Henk is a passionate software engineering leader who specialises in building high-performing teams. By focusing his energy on engineering culture and challenging the 'how' in product development he has been part of numerous startups, helping them scale their engineering teams and seeing their products go live.

Being very deliberate about what he works on, Henk maximises his focus on products that align with his values. This is made particularly easy when a product being built positively impacts the world, specifically Africa, as this is what he values the most. It is with this mindset that he manages his teams as well. He believes the essential part of onboarding an engineer is getting 'buy-in'. He ensures engineering teams know why they are building what they are, and sees to it that what is produced is used by users early on in the process.

Henk doesn't see agile as a project management tool, but rather as a mindset of ensuring that time is always focused on high-impact work. This means bridging the gap between engineering and product, and taking calculated risks where necessary. When the product is tech, the engineering team is the product. There is nothing more frustrating to an engineer than working on a project that never sees the light of day, so it is not only a financial concern when engineers are working on the wrong things but also a cultural one.

Individuals matter to Henk. High-performing teams are individuals who have aligned values and ways of working. Henk believes it is important to celebrate small victories, own mistakes, and constantly improve – both for himself and for his team members. It is for this reason that Henk prefers working with small teams, and gives room for those teams to find what works best for them.

Currently, Henk is the Head of Engineering at Stitch, an exciting payment startup that has seen tremendous growth over the past year. The team is still growing and he is looking forward to seeing the impact Stitch will have in the long and near-term future.

Interests:

ChatGPT! Henk has been playing with this new tool a lot lately as he believes it has the potential of changing how we perform tasks in the future (like how Google did).

Hobby-wise, Henk plays a lot of Padel and five-a-side football with my colleagues. He values competition and is grateful to be able to share that with friends that he works with.

Organization: Stitch

Follow: Stitch blog, LinkedIn