Dunelm Technology Awards — December 2024
Just before the end of year break, we held another prestigious Dunelm Technology Awards. A great opportunity to recognise some of the great talent we have across the Technology and Product organisation.
This time round we had a the tech leadership team announcing the awards to mix it up a bit, orchestrated by our People Partner, Leanne “Ant OR Dec” Orton in her final appearance before leaving for pastures new.
As is tradition, the audio embedded in the slides didn’t work, so Leanne channeled her inner trumpeteer and did one final blast of the “de-de-de deeeer” before each announcement. Luckily we’ve saved that as an audio file so can continue to use in future awards ceremonies…
All the winners received a custom one-of-a-kind physical trophy to add to their mantelpiece, super-kudos from the wider team and a digital badge added to a blockchain to celebrate the awesomeness online.
There were some really fantastic entries — thoughtful, considered and highlighting the great talent we have here! It was all judged by an independent panel who, as ever, found it hard to decide the winners.
Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry, it’s great to see so much peer-to-peer-thanks being shown.
VALUE AWARDS
The ‘Act Like Owners’ Award
Awarded for: Taking Responsibility, challenging, Making it happen and being resourceful
Finalists: Cuzack Lapworth , Emma Emerton , Aiden Brusby
Winner: Emma Emerton
Nomination: Emma exemplifies all of Dunelm’s core values, with her standout strength being “”Acting Like an Owner.”” She consistently demonstrates a proactive approach to problem-solving, identifying and addressing data quality issues before they escalate. This underscores her unwavering commitment to maintaining high-quality standards.
The ‘Stronger Together’ Award.
Awarded for: Connecting, team working, communicating and including
Finalists:
Winner: Dean Emery
Nomination: Dean is an exceptional individual who truly excels in building connections and fostering inclusive teamwork. His ability to communicate effectively and contribute to collective success and unity is unparalleled. Dean is always willing to drop what he’s doing to help others, making him one of the few constant contributors to answers in the quality chapter. His dedication to sharing his knowledge and his unwavering can-do attitude make him an invaluable asset to any team.
The ‘Keep Listening and Learning’ Award.
Awarded for: Being curious, adapting, growth mindset and self awareness
Finalists: Ernest Lukos , Musta Rohman , Callum Fanshawe
Winner: Musta Rohman
Nomination: Having started Dunelm with opportunity to up skill to compliment Dunelm’s tech stack, coupled with working in a team that operates within the Google Tag Manager space, Musta has remained un-phased by each opportunity to learn a technical skill or behavior required to compliment and support the team. Musta has actively sought feedback at regular intervals and immediately set to work in implementing suggestions in his daily work approach. Musta’s approach to Keep Listening and Learning has resulted in consistent incremental growth.
The ‘Long Term Thinking’ Award.
Awarded for: Customer first, thinking big, making decisions and innovating
Finalists: Sabrina Matin , Alexandra Kovacs , Ali Turk
Winner: Sabrina Matin
Nomination: Over the years I have worked with Sabrina, her ability to think long-term and champion the customer has been truly remarkable. Sabrina consistently demonstrates a vision for the bigger picture, making integrity-driven decisions that have long-lasting impacts. Her strategic focus has been instrumental in driving our team to success, especially in the area of customer acquisition and retention.
TECH AWARDS — TEAM
Lean Team Award
Awarded for: Exemplary use of lean methodologies and practices that has brought out great results
Winner: Distribution Team
Nomination: I am honoured to nominate the Distribution Crew for the Lean Team award. This small yet extraordinary team consistently delivers outstanding results, and embodies the principles of lean thinking in how they operate.
Dream Team Award
Awarded for: The Dream Team is connected, aligned, collaborative, cohesive, and communicates well. A team that always helps when needed and excels in their day to day work.
Finalists: Skynet, Jarvis, Spectre
Winner: Team Jarvis
领英推荐
Nomination: I would like to nominate the Team Jarvis for their exceptional performance and outstanding collaboration over the past year! This team has consistently demonstrated a high level of dedication, dedication and teamwork in achieving project milestones, while maintaining clear and open communication to their relevant stakeholders. Their ability to work cohesively as a team and utilising each member’s strengths and always striving to improve its ways of working, has not only resulted in the successful completion of its original team outcomes but is also now supporting other business outcomes (Product API, Delivering Joy). Well done to a fantastic year Team Jarvis! You deserved to be recognised! Keep it up!
TECH AWARDS — INDIVIDUAL
Culture Warrior Award
Awarded for: They’re always championing to create a better and more inclusive culture, and while their actions may seem intense to some, they’re well-appreciated in the end
Finalists: Priti Dhorajia Verma , John Burgess
Winner: Priti Verma
Nomination: Priti has been a true driving force this year in championing diversity and inclusion at Dunelm. As one of the advocates and leaders of our Women in Tech initiatives, she has worked tirelessly to create a more inclusive culture. One of her standout achievements has been organising Women in Tech Week in October.
Jedi Award
Awarded for: Mentors who have made a significant difference through their guidance and helped us unlock our true potential or find our true calling
Finalists: Oliver Martin-Hirsch , Yusuf Z. , Nickolas Theodoulou
Winner: Nickolas Theodoulou
Nomination: Nick embodies all of the behaviours that Dunelm values — he always encourages learning and is always keen to learn new tech and get involved. He takes ownership of things he gets involved with (like fixing the dunelm-web pipeline) and follows them through to completion even when he faces difficulties. He always displays long term thinking, he is consistently looking forward to future sprints and anticipating challenges we may face. He encourages team collaboration always and has helped foster really strong bonds between all team members.
Innovator Award
Awarded for: They consistently go above and beyond to pioneer new ideas and drive innovative solutions
Finalists: Thiago Palharini , Hannah Taylor , Nickolas Theodoulou
Winner: Hannah Taylor
Nomination: Hannah is constantly organising and driving the SRE team forward with new ideas and enthusiasm
The Mouse That Roared Award
Awarded for: Acknowledges the quiet achiever who, like a timid mouse, has fearlessly roared by stepping out of their comfort zone and making a significant impact.
Finalists: Lauren Edge , Kamilla Aliakhmet , Hannah Miller
Winner: Lauren Edge
Nomination: It’s not easy being over three crews. Three times the set of meetings; three times the research and UX process; three times the playback of results and stakeholder management. Lauren came into the Product Design Chapter from being a BA, wanting a change of direction into her passion for UX. In the time since she made that move, she has gone from strength to strength. Not just in her technical UX abilities, but more importantly her confidence, ability to influence outcomes and articulation of methodology and rationale…
Savvy Saver Award
Awarded for: They’re always looking for opportunities to do things more efficiently and save some money
Winner: Kieron Vann
Nomination: Kieron’s reputation as a savvy saver reflects his skill in identifying cost-saving opportunities without sacrificing quality. His innovative strategies have led to significant savings for the department and the business. Kieron has also instilled a culture of financial prudence within his team, CTE.
The Celebration of Differences Award
Awarded for: Championing our diversity and inclusion efforts
Winner: Priti Dhorajia Verma
Nomination: Priti has always been a shining light for D,E & I here at Dunelm, but this nomination reflects the hard work, commitment and tenacity displayed in organising our amazing Women in Tech week. She championed the event and pulled the team together around her which resulted in a fabulous, well attended agenda of events. A huge well done and thank you.
Finally, a massive thanks to the Event Team that brought it all together, we all get a badge too…”woop”: