Learn more about one of our newer TechBirmingham member companies, Sigao Studios. Today we are here with Chris Sims, Co-Founder & Principal of Sigao Studios. Check out what Chris has to say about his industry and Birmingham’s growing tech scene.
We are so glad you joined the TechBirmingham Community Chris! Tell us about your company Sigao Studios.
Sigao Studios goal is to make happy developers and create software that matters. We provide agile and employee engagement coaching, developer mentoring and custom software development to companies that want to make a difference in their employees and customers lives.
What do you think is the biggest challenge in your industry?
There is a serious deficit of developers in the world today. We need to promote programs and organizations that work to bring computer science and tech training to all levels of education from kindergarten to retirement. As far as weaknesses go, I think one of the biggest challenges I’ve seen in my career is the need for better workforce development for the tech industry.
What is the most exciting trend you see in the Birmingham Tech Scene?
I’ve lived in Alabama my entire life. It has been exciting to see how quickly Birmingham’s tech industry has changed over the past 10 years.
How do you see the Birmingham Tech Scene evolving?
I’ve seen a much stronger startup industry form over the past few years. There are some great companies that got their start in Birmingham and are now doing exciting things throughout the world.
What exciting news or product/service announcements does your company have on the horizon?
Moving to Birmingham and bringing our development and coaching talent is definitely one of most exciting announcements. We are also working with a talented team from Canada to help transform the lives of the more than 65 million refugees throughout the world. We are excited to see that startup develop and are proud to be a part of their work.
What kind of impact do you want to make with your involvement in TechBirmingham?
With such a significant gap in open tech jobs and available talent, it is critical that companies get really good at inspiring their employees to buy into the vision of their company. We want to organizations learn how to inspire their teams so they can create happy developers because happy developers make better code and better code makes for happier customers. While doing this, we want to work on code that matters. Whether its for special needs children in Texas or refugees in Ghana, we believe that developers have a super power and that that super power should be used to help society.
What advice would you give to a person starting out in your industry or in the work force?
Be genuinely curious and, as one of my mentors taught, “Fail fast and Fail Often”. Our curiosity keeps us open to situations and places that can stretch us and allow us to learn, and embracing the knowledge gained from failure allows us to pursue greatness.
Where can we find your company online?
https://facebook.com/sigaostudios
https://www.linkedin.com/company/10703081/
https://twitter.com/sigaostudios
And where can we find you online?
https://sigaostudios.com/author/chris/
Anything else about you or your company you want us to share?
I am honored to have the opportunity to help plan and participate in the October 24th TechTuesday program and moderate the panel entitled “Agile meets reality – how companies succeed with Agile.” We firmly believe that the only way software development can truly be successful and can maximize the value of every dollar spent on development is to embrace Agile thinking. I have helped a range of organizations from large enterprise to small-scale startup implement Agile thinking in their organization and have seen the rewards gained when this thinking is successfully implemented. When we work with companies to build a highly-engaged workforce, we focus on four key areas, three are taken from Dan Pink’s Drive (Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose) and the fourth is taken from numerous research sources (Diversity). Companies that are successful with Agile create teams that are highly autonomous, fully aware of their purpose and are given the opportunity to become masters in their trade. In short, adopting Agile in your software development is a component of building a fully engaged development team.
This panel will feature some extremely talented individuals who have seen the value that Agile methodology can bring to an organization and they’ve also seen the difficulties that exist in mastering Agile. This is an opportunity to hear from the trenches and gain insights that you can apply in our own organization.
Register Here to attend TechTuesday.
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