→
Plastiq allows you to pay expenses with credit cards – even where cards are not accepted.
- Title
- UX Engineer
- Role
- 2nd frontend hire. Helped build the main product.
Context
Plastiq allows you to pay any bill with a credit card. If a biller (like a landlord or university) won't let you pay directly with a credit card, Plastiq lets you to bypass this restriction.
This can help you earn tons more points and miles from your credit cards' reward programs.
Role
I was Plastiq's 2nd frontend developer hire. I helped build Plastiq's new (as of Oct 2014) single-page web app's frontend from scratch. I used HTML, CSS (via Sass), and JavaScript (via AngularJS).
I also co-started and co-hosted a weekly sync between designers, frontend devs, and PMs. We called it PUX Weekly (short for Product and UX). We wanted to help the teams stay in-sync with industry news, new tools, and techniques in the UX & frontend communities. #knowledgeSharing
Process & tools
Since my background was in design, I had to learn a lot of frontend tools, products, and methodologies. JavaScript, Git, GitHub, AngularJS 1, Gulp, and Sass are some I familiarized myself with.
After the app launched, I continued iterating on the main app. And I helped set up frontend best practices as my team grew from 2 (including myself) to 6 developers.
Working in a startup (of ~20 people at the time) allowed me to learn other areas of product development. From product management to QA to marketing, I learned a lot!
I got to collaborate with designers from a developer's perspective. This made me a much better designer and collaborator with engineers. I also worked with backend engineers and founders. I took a big risk joining a startup instead of Google after college. The amount of learning and growth I went through was well worth it!
Impact
I helped build and launched Plastiq's new web app after 7 months from joining and starting on the new app. Check out the main user flow, making a payment: