EASY AGILE SITE VISIT

On 8 March, Easy Agile hosted a site visit at their Regent Street Wollongong Head Office. We were warmly welcomed by Co-CEOs, Dave Elkan and Nick Muldoon, Engineering Manager Maysa Safadi, and Partner Manager and LIP Alumni Hayley Rodd.

After a tour of the Easy Agile offices, we heard from the Co-CEOs on what Easy Agile does and learned about their rapid business growth, leadership journey and lessons learned. Put simply, Easy Agile writes software to help developers write software. They’re proud to support over 150,000 users in over 40 countries and have a diverse range of customers across different industries like Adobe, Amazon, Adidas, Cisco, Ubisoft and Vodafone.

Dave and Nick have deliberately founded their business on balance, balancing self, family, community, and work. They explained that if you and the team can work close to home and “don’t have an hour commute to work, you’ve got the flexibility to craft the life that works for you”. By supporting their staff well, they are then able to support the customer and exceed their expectations.

Engineering Manager, Maysa Safadi shared what it’s like to be in a leadership role at Easy Agile, where she has been acknowledged and supported. She also supports UOW students to gain skills and experience through a graduate and internship program. Maysa also explained the features of Agile project management, the methodology adopted by Easy Agile, where Agile teams work on phases of projects concurrently and use Agile ceremonies to organise their ever-changing work. These were new concepts to understand, as many of the LIP are accustomed to the Waterfall project management method (more linear, less flexible and the end results are established at the beginning of a project).

The LIP had the opportunity to learn more in a question and answer session that included topics like:
- what it’s like to be a Co-CEO
- how to balance flexibility for staff with output
- how to move from a software engineering background to leadership
- collecting and using customer feedback
- support and communication tools for staff who work remotely
- taking the brave leap to grow the business

Mitch Bell delivered a vote of thanks on behalf of the LIP, thanking Dave, Nick, Maysa and Hayley for hosting our visit, for sharing their leadership journeys, and highlighting the many benefits of adopting an empathetic leadership style and flexible work practices.