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In this series, we share various career stories from people working with Qt. Today, I am interviewing Przemysław Nogaj, a Head of HMI at Spyrosoft.
Tell us a bit about yourself, what do you do?
I am Head of HMI technology at Spyrosoft, which means I deal with everything related to interfaces in human-machine communication, from desktop applications, mobile applications and even as far as topics like how to talk to robots. I’ve worked with Qt for almost 15 years now. Privately, I have 2 children who take up most of my free time, but I am also a basketball fan and support our local team King Sea Wolves.
What originally inspired you to pursue this career?
I've always liked to see results quickly, as I'm impatient. When you write software on the backend, close to the servers, you don't see those effects immediately, whereas when writing HMI software, the visual effect is immediate. In addition, I like to have direct contact with the end customer. Often clients don't think about how their system works underneath, however, they always have a lot of questions and comments about the frontend, and I am happy to participate in these discussions. My personal goal is always to make the user experience as good as possible.
What did you study at school and how did it prepare you for your career?
It's a funny story, actually. In high school, I was in a computer science class and naturally chose to study computer science, but for various reasons I didn't complete this course, and I eventually graduated in marketing and management. Nevertheless, programming and IT was somehow my vocation, so I started working in IT quite quickly, learning new skills "on the job".
How did you first discover Qt, and what changed as a result?
I first encountered Qt back when Qt was owned by Nokia, it was probably 2010. Nokia at the time sponsored the development of Symbian apps using Qt, apps in Android and iOS were rewritten to run on Symbian in Qt. What did that change in my life? A lot. I had worked with other frameworks before, a lot with Windows. The difference in developer experience, in the ease of achieving the intended funkiness and results was incredible. Suddenly I was able to very quickly implement what the designers came up with. I had a whole framework at my disposal, not just a visual one, but a lot of other facilitations. And a while later I discovered the QML language, still as a technology preview back then, and I went crazy with joy. That was it - an easy programming language to pour thoughts into views.
Can you describe a typical day or week in your job?
I work de facto in two roles: as a Head of HMI and as a developer. As Head of HMI Technology, I follow the trends in HMI development, keep up to date with what the HMI will look like in the future, which of course takes time. I'm also a developer in a commercial project, and this helps me to be close to technology. I work in Qt-related projects daily, so my typical day looks like this: in the morning I look at the design from the designers, and I have a panic attack for a while. But then I remind myself that in Qt/QML it should be possible to implement designer’s vision in a straightforward way, which I then do. I also work a lot on finding new uses for Qt and I keep up to date with what's new in this framework.
What do you love most about your job?
The fact that I can make a customer smile, and that I can make someone's life easier and meet stakeholders' expectations. What I also love is that through working on HMI I get to meet a lot of great people in different roles, such as testers, UX people, developers, product owners, project managers. This gives me a broad view of the product I'm currently working on, broadens my perspective but also allows me to spread my knowledge of Qt, Squish, Design Studio etc. I am a real Qt enthusiast as you can see.
Which skills or qualities would you say are of importance in order to succeed in your field?
You definitely have to always be open-minded, listen to others, and you shouldn’t try to force your opinion. What is also important is to always think not only from the perspective of the developer, but to put yourself in the shoes of the end user and ask yourself: would I want to use it this way, and is the performance of this system optimal? Above all, it’s important to be open-minded, to look for new ideas, and not to be afraid of challenges.
What advice would you give to someone interested in pursuing a similar career?
First of all, my advice is to keep developing oneself. You can follow the mailing list from Qt, attend training courses from Qt Academy, keep track of what's currently changing in the framework, and what are the plans for its development, and listen to different ideas. I think it's also worth visiting a conference, like Qt World Summit, where you can meet a lot of interesting people, listen to interesting talks, and grow into the Qt community.
