Team Spotlight: Ryan Voyles

My name is Ryan Voyles.? My first day at Lean Technologies was May 1st, 2017 and I was officially hired on full time November 1st, 2017.??

What is your role at Lean Tech and what does a typical day look like for you?

As a software developer for Lean Tech, I am thankful to say that each day presents itself as a new experience and never falls into the category of “typical”.? Thrive customers tend to be “change leaders” in their organizations, thus the projects we undertake normally require a mix of new learnings, technical execution, and adding value.? My day entails interacting with those change leaders and our internal team to better understand the creative ways in which our customers use Thrive, planning out the road map of how to turn those ideas into a lean solution, and then making that solution a reality through the power of the Thrive platform.? For me personally, whether a customer or teammate, the goal is all about helping people.? That is where I take the most joy.? Most days are quite fun and thankfully never boring since they primarily involve making peoples’ lives better and helping them to add value to their environments.

What aspects of our culture do you find most rewarding or unique?

The most rewarding aspects of our culture for me are the team itself and the structure of the company.? At Lean Tech, we are all entrepreneurs.? Each of us has experience in operating our own businesses in some form or fashion.? This means getting to work with sharp, funny, and experienced lean thinkers and doers.? We all share the value of blessing others’ lives.? It is a culture that encourages both being on the frontlines of executing change first-hand with customers, as well as being able to contribute strategically to the overall company.? No one person is too big or too small to get involved.? We are flexible, yet precise, fun, yet take what we do seriously.? I believe this also translates into what our customers experience with us.? When they interact with us, it is my hope that they get the same joy and optimism we share internally so it becomes a fun and valuable experience for them as well.

What is a project you’ve worked on that you are proud of?

This is going to sound like I am giving the “easy answer”, but all of them for the most part.? It is the most rewarding for me to watch a solution I created or have a hand in take on a life of its own to improve others’ daily work lives.? I enjoy watching processes develop from spreadsheet chaos into valuable information that is easily accessible.? My background is more in information technology and data transformation, so I enjoy those projects where we are able to provide valuable information and insights from previously unobtainable data trapped in spreadsheets.? In Thrive, I am proud to have had the opportunity to overhaul Custom Data Tracking.? I love that feature and it is very near and dear to my heart!? Part Inspection’s real-time charting was a fun project as well, as that page is quick to return valuable information.?? A couple of customer-specific projects that I am proud of are EMS’s Change Management process, which grew from spreadsheets to an entire process all of its own over the last 6 years, Pella’s Test Lab process, which also went from spreadsheets to being able to generate tests in Thrive, Pella’s Equipment Management processes, encompassing EEM and Surplus Equipment Transfer, which were process not digitally tracked before their creation, and Vermeer’s API integration with Samsara for automotive fleet tracking (since it is just cool to see real time statistics on a vehicle driving down a road).? Most recently, we have been working with QR codes to allow locations to be scanned and data on assets to be maintained within those locations.?

What do you love about Thrive?

I love the flexibility, hands down.? Having had the role of acting IT manager for other companies in years past, I recall having? to manage multiple accounting, ERP, logistics, and other types of business solutions.? They all had one thing in common,?rigidity.? People like spreadsheets for a reason as they are incredibly flexible and approachable.? Thrive manages to capture these same benefits yet combines that with the added advantages of SaaS.? The ability to take fields on a form, rename them as you wish, change their visibility, and set security to them still impresses me to this day!? With Thrive, you can do this without any development required, meaning you make it your own!?? We design Thrive with flexibility, convenience, and lean principles in mind so that those features will translate all of the way down to those who use it.? I also appreciate that new features added to Thrive almost always come from customer feedback.? We are users of Thrive ourselves, however, it is our customers who make Thrive better.? We do not push changes down, but instead receive the user feedback and turn those into features.? No request is too small.

If you could trade jobs with someone for a day (and be proficient at it) would you want to try?

After having performed many jobs where I was either the decision maker, but not the doer, or the doer and not the decision maker, working at Lean Tech is a hard job to top since it offers both.? Hmm, I think restoring cars would be fun.? Again, taking something and transforming it into a far more elegant, powerful, and valuable, while completely blessing the owner in the process.? Can you see a pattern here?? Ha!

Outside of work, what are your hobbies or interests?

I grew up with my best friend and his father working on cars and have stayed involved in the automotive hobby in some way, shape, or form most of my life.? However, I would not consider myself an expert.? At one point, I even kicked around the idea of creating a drag-racing ministry.? We even had two preachers and a driver on board, but time and money proved there were better ways to accomplish the goal.

Otherwise, I am definitely what you would call a “tinkerer”.? I enjoy just about anything that gives me a reason to use a soldering iron, take something apart, learn how it works, and hopefully get it back together again with no parts left over.? I have worked with electronics in the past to build computers, movie props, or other bits and bobs.? I enjoy classic arcade games and have a small home arcade.?? I also enjoy my regular bible-study or church small group, which has been a constant in my life over the last 20 years.

Any other tidbits of interesting aspects/facts about you or your life that maybe someone wouldn't know or would be surprised to learn??

Outside of my family and Lean Tech family, most people might not know that I’m an avid walker (sounds like a funny thing to be avid at, ha-ha).? I have walked every day for the last 12 + years and have not missed a single day as of yet, thankfully.? I am also often asked how far I walk.? For me, it is the journey and the moment that matters and not the distance.? It has blessed me to have a dedicated time to be outside and to connect with the Lord.? The journey has been fun so far and I hope it continues throughout the rest of my life.

My family has stayed involved with a local Christian homeless ministry in my hometown since before I was born.? It would be a wonderful person from that same ministry years later who would bring me into contact with Lean Tech, and thus we have now come full circle!