Let’s get personal with… Matt Groom

So, let’s get personal with… Matt Groom

1. What do you do at Resolution?
   As Technical Director, I’m responsible for the technical aspects of the business. This includes website development, web/mobile apps, technical consultancy, planning & scoping work, integrations, overseeing management of our hosting platforms as well as providing support to the team to ensure our laptops, network, phones and IT infrastructure are all working correctly.
2. How did you get into your role?
   I had a ‘sandwich year’ working at WPA Health Insurance in the eCommerce team. It was here I learnt to code for web using html/css/coldfusion/sql. After uni I started my first role as a web developer for Dentsure Ltd developing web-based solutions for the Dental Industry using PHP/MySQL and discovered my fascination with developing web apps to develop solutions to improve efficiency. After Dentsure, I joined Wiltshire Fire Service Headquarters as their E-Government Officer, managing their website and developing internal web applications, before I joined the web development team at Hargreaves Lansdown (Clifton, Bristol) working on their website and stockbroking platform. A few years later I decided to look for somewhere closer to home and ended up talking to Becky and Richard at a Wansdyke school Christmas party (where my wife taught at the time). We were the only ones not doing ‘teacher talk’ (those people with partners who are teachers will know what I mean). This led to an opportunity to join Resolution in May 2008 as Web Manager to help develop and establish the web/development side of the business. This area of the business grew, along with the size of the team, and in 2013 I became Technical Director.
3. What’s the first thing you do when you get into the studio?
   Check emails, grab a coffee (very important), check CRM dashboard/schedule ready for the day.
   
4. What is your most overused pun?
   Well, if I asked my wife this, she would probably say all of them. But if I had to choose… from so many…. I’d probably say the “cheese’ puns. Some of them are ‘feta’ than others. In fact, I think some of them are quite ‘gouda’. I heard ‘edam’ good one the other day which I overused on the team and now they ‘camembert’ to hear it anymore. Some cheese puns can be quite subtle though, so you have to listen ‘caerphilly’. Anyway, where would you ‘brie’ without a cheese pun? I think they’re for the ‘grater’ good. I’ll stop now I promise, although there’s ‘stiltons’ of puns where they came from!
   
5. What TV show would you like to make an appearance on and why?
   If it was still going – probably ‘Spooks’ because it was always fast-paced and had intriguing storylines and great characters. Failing that, catching a lift with Peter Kay in Carshare as I reckon I might pick up some new puns while paying ‘fromage’ to a king of comedy… oops, another cheese pun – sorry.
   
6. If you could only bake one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
   Probably a traditional Victoria sponge (with raspberry jam and homemade butter cream). It reminds me of when I was younger having family tea on a Sunday with my grandparents. It’s also very versatile and can be shaped into almost anything for birthday cakes. After building a couple of igloo cakes several years ago for a friends 30th birthday, it became a challenge I was given each year, and since having children, they’ve certainly come up with a few challenges over the past 8 years. All sorts of cakes from Postman Pat, Peppa Pig, fairy land, 3D chicken and even an erupting volcano! Although the less said about the “hen do” cake I made for my wife’s friend (a midwife) the better…
7. What excites you most about working at Resolution?
   I like being able to work with a wide range of clients and varied projects. The web apps and integrations excite me the most as I like finding and developing solutions to help businesses work more efficiently. It’s those projects where clients are looking for a system or solution and can’t find anything suitable, then they come to us with the problem and we work with them to develop a bespoke solution tailored to their exact needs, that I find especially exciting. Knowing that the end solution will be a great result for the client and because we’ve developed it in-house, we can support them and develop it further to adapt in the future as their business needs change.

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