Around the same time as Stephen Kaufer was busily creating TripAdvisor above a pizza parlour in Massachussets, Viator was plotting its own path as a travel startup.
It would take another 14 years before the pair would eventually unite but during that time the online tours and activities agency worked hard at proving a market for selling in-destination products on the web could exist.
In the first of our series of exclusive interviews with those at the heart of technology and digital operations at travel brands around the world, we meet Jeff Lewis, vice president of engineering at the now TripAdvisor-owned Viator (via a $200 million deal in the summer of 2014).
He joined the company to run its tech centre in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, a period in the company’s history that saw many of its current management team come on-board, including CEO Barrie Seidenberg.
1. Briefly, what do you do?
I manage all engineering for Viator internationally including Software Engineering, SiteOps, DevOps, IT, QA and Business Analysis.
2. Where does your role sit within your corporate structure? How much C-Suite buy-in do you need to implement projects? Does your role give you autonomy? How do you work with other departments?
I report directly to our CEO, Barrie Seidenberg, who also sits on the executive committee of TripAdvisor.
As part of the senior management team in Viator I am directly involved in the major decisions made, so I do believe I have the influence and support needed to implement key projects.
The projects I sponsor are generally around performance, security, scalability and availability so there is support throughout the organisation for these.
Our management team has a backlog for all projects, infrastructure and features, which we score for value and effort and this drives the priorities for the project pipeline.
Being the senior technology manager in the company certainly does provide autonomy for how we make our technology decisions but we do work side-by-side with the product team.
We have embraced agile through the scrum framework so therefore our team members include people from both engineering and product. This has proven to be a very effective and efficient way to deliver quality products.
3. Briefly tell us how you got to where you are today, professionally.
That’s an interesting question as I started out as a technology entrepreneur by founding Australia’s largest web solutions company, Zivo.
After that was sold and destroyed in the first internet crash, I started the software solutions vertical inside an IT consultancy.
I had enough with corporate clients so I moved to the client side as VP of engineering at Viator almost ten years ago.
4. What is the most difficult initiative or strategy you’ve had to implement, and why?
Without a doubt, this was replacing our legacy back-end system (first written in the 1990s) with a new, modern version.
I knew from the beginning that it was the medicine we had to take to get Viator to the next level but the effort and pain required was immense.
Developing it from scratch to meet all our existing and incremental requirements (the old system was still evolving during this period) as well as transforming all the existing content and bookings was an immense task.
We can now move forward with a codebase that is robust, scalable and maintainable.
5. What are your top goals for your team?
To continue to provide world-class engineering services for the product and marketing teams and to ensure that we continue to innovate and think big.
6. Most under-appreciated function performed by you or your department?
Security and compliance. It’s absolutely critical that we manage this effectively but there’s not much recognition (unless something goes wrong).
This includes SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley, a US law) and PCI – both obviously important but also very time-consuming.
7. What is your ultimate vision in terms of travel tech/distribution? Where does your company, or maybe the industry as a whole, need to go?
I believe that for our category of destination activities the biggest opportunity is real-time system connectivity.
Providing immediate booking confirmation in conjunction with our suppliers gives our customers the confidence they need to book last minute, in-destination, where most decisions are made.
My vision is to offer the widest selection of peer-reviewed, immediately bookable activities for our travellers through many convenient channels.
8. What sector outside of travel do you think travel has the most to learn from, and why? (in types of technology used, priorities, best practices, etc.)
Another good question! For personalization, we need to learn from Facebook. For friction-free commerce, Amazon.
For mobile transactions, I’d say Uber. The consumer interacts with these players naturally and regularly.
It’s all about being part of a consumer’s daily life, not an unfamiliar experience to suffer and struggle through.
9. What single innovation/development/process has changed your business in the most in the past ten years?
Scrum – we have changed the way we work and love it.
The business can prioritize and manage their own expectations with the support of their engineering team.
10. Is there any tech product/trend/platform which you overlooked or underestimated?
Lots! Everyone is late to mobile, social, personalization. Friction-free checkout is the next hurdle for most of us.
11. What aspects of what you do are under- or over-regulated?
SOX takes a lot of energy!
12. What do you worry about most during the typical day?
Site uptime, site performance, site security, staff engagement, providing a productive and rewarding experience for our teams and a great experience for our customers.
13. When hiring, do you have a preference for people who have worked in travel before or who are new to the business?
In the engineering team we do not consider travel industry experience to be important.
We are looking for creative technologists who take pride in their work and are interested in building world-class products.
14. What’s your pitch for why top talent should work for your team instead of somewhere else?
We respect everyone.
We reward innovation.
Our agile development approach encourages developer participation from concept, through design and delivery.
We have an exceptional new work environment.
Our Sydney office is the nerve center of engineering for Viator, a world class eCommerce business.
We utilize new technologies and software development processes.
We can compensate our team with generous bonuses and equity.
15. What specific skills do you look for when hiring?
Good personality and culture fit
Proven experience with our technology and tools
Problem-solving skills
Code quality (we use online testing for this)
Ability to communicate with a team
Good collaborator
Creative thinker
For managers, clear proof of their ability to build, manage and motivate their team
NB: Vatican museum image via PixaBay.