Developing and maintaining a Django-based software with REST API for educational events. Improving UX by fine-tuning in React using React Admin as framework. Shipping new features to clients.

I was onboarded to the development team of Education Manager after the software has been in development for around one year. So a lot of fundamentals were already built and I first had to understand how the application was working in detail. After setting up the project locally and familiarizing with all its traits, I began working on feature requests, bug fixes and UX improvements.

We worked in a loosely organized agile environment, using sprints and milestones to package changes properly. Deployment to staging and production environments was managed via GitLab CI.

During my time in the product team, I constantly refined UX in close collaboration with Product Management, sometimes reworking React Admin components from scratch. Additionally, I was responsible for implementing new features like invoicing (developing the user interface and generating PDFs) or various tweaks and improvements to existing features.

Since new features and improvements of the software also reflected on the Wordpress and Typo3 extensions I maintained, I was constantly adapting and improving those to keep up.

Social Economy

Education

Education Manager - Software Development

React

Django

Docker

Developing custom themes for Wordpress and TYPO3. Also developing a Wordpress plugin and a TYPO3 extension to leverage the REST API of Education Manager for displaying data and allowing registration to events.

Both clients switched from an outdated software to [Education Manager](https://education-manager.de) to maintain their educational events. As part of this migration, it was also decided that the clients' websites should be relaunched in a fresh new design and new API connectors.

After setting up a working development environment for Wordpress/TYPO3, I migrated part of the old plugin code, refactored it and adjusted it to match the new API of Education Manager. Additionally, I started building new themes based on the new screen designs. For registration to events, I built a generic React application utilizing React Final Form, fully configurable via JSON for both clients.

Several weeks of development later, staging environments were set up for the clients. They provided valuable feedback and began to start maintaining content. After an additional couple of weeks have passed, the feedback was incorporated and the clients were happy with the overall look & feel, so we launched the new websites.

Google Analytics

Website Relaunches (Wordpress + TYPO3)

HTML5

CSS3

JavaScript

Building a product website to increase reach and sales of Education Manager. Developing a demo setup for the public, to better showcase product features.

Since we wanted to acquire new customers for our software Education Manager, I was entrusted with building the product website and developing a feasible demo concept to showcase features.

For the [product website](https://education-manager.de), I chose to work with PostHTML, Tailwind CSS, AlpineJS and Parcel as bundler, to keep it as simple as possible. I created design, layout and content by myself and started prototyping. In several iterations, I synchronized with Product Management to check if everything is going in the right directions. After finalizing design and content, I also optimized performance, SEO and accessibility criteria and integrated Plausible Analytics.

Since Education Manager is best understood with a proper example, I created a fictitious education company called [priorist academy](https://academy.priorist.com/). For this website, I also used PostHTML, Tailwind CSS, AlpineJS and Parcel and created design, layout and content by myself. Additionally, I created a React app to connect with a demo instance of Education Manager. This contained a (filterable) list view of events, as well as a detail and enrollment view. All was built to fully reflect a realistic, customer-oriented use case.

Furthermore, I made sure that the demo instance of Education Manager contained relevant data and was automatically updated so that we could be sure that data is displayed on the priorist academy website.

Plausible Analytics

Education Manager - Product Marketing

Tailwind

Provide a feasible, tool-agnostic solution to maintain standards across multitude of markets and websites while still providing enough flexibility to deploy marketing tags fast, but in a standardised manner.

The client manages a multitude of websites across 20+ markets, both content websites and checkout journeys for multiple products. In an effort to streamline resources, I developed and maintained a central custom tag management solution that also integrates well with the existing Adobe setup (Adobe Launch, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Target).

I worked closely with multiple stakeholders, especially Digital Analytics and Performance Marketing team members, to provide a standardised, well-documented and fairly easy to use product. Adhering to standard approaches and minimizing customization while still offering flexibility within these standards enabled a much faster time to market for tag implementation. Additionally, maintenance efforts could be reduced and coding best practices are applied.

Adobe Launch

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Target

Financial Services

Automotive

Custom Tag Management Solution

Centralising Adobe Analytics and Consent Management implementation standards into Adobe Launch extensions to improve clarity and reduce maintenance efforts with single sources of truth.

Historically, the client maintained a standardised implementation approach across multiple (40+) Adobe Launch properties. So while the idea was good, the execution was lacking since changes to the standards had to be deployed across all these properties which were also set up slightly differently (i.e. naming of rules, data elements etc.).

Therefore, it was decided to extract as much as possible into Adobe Launch extensions. That way, code logic was centralised and general readability and maintainability could be improved. One major challenge was to consolidate multiple data layer implementation standards (CEDDL, EDDL, meta tags) into the centralised approach, since the goal was to be able to use the extensions without any changes to the websites themselves (to save on developer resources).

I migrated and refactored the existing implementation approach into Adobe Launch extensions and built logic to unify possible data layer implementations into a single (internal) unified data layer. Since switching to this approach, maintenance has been a breeze and the refactored code logic itself is very robust, despite being used on more than 800 websites.

Launch Extension Development

Developing personalization use cases for multiple websites/applications and implementing them in Adobe Target. Monitoring the success of these use cases through Adobe Analytics.

I developed relevant personalization use cases based on available customer data and possible CTAs.

Furthermore, I was responsible for the implementation of these use cases in coordination with the website development teams. I strived for seamless experiences (as far as possible with Adobe Target implemented in Adobe Launch).

Use Cases included CTA messages based on previous behaviour (e.g. interest in a certain product measured in page views, interactions and time spent) or personalization efforts (e.g. displaying an individually configured product by the customer instead of a generic hero teaser).

Success of personalization measures was tracked directly through Adobe Analytics (Analytics4Target integration).

Onsite-Targeting / Personalization

jQuery

Developing and maintaining the digital marketing infrastructure centrally in Adobe Launch, so that the requirements of multiple markets could be considered properly.

I developed a comprehensive architecture that allows flexibility for each market but is also highly maintainable centrally. Since Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target and a DMP (first Adobe Audience Manager, then Salesforce DMP) was involved, highly customized solutions were necessary. Thorough documentation allowed other members of the Digital Marketing teams to use the infrastructure provided.

Through the years, both website and digital marketing technology have developed quickly. Therefore, constant changes had to be made in order to keep up with new requirements. Working integrated in several agile teams, we were able to keep a highly maintained Digital Marketing Architecture.

Adobe Audience Manager

Retail/Online Shops

Transport

Digital Marketing Architecture

Technical implementation of Adobe Audience Manager, later Salesforce DMP, in an existing Digital Marketing landscape integrated with Adobe Analytics and Adobe Launch.

During a proof of concept phase, I implemented Adobe Audience Manager from scratch and integrated it with Adobe Analytics (input) and Adobe Target (output) in Adobe Launch. I worked closely with Adobe Consulting, since there weren't a whole lot of Audience Manager projects running at the time.

However, the client decided to use Salesforce DMP instead. This proved to require more customization in the implementation, but I was able to properly forward Adobe Analytics data and to find a way to use Salesforce DMP audiences in Adobe Target in real-time. Additionally, I introduced other parties to our Digital Marketing Architecture since they needed to have a good understanding in order to properly create customer segments.

Projects

Digital Analytics & Engineering

Custom Tag Management Solution 2023 — ongoing

Launch Extension Development 2022 – ongoing

Onsite-Targeting / Personalization 2018 – 2020

Digital Marketing Architecture 2015 – 2020

Customer Segmentation / DMP 2017 – 2020

Software Engineering & Web Development

Education Manager - Software Development 2020 – ongoing

Website Relaunches (Wordpress + TYPO3) 2020 – ongoing

Education Manager - Product Marketing 2021 – 2022