We work with customers around the world, including plenty in Australia and New Zealand. This week, one of our UK team is heading out to Wellington, NZ to boost our operation there. Meet the new face of Delib in New Zealand…
First up, what’s your name and where do you come from?
Hamish Woodside – born in Australia, lived the bulk of my life in Christchurch, NZ so Kiwi through and through.
There’s nothing worse than starting with the ‘what’s your job’ thing so, er…biscuits! Dunk or leave unsullied?
Definitely dunk – however, I should qualify that statement by stating I first break the biscuit in half and dunk both halves for mere 100ths of a second. I won’t bore you with my reasoning; suffice to say, this has taken years of laborious research and innovation to perfect.
What do you do at Delib, how long have you done it and why did you sign up to do it?
I saw an interesting ad looking for curiously minded people to come work for a Digital Democracy company in Bristol. The ad also mentioned good food and the pub – needless to say I signed up and for the past 2 ½ years I’ve been doing QA for Delib. Essentially, it’s been my job to try and break all of our products and product features in as many interesting ways as possible. Breaking things in development is how we keep things from breaking for our customers.
What’s your favourite thing you’ve done in the last year?
Got engaged to my lovely fiancée Renee of course.
Android or iPhone?
Tough question, though I guess I would say Android as that’s what I have in my pocket at the moment.
Your favourite band or your favourite scotch – you can only keep one; which is it?
I don’t really have a favourite band, though I do have a favourite scotch. Guess that answers that question!
What’s the deal with New Zealand?
New Zealand is and always will be home for me. I love the chilled out lifestyle and the general ‘can do’ attitude of the people. I am of course extremely biased, but if you’re into the outdoors, surfing, fishing, cycling etc it’s definitely the place to be.
What will you be doing there?
While I have been working as part of the development team here in Bristol, my background is actually in governance and public policy. My PhD revolves around normative socialization and democratic principles, so helping citizens and government meaningfully engage with each other is something I really believe in. So much so, I’m heading back to help provide support to our existing customers in New Zealand, but also to share learnings and hopefully promote effective consultation throughout the land.
And finally, let’s say, on the off-chance, someone in a New Zealand public sector organisation wants, right now, to improve their online consultation or open up a Dialogue or engage the public in budget-setting, and they’re interested in talking to a nice, approachable person at Delib…what should they do?
Definitely call, email, hit me up on Twitter…always up for a chat or a coffee about the awesome work we do.
