Team Spotlight: Lindsey Hughes

How would you describe your role?

• As a tech lead, I help facilitate cross team meetings and other conversations , provide tech insight to help the Product team make informed decisions, and I write code, mostly mobile, but sometimes backend too.
• Sometimes think of myself as a ‘product engineer’ – bridging the gap between Product and Engineering
• I think about the difference between solving the problem given to you vs understanding the user needs behind that problem and figuring out how to solve for that – it might not always be the exact thing that they asked for.

What’s a favorite memory from working at PickTrace

• Honestly I love PickTrace – I feel like what stands out to me consistently across my time here is just how good every single person has been to each other and to me – I feel like we have such a great culture. PickTrace really lives blameless postmortem. I’ve introduced plenty of bugs and no one has pointed fingers – were humans not robots, everyone makes mistakes but we huddle together around problems to come up with the best possible solutions for our customers!
• For a specific moment – the first time we went to Fairfield with the twins and they were picking blueberries off the bushes. Lydia loved it so much, when it was time to leave she cried because she was having so much fun picking and eating the berries
• Another favorite PickTrace memory… traveling to east Washington for the first time to interview ranch managers, coming up with the first Figma prototype of Insights with David over dinner at a Red Lobster, and then getting to see it come to life! I still get warm fuzzies whenever I hear folks raving about the Insights app.

What are your hobbies? / How do you like to spend time when you’re not at work?

• I just took a 3D printing class which has been a great creative outlet for me – for Father’s day I printed and started painting a Mandelorian figure for my father. I didn’t get it quite finished in time but it’s getting close.
• Also gardening in my yard. It’s casual – not much that’s harvestable. I’m planting cool plants that I like. This year I focused mainly on native plants because I was sick of planting things, forgetting to water them and having them die – why not work with the natural environment? Now the front yard is blooming and full of flowers and people are coming by taking pictures not to report our yard to the city for overgrowth, but because they like it! There are sages, tons of poppies, yarrow, california lilacs, and more.
• Above all else, I’m usually hanging out with the fam.  I love that the twins have interests now. Lydia is obsessed with art – she wants to be an artist/hair stylist/potter. Oliver is obsessed with numbers  so he’s just like “ I want to figure out things that people don’t know about numbers yet.” Miles has entered the terrible twos and is causing plenty of trouble in the house but he’s still a little bundle of joy and can always bring a smile to my face.
• I think the kids are so funny. I love hearing what they have to say. They’re so funny and quirky.

What are your plans for summer break?

• The plan right now is a good amount of Disneyland but also a good amount of R&R. I feel like I can get a little high strung about work sometimes, so it will be good to get some time not to think about work and just relax with the family. We have the Disneyland pass so sometimes we’ll just go for dinner, ride a few rides – it makes it way more relaxed. Need to make sure we’re getting use out of it!
  
  If you were a fruit or vegetable what would you be and why?
• I need to be an olive – I love olives so much. They’re smooth, round, and a little bit salty – and technically a fruit, but you wouldn’t expect it.
• When I was pregnant with the twins I had extreme cravings for olives to the point that I felt compelled to name one of the kids an olive name. That’s how we ended up with ‘Oliver’