Matt Bontrager, HTML5 SME
About
Entrepreneurial engineer with 13 years of experience in consulting, film, and mobility industries. Technical expertise in application design, user interface implementation, and functional abstraction. Specialize in designing, developing, and deploying web applications, particularly with responsive, interactive front-ends asynchronously consuming RESTful API’s. Developed the Communication-Driven Development strategy, built software tools at Pixar Animation Studios, and was the recipient of the 2002 Stacey Dale Grissom humanitarian award.
Currently function as the web technology SME for a globally recognizable luxury experience brand that won the 2018 World Car Design of the Year. Provide expert technical advice on cross-functional projects, practices, and policies. Shift complexities and constraints of native platforms to the cloud and exploit the power of HTML5 to deliver world-class user experiences.
Today, a significant portion of the heavy lifting of application development is done by preprocessors, frameworks, and build tools. These tools have lowered barriers to entry, increased productivity, and made previously unreachable goals achievable. Yet, they have also led to a false sense of value for some and blindness to hidden problems for others. The salient question is, “What is the skillset of a software engineer that offers true organizational value?”.
How will the importance of that question to your organization change when, in a few short years, AI will write up to 80 percent of the codebase for all new software? I believe the skillset that offers true organizational value is the ability to assess and analyze challenges, then choose solutions that mitigate risk and maximize reward.
I believe that today’s “best practices” are tomorrow’s anti-patterns. I am opinionated, yet open-minded; rigid on principle, but flexible on implementation.
Good engineers optimize the status quo. Great engineers make decisions that solve difficult problems.
Highlights
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Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
Consultation, Discovery, Design, Develop, Deliver.
How did you get started in this business?
I was still working at Pixar when Steve Jobs sent his memo, “Thoughts On Flash”, where he essentially declared that Flash is dead; HTML5 is the future.
I started learning HTML5 that night.
What types of customers have you worked with?
From large technology corporations like Intel and Pixar, to small, local companies and sole proprietorships, and everywhere in between.
What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a pro in your area of expertise?
There are plenty of freelancers, agencies, or firms that will take the time to understand your needs and then outsource the labor to another country where wages are significantly less. For some projects, this is perfectly acceptable
However, if your customers’ experience on the web is important to you, it’s my experience that the saying “you get what you pay for” applies.