We have a great connection, even in our video meetings and with our clients. We’ve built a space where everyone can be themselves. You want to dress how you feel comfortable? Do it. You want to propose a new game for us to play or surface something new to the client? Let's do it. Everything and everyone is welcome.

This is something that surprised me, but I genuinely appreciate it.

I feel content and supported with my current team. Our team leads constantly ask how we feel, both about our assignments and our personal lives. If we have any issues or something is taking too long, the team wants to discuss it and solve the issue together. We also have one-on-ones with our leads, where we can openly discuss any concerns.

As a team, we save the space to get together outside of work meetings for activities. Most of us work remotely, so we have weekly games we play. In my team I feel connected and listened to.

The efficiency of everything — whether it's the support from different cross-functional departments, other engineers across the firm or even our practice leads. Everyone is available to help you if you need something — that’s just the way that Kin + Carta operates. Everything runs just as you’d expect, and it's delivered on time.

I also really value the emphasis the firm places on learning. Our team spends a lot of time discussing and collaborating on our work. We break a feature into different tasks and pick up what we are most comfortable doing or have more expertise in. This is such a great practice as it’s through this that you’re always being really clearly directed to someone who may know more than you. You’re always given opportunities to learn or to lean on those around you. In the same way that I appreciate this about my team, I have that same feeling for the entire company.

What keeps me motivated is producing high-quality products. Every day, I see the impact of our work on our clients, and I love to see it grow. I've been on the same project for quite some time now, and we keep adding features as the users themselves request them. So, we're constantly learning and evolving what we deliver, which motivates me; it's the impact of the quality of what we produce.

I see how deeply connected our work is to the economy. Our agriculture client is growing food and using technology to advance the way it's done. It's helping the industry overall but also positively impacting food systems around the world. This is how I’m a part of building a world that works better for everyone.