Luca is a web developer we discovered for a project he is working on.
As a first question, introduce yourself to our audience.

Hi everyone, I am a senior software engineer specialized in web product development.
I have decades of experience in the sector and have worked for several companies, even very different from each other.
For example, I started in an American multinational company.
I worked for a start-up in the cryptocurrency sector.
Now I work for the Lastminute Group, an OTA (Online Travel Agency) that sells flights and travel packages online.

I like to grow the development teams from both technical and soft-skills points of view.

We know you work in Switzerland, what is it like?

My work experience is related to the area of ​​the Canton of Ticino.
In Switzerland, there are 26 cantons and 3 main languages, Italian, French, and German.
In my experience, working in Switzerland is not very different from Italy.
It depends a lot on the company and the type of projects that you're involved.
The Swiss job market is very liberal. The permanent contract comes easily, but it is possible to withdraw from the employment contract at any time, with a period of notice, by both parties.
Despite this, the market is stable and almost safe.
Salaries are competitive, but Switzerland is a costly country.

Apart from Lastminute, you have another project, which led us to meet you that it is iterspace. Can you tell us from which idea this project was born?

The iterspace project was born 2 years ago. We are a team of two people, I take care of all the development while Marco Zani works on the UX / UI of the product.

The idea of ​​iterspace was born from an idea of ​​Marco, when an friend asked him to review a mobile app.
Marco wondered how he could do it by putting together a series of screenshots and some textual descriptions.
But we thought there might be some room to improve this type of feedback.
Thus was born the idea of ​​iterspace, which is a platform with which you can record your screen, record your voice, and on which it is possible to leave precise comments and exchange feedback with others.
iterspace, therefore, allows you to iterate on digital products easily and quickly, and in fact, the name was not chosen by chance.

How was the project received? Are there teams that use it?

At the marketing level we are at the beginning, so the traffic reached came through personal connections or organic traffic that found us via LinkedIn, Twitter, or looking for a recording extension on the Chrome Store.
With these premises, the project has been very well received. We have feedback from enthusiastic people, but above all, we notice people who have been using iterspace continuously for months.

Where are these teams located?

The users come mainly from Italy and the United States, and some other countries, for example, we noticed a Norwegian team continuously coming to the platform.

Can you explain how you developed the product from a technological point of view?

iterspace is made of 3 components, the web browser extension, a progressive web app for desktop and mobile, and the public website. The programming language used is JavaScript, on the front-end, I used the React UI library, Redux as the state management library, Storybook to develop the React components in isolation and to create a visual documentation of the components, and finally styled-components for the CSS-in-JS.

The back-end infrastructure is based on Amazon Web Services, I implemented a GraphQL service supported by Lamba Functions, and the engine is node.js.
JavaScript allowed me to develop both the front-end and back-end using one language.
We use DynamoDB as the NoSQL Database.
We don't have one single virtual machine, as the infrastructure is fully serverless.

This solution is very scalable and has low costs thanks to the pay-as-you-go pricing model. With little traffic, the fixed costs are minimal.

If you had to do it again today, would you choose the same technologies?

The only change I would make is in the database because with a relational database, I would have been more secure of the data structure design. I would probably use PostgreSQL.

During the development of iterspace what was the most complex problem to face?

From the product point of view, the most complex aspect we thought about most was the permissions part. We have created three concepts, the Workspace, which contains the collaborators, the Project, which is a folder containing Recordings.
It was hard to find a permissions model that would allow you to manage all these three entities with the level of granularity that users asked us, keeping the functionality simple and intuitive.

You have a Chrome Extension, but have other browsers been evaluated too?

Currently, the browser extension is available for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Both browsers are based on Chromium, so the extensions are automatically compatible.
We do not have new browsers in the roadmap because we have analyzed the market share of browsers.
Chrome is around 65% while Edge 3%, so we get to about 70% of the market share with both browsers.
So we will not invest in new browsers for the time being.

Have you thought about developing a mobile or desktop app?

Yes, we are thinking about a mobile app, which is a roadmap feature.
A native app would allow you to record the screen directly from our app.

At the moment, iOS and Android provide native screen recording, but it would not be integrated with our product. You would have to upload the recorded video.

Are there projects similar to yours, and if so, what are the strengths of iterspace?

There are competitors, one of which is very famous in the United States. However, it is much more oriented towards video messaging.
To record video messages, share a presentation, and communicate with the team asynchronously.

iterspace satisfies some more technical needs, so that we would like to extend our recording with advanced tools.
For example, we want to provide a color picker, a meter, and so on for the UI designer.
This is why we place ourselves differently.

I predict that there will be an explosion of this type of product because people will get used to working asynchronously and remotely, and therefore, you will need these tools to be productive.

Do you think iterspace can become something more than a side project?

We strongly believe in the project. Asynchronous work will be increasingly present in the companies. The last year has changed the point of view on remote working, and I think that Work From Home will remain.
There are also undoubted advantages, companies will be able to look for talents worldwide and reduce fixed costs.
In this context, we think that iterspace can become something more than a side project, a sustainable business.

You're looking to expand your Twitter network. Why did you choose Twitter, and what do you see necessary in expanding your network of contacts?

I started using Twitter in 2009 to create a local network.
Then I quit in 2011.

Twitter is a social network that I have always liked a lot.

For 3 months, I started creating content for Twitter in the field of web development.
Exploring Twitter further, I found a lovely developer community made up of people who want to learn and support each other. For this reason, I believe that I will use it for a long time and with continuity.

As to why I decided to create content on Twitter, it is because it makes connections between people that create opportunities that they could never be imagined. So I would like to create a network and see what happens.

Why not LinkedIn?

I evaluated LinkedIn, but I think it's a professional-oriented social with a more set and severe tone.

I believe the content I create is more valuable on Twitter, where there are so many guys who want to learn how to develop, change their life and I think I can make an impact in that community.

Considering that you create content for Twitter, I have seen you create images with code, explanations related to JavaScript, have you thought about taking the same content and creating a blog that can be indexed better?

I have evaluated the blog post, but I think it is a different medium for which the content must be adapted and formatted differently.

I am planning to create an ebook that collects all the artboards I've made and distribute it. I think to can bring some values, because on Twitter the content is ephemeral.

Do you see interest in this type of content? Has there been an increase in interactions with other developers?

It really depends on how you use the social network. If you use it correctly, you can create relationships with other content creators and users.
I've met some interesting people who do something similar.
An Austrian guy developed a tool to create code snippet images as if it were a terminal.
Being an excellent tool, I became a fan of it, and we now support each other.

We talked about working in Switzerland, iterspace, and Twitter.
If you had to advise a person who wants to work in Switzerland to a person who wants to work on a side project or create content for Twitter, what would they be?

I can give a general piece of advice not to get stuck in your comfort zone for too long but see for something new and exciting, no matter where you work.

For the side project, it depends on the objectives.
A side project could be exploratory. In this case, a side project is a great way to learn new technologies and find out how to use them.
To create a product, I recommend starting from a concrete problem, which is a pain for the people, even in a small niche.
Propose a solution, even without developing anything, to see if it solves the problem.
If the response is positive, start developing the product.
In this case, you would already start with a sustainable business model because there are customers willing to pay.

For Twitter, I recommend that you always have a cheerful voice, criticize but constructively.
I recommend looking at other profiles that have achieved good results, observe how they create connections with people.
The critical aspect is to build genuine connections with the people who inhabit the network and not be a mere content publisher.