Having grown up in England and Ireland, Michael's path did not initially lead him into the technology industry, but into the humanities. While studying history, he took the opportunity for an Erasmus stay in Freiburg and spent a time there that not only shaped his connection to Germany, but also played a special role personally. It was there that he met his wife, who was also there as an exchange student from Canada.

After their studies, they both moved on to Greece, where they worked as English teachers in the north of the country and also took the odd skiing trip to the mountains in their free time. However, when he returned to England, he realized that teaching was not the right career path for him in the long term.

Franzi admits that returning to work was challenging after a long break. And empiriecom is her first remote job. In other words, her onboarding took her from Berlin to Bamberg and from there to Weismain, where she was welcomed with open arms by the coaching team and her new manager Melli and accompanied through her first day at work.

The many new impressions, people and information during her onboarding were at times overwhelming for Franzi, but also in a positive sense. For example, the fact that meetings at empiriecom always start on time or even ahead of time was new to her and a positive surprise - especially compared to her previous start-up ;) . Due to her many years of working in international environments, the more German-oriented team structure was also a new experience, as was the corporate structure in which empiriecom operates. For Franzi, however, neither is a contradiction to the creative freedom and freedom that her role as Agile Coach and Scrum Master at empiriecom offers her and for which she is very grateful.

Back in London, Michael began working at the British Council, an organization comparable to the Goethe-Institut. While he mainly organized exchange programs there, he became increasingly interested in technical topics. His career change into IT was gradual but deliberate: alongside his work, he completed his Master's degree at Birbeck College in London and deepened his knowledge independently. Finally, he took the opportunity to move internally into an IT role.

In the following years, Michael worked with various systems, but found his focus early on in the CMS Drupal. It quickly became clear to him what potential the system had: "Drupal solved many problems for which you would otherwise have to invest a lot of time."

After a period of self-employment, his career took him to various companies, including an agency in Heidelberg and later to a publishing house in Offenburg. There he played a key role in setting up several platforms, including portals for cooking and baking, including close collaboration with the editorial team and content production.

The switch to empiriecom ultimately resulted from a personal meeting with the Inspire team at DrupalCon and Michael has been part of the team since December, working on projects related to the CMS.
His start was characterized by quick onboarding and a direct insight into the corporate culture. He particularly emphasizes the openness and interaction with each other: "They are very friendly and honest people - you can tell that a lot of value is placed on cooperation here." Despite the physical distance - Michael works from the southwest of Germany - he feels well integrated and part of the team, as the various formats for exchange and collaboration ensure this.

In terms of content, Michael is currently working primarily on the performance of the CMS. One specific goal is to significantly reduce loading times when saving content with the aim of achieving noticeable improvements here.

He also sees great potential in the use of AI in the CMS environment. For editors in particular, this could open up new opportunities to create content more efficiently and implement campaigns more quickly. At the same time, he always considers AI to be a reflective topic, as he sees it as a support tool and not as a substitute for his own thinking and professional control.

Looking ahead to future developments, Michael sees great potential in working with new customers and projects in particular. He sees the possibility of using different technologies and open source solutions flexibly as an exciting opportunity for the further development of products and teams.

For him, one thing is certain: front-end and CMS architecture are not purely technical details, but decisive factors for how well digital products can be developed in the long term.