How have Twilo found this year? We asked everyone some questions about their 2023; take a look at their answers below.
Wayne
Hyperfocus, milestones, growth.What achievements are you most proud of in 2023?
This is easy and it’s something I’ve spoke about a lot in our monthly blogs. Our Growth40 plans started in January which set our objectives for the year. One of those objectives was growing the team, and with a focus on bringing in the right people. Recruitment has taken up so much of my time and to the detriment of other things, but I’ve made an extra effort this year to focus on personalities as much as ability. I can say with certainty that I’ve never been happier with the team we have now. The time and effort that has gone into recruitment has paid dividends in terms of creating a happy workplace which I hope others enjoy being a part of as much as I do.
Another key milestone was achieved in 2023, and this is one I remember writing this down when I started Twilo nine years ago: Become a Leeds agency. We did it! We’ve moved into a super new office, and we have loads of space to grow into. I’m immensely proud of this achievement as it’s been a long journey to get here. The business has grown from virtually nothing; just me in a spare bedroom, on my own, with zero investment. We’ve now become an established agency in one of the UK’s most creative cities. Something else I wrote down on day 1, and our next objective: To be in the UK’s top 1% of digital agencies.
I should also take this opportunity to thank our previous landlord, Andy. He was fantastic in supporting our growth through several offices at Churchill House in Pontefract. I doubt we’ll have a landlord as good as him again. Thank you, Andy.
What was your most challenging project of 2023?
As mentioned above, recruitment. It takes up so much of your time. Successful candidates only see things from their first day, but not all the time and effort that several people have put in to get to the result. Quite honestly, I’m exhausted from it all, but it’s been worthwhile. We just have one more role to fill in the new year, and then I hope to have a little break from it!
Is there anything you’ve done this year that you would recommend someone to try in 2024?
Stop mindlessly scrolling social media, start consuming different forms of media. At the start of the year, I vowed to read one book per month. I can’t lie, I didn’t make it all the way to December, but I’ve had the opportunity to learn about interesting people. And since the office move, I have an hour round trip which I use to listen to podcasts, rather than the same old Spotify playlists. By taking in different forms of media I’ve learned more about other people, learned more about myself, and equally cut out a lot of the bull shit you read online. I encourage everyone to review who they’re following online, and only follow those who add value.
What are you looking forward to learning more about in 2024?
This year has been a real eye opener. I’m aware that there are many things I could be doing better, and many things I’m not doing that I need to be doing. I need to keep working hard, keep moving forward, and learning new things will come naturally.
What impact do you think AI will have on 2024?
I’ve spent a good amount of time looking into AI, and I’ve noticed a number of patterns which have helped me understand that human input is very much at the heart of it. A lot of what you are seeing right now is smoke and mirrors, not true AI. However, AI is clearly going to be an intriguing and fascinating part of our future. It’s going to help us to automate difficult and repetitive tasks, and that is a good thing. The recently released Midjourney 6 is incredible, some of the images produced are stunning. But I think as a whole, people are too quick cut corners, and expect AI to instantly be the finished product. AI needs time to mature, which will take years to do. So, in terms of the impact AI will have in 2024, I think it will be good in the short term for basic tasks such as generating images and other forms of content. In the long term, AI will do things that we don’t even know exists yet.
What was your favourite song from 2023?
Royal Blood – Mountains at Midnight
And finally, do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
Quite a simple one really. I’ve recently been through my social profiles and cut out a lot of the rubbish that has appeared on my feeds for years. My New Year’s resolution is to cut out that noise.
Andrew
Hard, exciting, interesting.What achievements are you most proud of in 2023?
Getting to grips with drag and drop functionality in JavaScript to make modern and easy to use user interfaces. This was very challenging because it is hard to control what HTML elements are hovered over or dropped onto. My other achievement is finally completing my apprenticeship.
What was your most challenging project of 2023?
XS Training and this was not necessarily due to the code (Though there were plenty of challenging bits here). It was instead a difficult brief to grasp and get your head around. It took many conversations with the client to fully understand the context around the application, how it is going to be used and how it should behave. Having many different roles in the system also added a lot of complexity. It required much thought into how each role can interact with the system and how they need to use the system to achieve their job.
Is there anything you’ve done this year that you would recommend someone to try in 2024?
Going to London to explore some of their museums. Back in March, I boarded the HMS Belfast on the Thames. It was a really cool experience that you can spend a good few hours looking around. I aim to go back to London in 2024 to go see some of the other places. One I am interested in is the natural history museum I which have still yet to visit.
What are you looking forward to learning more about in 2024?
I look forward to learning more on machine learning algorithms and how they could benefit us with making everything more efficient.
What impact do you think AI will have on 2024?
This is going to be a controversial opinion, but I think that compared to now, I don’t see there being a significantly different impact than what we are seeing in 2023. AI is already being used in everyday life whether we realise it or not. For example, when we watch YouTube, browse the web, or make payments with our bank account, AI is already being used to find patterns in our behaviour. I believe technology like driverless cars will make some strides, but I don’t think we are going to see huge advancements for a fair few years yet.
What was your favourite song from 2023?
I have been completely out of touch with songs that came out this year, so I am instead going to share a song that came out last year. Sabaton’s “Soldier of Heaven”. This is a band that got me into the metal genre and this song is just the perfect mix of energetic music without being too heavy. This song is about an incident which occurred during WW1 known as “White Friday” in which an avalanche hit a barracks on Mount Marmolada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYI3eegIJlI
And finally, do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
I’ve been slacking with my guitar practice a bit this year and so in the new year, I aim to spend a lot more time learning as well as pushing myself to do more frequent exercises. As cliche as it is, I am also aiming to cut out a lot of the junk food that I have been eating this year. I’ve been to the doctor’s this year about health issues regarding my gut, so it is going to be important for me to look after it as much as possible.
