--- title: "An Interview with Una Verhoeven Global Sitecore Architect at Valtech" description: "In this video I'm interviewing Una Verhoeven. Una and I work together at Valtech. When she joined the global team as a Sitecore Architect we teamed up to help out on a challenging project. We became fast friends and when I learnt about her story I decided an interview had to take place." date: "2020-03-25T12:20:43.000Z" url: "https://timbenniks.dev/videos/tim/100-nw0y6dkx1ku" youtube_url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw0y6dkx1KU" playlist: "tim" image: "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nw0y6dkx1KU/maxresdefault.jpg" tags: ["frontend", "developer-experience", "product-strategy", "career"] --- # An Interview with Una Verhoeven Global Sitecore Architect at Valtech In this video I'm interviewing Una Verhoeven. Una and I work together at Valtech. When she joined the global team as a Sitecore Architect we teamed up to help out on a challenging project. We became fast friends and when I learnt about her story I decided an interview had to take place. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw0y6dkx1KU ## Transcript I don't think anyone on YouTube or at the conferences where I speak has ever seen me dressed up and actually I thought why not I'm interviewing una for Hooven who really enjoys dressing up and she loves it when we all dress up and I thought why not let's make it a special one this time and actually I dressed this way more often than you might think because I have fancy clients that appreciate you taking care of how you look it also shows some respect and you know what I like to dress up anyway so today I'm interviewing una who is an amazing story see Serbian she moved to the Netherlands she started her own company and then dismantled her own company in that same year and then joined falltech as a global lead of sight for implementations currently we're working together on a challenging project and we became fast friends we think alike we work alike good match right so I learned about our story and I decided immediately I need to interview this lady so here by the interview with una for Hooven welcome una thanks for joining are you hi thanks for having me I'm doing good yes staying inside one of those days yeah one of those weeks maybe yeah and it's weekend so I have my genetic next to me good keep me company actually I didn't get my whisky but we're good like this I guess so let's kick this off so let me just look at my question real quick so you are actually from Serbia but you live in Rotterdam so what happened there you want to tell the story I'm Matt - Dutch guy and I married a Dutch guy once there we go I mean you're back in Serbia used to work for a Dutch company already and later on I met now my husband let's say that the Netherlands was not my first choice when it comes to moving because of the language I begged Anna knows if everyone here speaks English but yeah it's the claim matter husband got married ended up here and was it like plug and play or did it take some time to get used to how people are in the middle I actually took some time I would say it took me six months to get out of the depression if I can call it like that because it's so one thing to come here and go as a tourist and what you see an experience as a tourist is not the same as living here no in the beginning what you need to keep in mind is I came from a very chaotic system and I came to organized systems those are two complete extremes and in the beginning I found it very lonely you know I had a perception of that you know up whisky party time meeting up and then you come here and you realize that they're very family-oriented did they go home that you don't have those party type style you know this big people actually book things in their calendar and you know you need to book something invite and then you can arrange a meet-up finally nothing I now became even worse my entire life isn't a calendar so you know I kind of assimilated so say but in the beginning I really really found it very lonely and very depressing because for example if you're in Serbia and you're alone and you go out you can end up with 20 people parting the bar you know you don't need to go out with someone you will always find a person to chat with to have a drink with and hear people go out in groups already established groups so you need to have someone who is going to bring you in and especially because I didn't go to those expat meetups I I didn't have time for something like that and it took me six months to change my mindset basically nothing changed in the Netherlands or in Serbia the change was within me because I was so focused in the beginning of the things that I missed that I was actually missing on the things which I was gaining oh yes so it was just that click you know you're in the same position but you're looking at it from a different angle and the angle was okay what are the things that I was gaining and I actually gained way more than what they lost you know what is super funny about this is so contextual because I am Dutch and I moved to France right so I moved away and I had exactly the same when I am in Amsterdam I go to any bar and I'm basically make friends when I do this in France I say the same thing you said they're going groups didn't know one another so if I go into a group nothing will work so yes I used to work in France and both time in Paris and I absolutely loved it how social they are because every time I would go out I would meet people I think we have different looks but yeah no but this is this is so interesting how different it can be for different people but for me it also took about six months to feel at home right yeah it takes time to adjust and also to realize what is allowed because you know we told the different laws regulations you can't do all the things that you can do for example you can't buy drink on the street which for me was very odd oh really oh that it is banned for the last several years so you will not see those party bikes like in Denmark oh yeah exactly for example for a new year you need to go to the store to buy it whereas you know during the winter in Serbia you have cooked wine cooked rakia and you can just get it you know those silly simple things yeah like imagine that I didn't even know that was possible so we're so different like that but that's cool so we're gonna just jump to another subject because a lot of people know you from the work you do with sitecore and for some reason you are super famous in that world um do you know how that happened did you want that to happen or what what is the story there I actually don't have the real answer if I'm completely honest basically I was I ended up in US has fulfilled just by pure accident we didn't have any more projects I used to work back back in days with as Dale Tridion and basically managers told me hey I wanna try Sitecore and I was lucky enough to be in a company a guy called my daugher and he was one of the cofounders of Adachi user group for sighs car okay and he was coming in and out and talking about organizing things doing the talk speaking and this and that and I just became here since it I want to come to see what it's all about and I want to speak because I'm an extrovert and for me that was so much fun I mean my crystal was a disaster if I'm complete I remember - yeah so it goes but I like meeting people for me it was more about creating the network and the connection I entered in in it without any expectations and what actually got out of it are some very very close friends that they have now okay so it doesn't matter if it's psych or not it's just whatever game on your path yeah it basically it was just pure accident and then what have done I wanted to do more user groups I wanted to meet more people plus I like to travel so I used to do the combinations that would fly in for a day so it just arrived before the user group starts I would do the talk part in the evening and take the first flight back in the morning so that is kinda up in Bulgaria in Poland Denmark several times as well for me I just like doing it and basically blogging I also met some fantastic people who are the organizers of the European conference and they're and then the more you meet people the more you realize how many things can be done you know so many people organize so many things like hackathon now we're actually going to have the global sukoon virtual group because unfortunately we had to cancel the European conference due to the situation with the corona but of course it's important that everyone stays healthy but basically I don't have real answer and you know also what is to be famous you know some people have read my blog post some people know me from Twitter some from slack it's a bit all over the place but I just like helping people out or honestly so you once told me the story that you actually before we started working together that you had your own company can you explain what it was like to start one in the sea the fast success and then what happened after it was liberating and it was one of those things when you find the right people who click with the same mindset with the same idea and it just felt right and in a sense no special for me I was I would say on a cross part of my career basically I hit the wall I got stuck because I wanted to move more towards the business I'm attacked by nature I've been programming since I was 8 or maybe even before that my main my first computer was spectrum if you even remember that was I don't actually it was after Commodore oh it was ok so I had a Commodore I remember this yeah I didn't have that one I had spectrum and I first learned to type and then I learn to write Wow and you know you reach a point in your career that you go no Junior meteors senior you become an architect consultant you do all these kind of things but my personality is more on the business side and I enjoy more communicating with people which is quite funny because it started dealing with the computers because I liked to be in my own little world and not to deal with the rest of the world and now things have shifted and I felt that what I wanted to do was not possible to do within not just the company where I was at you know they were perfectly fine you know great company but we you know there was no click and I realized that if I want to search for a job what I wanted was not the position for which I officially had a title or the official experience for the title so watch this because you weren't allowed to do the stuff you wanted to try out or where you just do good for the group you were too fast or what was it I was one of the remarks actually I got several times is and that was not a compliment by the way that I am too fast ok and then I usually I would get my arrogance reply because sometimes they don't know when to keep my mouth shut is it's the rest Islam but em are they saying this too because I've seen this before where men say to women you're too fast or you are you really want to move too fast was it like a bias kind of thing or you didn't experience it that way I'm not sure was it the bias thing I mean I'm going to admit I'm not an easy person to deal with or to handle I'm Barry's I wouldn't say particularly stubborn but Amador you know I want to get things done and if I get to know as an answer just because I need an explanation so as long as you give me the arguments you know it's fine but if you tell me no just for the sake of a now then that's really not going to cut it but if we talk about the bias I mean of course throughout my career experienced it but I would say the older I am the lesser care I actually don't care about at all and I learn how to turn it into my advantage now it doesn't happen much as often it really depends with which cultures you work with okay you have cultures that are just want used to work with women okay that sounds especially if they're above them but in general everything well several years you know it's been fine there have been now any particular issues and if there are I'm just going to cut it the moment they start I'm not going to allow it less callate because I feel confident enough in my own skin I've been in this field for too long already and one of the dinosaurs that's how sometimes I feel yeah but to go back to the company part so that was one of the reasons why I started I wanted to try something new and basically to be responsible to make decisions consciously and you know if things go wrong you know it was the conscious decision not because someone told me it is something you know we were lucky with the contracts I had a fantastic business partner and it was something spooky how we were thinking alike but also what happened was there was a shift in the market and one thing that we agreed upon was that we would not outsource ourselves because you have plenty of companies could do that and it's something that we don't like to do it's not part of who we are and because the shift to the market is kept and we realized due to the finances it's better to close it down than to continue and not know what will happen in the future but it has been an absolute tremendous experience because I was not even aware of what they need to know you know you entering it with a certain assumptions and then you realize although there is so many things to deal with that you didn't even think of yeah you know I learned hellishly within the last year just by doing that and that is actually helping me to do my job better now because I was in a position not just to be the hands-on but on the business side so I can look at the things now from both views I can look at it from a delivery view from the team side I can also look at it from the business view all right so I have a funny question now let's jump a bit because again never ever have I worn a suit on a YouTube video and I know that you like people to dress up look at yourself you're looking great right now same for me so you're looking dapper Dapper that's a good word so tell me why you think it's so important that people dress up and why don't you like my head okay seriously who wears a baseball cap inside come on okay my sport I can understand but inside I mean I'm not saying that you need to wear off the door ahead but come on baseball cap seriously it's I know I'm dumb my hand gets sweaty just by thinking of it but I'm joking aside it's not that I'm more set of course than there I never say to people how they should dress up obviously should feel comfortable in what they're wearing and to have your own personality but I also think that you shouldn't dress up for the role you do and also for the company you work for or even if it's a client or a partner it doesn't matter I and I know it's something that most developers hate you know everyone wants to you know be in a t-shirt the very relaxed I mean that's all fine but when you come to mating show respect to the perv to the people who actually came there and it's not the same of course it depends in which role you are what type of meetings you have but I witnessed situations where people would come in shorts and flip-flops sorry but that's a big fat no probably you realize you just explained yourself why I'm wearing this hat right because know your audience know who is in front of you what your role is right so you basically explained why I do it I know and I have to admit that you know before I also switch to sneakers jeans and t-shirts because I remember I think it was one of my first user groups that came and I actually came from the client and it was ridiculous because everyone assumed that I was a recruiter oh because you're you dressed up I was dressed up I came in with a shirt blazer skirt high heels you know the entire theater but you know that is not how people actually come to developers communities and you know I would have to say that I switched that just to in a way to be accepted and uh and also it's far easier to run in sneakers and enhance any imagine you ever go to the conference you know you walk so much there would be no way in hell don't be able to walk that long but it's really you know and especially with the work that you and I do the type of job we have so many clients made things work not now but you know flip some flip flops you have to admit it's a bit too much oh no I get that and also people don't realize this but what I'm wearing now I wear way more often than people see me on the outside because you curate kind of what goes on Twitter for example but yeah most of the meetings I have to do with our clients that are global I were this kind of stuff so yeah it's just how you see it so now not for me it was a big impact had my first project when I was sent abroad to work and I was completely clueless you know it was my first paint job two months in an hour sent Paris at wrong places and I arrived I was Tilman my god partial God face you know Martin boots Blahniks five different colors in my hair you know almost rainbow hair everything was there and I arrived to the corporate office with Parisian chic I was out lately nothing more on and it was not that you know it's not about individuality I felt so that I'm disrespecting people who are there and I know that a lot of people can disagree with me that we all should have our own individuality and I agree we should but it needs to be balanced out sure so I was not here though yeah sure now I think it should work if you come from a creative field or something like this but this is a nice bridge to the next one because from things you do wrong sometimes or think you think might be failures you can actually learn a lot right so of course when I look at your profile now that we work together I actually look into it and everything you you do seems to be great but there must be some stuff that you didn't do so well and that taught you to do really well right now do you have some examples of this well those are very kind words thank you and we are a great team yeah it does work we were fast friends that was cool yes yes very fast friends yeah first meeting was we were good yeah I wouldn't say that I have a particular example because it was sense how you define a failure sure what is the definition of failure and unfortunately I'm one of those unfortunate for myself I'm one of those people who has to learn by its own example so I had to get my head up on the wall or through the wall depends how your situation I am but as long as I learned something out of it whether positive or negative I look at it as a successful failure so I wouldn't say that it is a failure as a definition of you know everything fails well maybe maybe consider it like a challenging time that changed you something like that like that's why this question is so hard because people don't want to hear the word failure but that's not what it is right you know a lot of people had to do my personality and to adapt to situation and I was so you're going to a lot because he already got to know me a bit since we were working together but I was way more black-and-white before hmm way more direct than I am now you say that you're not now I love this basically just oh sorry go on compared to who I was now I have mellowed down okay I have I would say that it was more my it's part of growing up I would say you know when you're in your early twenties and for the record I'm permanent 28s stick with it for the rest of my life yes perfect age when you're in your early twenties you know you think that you have all the knowledge of the world you know you're so full of power or I don't know you're driven by the energy or by the success and I think the biggest lesson that I had to learn is when to stop I and it's still something that I balance and I struggle sometimes is to know not not when to say no but I have a tendency to do too much in a sense I'm a workaholic I I don't have nine-to-five type of working I just go till it's done I'm all then and you know when you're in that kind of position you it's you know you can't look and all the things objectively if you have too many things in your mind you need to consult with other people but then you're more prone to errors so I would say learning to recognize my flaws is a person where and all the parts where I have failed you know who hasn't broken production I mean let's not call it failure from that perspective but the thing that for me it was more not not in a sense of the word failure but more learning Who am I as a person and where I'm making mistakes in handling the people I am the people had that's the most important for hate exactly you know we need to accept that even though you know we're techies whose work we work with the technologists we do all the school stuff at the end of the day we work with people you know and that the lesson that took me while to learn it and also to accept that people are different and we need to take into consideration what people are going through you know someone can have a bad day because something privately has happened and we have no idea we just don't know what is happening and it's not I mean if someone wants to share it it's perfectly fine but you know it's more of being aware of that some people might go through something at the current time and not just go into you need to do this you need to do that so based on all this do you have like some sort of motto that you go by like imagine you had like big billboard that you can put on the highway that everybody sees is there something that you can distill all your learnings from and put on that like a message to the people let's say the message is kind of a curse to me at the moment which is not applicable in this situation you will realize why would be get off your screen and get out ahh like I sure it's the opposite of what we do basically yes it's completely what we are doing at the moment and having all virtual drinks and sitting at home but what I'm hope you know what I'm hoping that we might end up you know after this disaster and unfortunately in a special group of people who have been impacted by it is that we're actually going to learn to appreciate what is around us you know we're so focused on you know even if I go you know I commuted to work every day until we were sent to work from home you know I change 6 transportations I commute between Rotterdam attract yeah but everyone is in their screens and I'm going especially nuts now with you know the Bluetooth headphones which you can't see and then you are uncool to people they don't hear it because they're listening to something I feel that we have it become so disconnected from everything and you know to actually wake up we need to lose something and I think we should just spend more time as people because at the end of the day every job that we do it doesn't matter which technology it is and which real it is we work with people yeah I completely agree I think people come first and then we do the rest one last fun question so you are like a total conference goer you speak at them you organize them and I know that every conference gives you stickers what do you do with those stickers I have a different laptop which is my personal one this one that one is start with stickers but I have to admit that in the last two years I haven't put a single sticker on it okay and this is because the aesthetic or you just have so many stickers listen you don't care anymore it's not a thing for me anymore I don't know why I may you know it was always fun you know to get some memorabilia but at one moment I actually realized that I had several bags of memorabilia and it was just you know standing in a closet in a bag and I had no idea what to do with it so actually nowadays I don't take anything for conference because at the end of the day I know I'm not going to use the adjustment make more stuff right I'm a minimalist and also everything that we have here in the house if it doesn't have a purpose it's out nice furniture wise because I just don't want to deal with it okay cool and I guess you deal with projects the same way too right yes but keep it simple exactly listen I don't want to make this one too long so thank you very much I think it's super cool that you came to speak to me today and I think we had a lot of insight so thanks again this is great thanks for having me and now you can get out of your suit be free I will be free