Getting to Know: Tosh Lyons, Engineering Manager
Scoutbee Newsroom
Our bees are what makes scoutbee a special and vibrant company. While having different backgrounds and personalities, every colleague has a passion for their field of work and our collective mission. This month, we chat with Tosh Lyons who is Engineering Manager at scoutbee.
What does a typical day at scoutbee involve for you?
It’s difficult to describe a typical day, because every day is different, but generally I focus on helping the engineering teams be as productive as possible while looking ahead to make sure we stay on a good path. What that means day to day varies a lot though – some days it’s removing any roadblocks in the team’s way, some days it’s working with the product team on planning. I always try to keep an eye on processes to ensure things are running efficiently. I was an engineer for 20 years, so I help out on technical topics too, although I rarely write much code these days.
What challenges do you face and how do you deal with these?
scoutbee is working to automate what was previously a very labor intensive and manual process. We want to make a smarter supplier discovery process, not just a digitized version of the way things have always been done. That means we need to make sure that we truly understand the problem that we are trying to solve for the user.
A lot of this comes from the product team of course, but we also try to get the engineering team involved as early in the process as possible. That helps in multiple ways. It helps the engineers to have a better understanding of the larger problem we are solving by providing more context, and it provides a chance for them to give feedback on solutions. It’s not always easy, it can be challenging, but it is always rewarding.
What makes working at scoutbee special for you?
In short, the people. We have a great international team. I think the last count I saw we had people from 33 countries at scoutbee. It’s probably more than that now. I’ve worked on international teams for the last 8 years or so, and it’s become something I really look for in a mission.
“Leveraging people from many different cultures and backgrounds brings a lot of different perspectives when examining problems, and it’s also just fun.”
What are you and your team looking forward to accomplishing at scoutbee?
scoutbee is growing rapidly, and our current short term focus is on improving the efficiency of our product for users. Obviously, that includes our external users, but also our internal users, and engineering teams as well. We have quite a few teams and services within scoutbee and we work with a lot of data. Ensuring that our systems continue to work in a cohesive manner is very important in order for us to stay nimble as we continue to grow. Such work can bring great impacts and our customers of today and tomorrow will be the beneficiaries.
What’s the best or most enjoyable part of the work your team does?
For me personally, it’s less about what we are working on and more about how we are working. Of course we get to work on many great things, but the most enjoyable part is when the team is working well together, as a team, not just a group of individuals. I’m lucky to work with some great teams, and when everyone is communicating effectively, everyone is more productive and it’s just enjoyable, regardless of the task at hand.
Tosh joined scoutbee as a Senior Software Engineer in October 2019 in Würzburg. He has been working as a web developer, technology consultant and software engineer for the past 15 years. Tosh worked on Cayman Islands and the US, before he moved with his family to Würzburg to become a part of the beehive.
Would you like to join our hive? Please check out our “Open Roles” here.
