Tá eTeanga á rith ag Eoin Ó Conchúir, PhD i Luimneach.
As Béarla:
eTeanga is run by Eoin Ó Conchúir in Limerick, Ireland. He has been building dynamic customer-facing solutions online starting with the development of a database-driven contact matching platform in 1999, and has been running a micro-enterprise since 2010. He has also led a multi-disciplinary software team at a scaling Irish SaaS company. He participated in the Enterprise Ireland entrepreneurial program New Frontiers (Phase 2, 2012).
Running a business since 2010
Bitesize Irish offers products and services for Irish language learners. Running the business involved a range of expertise including marketing leads system, contractor hiring and management, customer support, membership business management, e-commerce solutions, global tax management, intellectual property and trademarks, brand design language, and product definition.
> Sixteen years of running the business has taught me the importance of balancing technical innovation with nurturing relationships with both customers and contractors.
Technical team leadership
Originally hired as a senior software developer, I became a team lead of an Irish SME SaaS company. The company was going through fundamental changes in its product offering. The team I began to lead was comprised only of software engineers. I was responsible for their management, work prioritisation, and career reviews. The engineering-only team suffered from a disconnect with key stakeholders including designers, product manager and quality assurance. With the support of a senior product manager, I led the transformation of the team into a truly multi-disciplinary team structured for faster iteration and output of customer-ready software.
Background and qualifications
Experience:
- Managing Director at Bitesize Irish (2010-present)
- Technical Team Lead at Teamwork, Cork (2019-2022)
- Senior Software Developer at Teamwork, Cork (2017-2019)
- New Frontiers entrepreneur development programme, Enterprise Ireland (Phase 2, 2012)
Additional experience:
- Contract React and Node development, Annotate.ie (2022)
- Senior Software Developer, Glass Lewis, (2016–2017)
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Localisation Research Centre, University of Limerick (2011–2012)
- Presented papers at international conferences
Qualifications:
- PhD in Global Software Development, University of Limerick (2004–2010)
- BSc in Computer Systems with French, University of Limerick (2000–2004)
How I work
People usually come to me when they are dealing with complex systems with diverse stakeholders where the outcome is unsure. For large complex projects, I break down challenges into smaller areas, and define projects with specific human-friendly Definition of Done.
Examples
Mentoring for investor pitching
As an example, an early-stage entrepreneur came to me who was in search of a software development quote for six months of work. They had already received quotes on software development for foundational aspects of their untested software solution. I advised them on pivoting their plans to avoid investing months of development in an unproven system, and rather concentrate their efforts on a minimum viable product that they would need for their investor pitches.
Managed organisational change as software team lead
At the Irish SaaS company, development was taking place at a bleeding-edge pace. Complexity was high, with a legacy web application, a more modern application, and thirdly an experimental build. Developers were far from customer contact and even struggled to get time with UI designers who had moved onto projects that were months ahead. My approach was to leverage the leadership buy-in and I spearheaded the conversion of the engineering team into a multi-disciplinary team capable of faster iterations and the delivery of production-ready software.
Business migration of ecommerce systems
Bitesize Irish was running on a membership ecommerce solution that had fallen behind compliance requirements, including multi-currency requirements and increasingly complex global tax compliance. The challenge was to migrate the entire business from the old system to a replacement ecommerce solution. The risk was high, as failure in customer migration would have meant the loss of active customer subscriptions. I worked with existing customer-facing contractors and my own technical experience to migrate the entire business to a new compliant solution.
Irish language technical expertise
I operate Bitesize Irish daily through the medium of Irish. I can build and maintain a bilingual site and handle technical language issues correctly and reflectively, whilst also working with key stakeholders. eTeanga does not offer translation, but can source and brief translators where a project needs them.
Nascanna: