Bianca Louise Urholmen
Company name: Markedspartner
Job title: Frontend Developer
Country: Norway
Working with Umbraco for: 18 months
Cats: Two very big ones - and a tiny one!
Umbraco as a means for extension and growth
Surely, my favourite Umbraco moment must be while working on my fifth or so project, when one day I realized how independent I’ve become.
I absolutely adore working with my colleagues and wouldn’t trade them for the world - but there was something about that moment. This great sense of pride washed over me watching the web project we’d worked on for so long – not only over what we had achieved as a team but what I had brought to the table.
At MarkedsPartner we put a lot of effort into enhancing the editor experience - like making the backoffice closely resemble the frontend side. For example, we give the editor options beyond what grid editors to pick, so that they can be creative with the site layout whilst still sticking to the brand and so forth. It honestly seemed minor in the beginning, but the more I was taught how to give the editor these options, the more I find myself exploring new opportunities for improvement.
Having a customer ask me if we could implement a feature where they could do X, and be able to tell them that I’ve already implemented that as an option is a sure pride boost! In terms of what I'm able to achieve, I’m only really limited by my own knowledge or lack thereof. Or my cats, if I'm working from home. I have very large cats, so there’s not much space for anything else.
Ultimately, if I can imagine it, I can probably implement it.
I don’t usually decide when I take my breaks, my feline secretaries decide them for me.
The start of a community journey
I've had the privilege of working alongside Umbraco MVP Lars-Erik Aabech, who's been an inspiration and mentor to me since I've started with MarkedsPartner.
However, I'm cautious of getting really involved in the community too soon - as I know it will just suck me in. I know that there will be lots to both learn and contribute in the future, but I'm taking it easy for now.
In the meantime, I watch UmbraCoffee now and again to keep myself updated on the goings-on, and I virtually attended Codegarden for the first time this year. I can't wait to attend in person next year!
Some nuggets of wisdom
💡 Getting started is halfway done - give yourself some credit
💡 Try not to overload yourself with challenges - going over the speed limit might get you from A to Z faster but you might also miss something crucial along the way.
💡 Make the time to appreciate how far you’ve come. If you never turn to look where you came from, you might feel as if you haven’t improved at all, but I assure you, every day when you clock out, you’ve already improved in one way or another.
The head of the household, Muskatt, also decides when it’s time to raise the desk and do some standing work. Time varies from 5 minutes to “get-a-dining-chair”.
What the future holds
As I'm just at the start of my journey with Umbraco and the Umbraco Community, I know there's lots of great stuff in the future. I aspire to be the one that people come to for help, reassurance and guidance. After all, what good is my knowledge if it’s only my own?
The Umbraco Community is also an opportunity to share that knowledge, especially on the Forum, and I know that if I ever needed help all I'd need to do is ask. I'm also interested in the Packages community, as MarkedsPartner is often involved with packages as part of extending Umbraco, and I expect that will influence what I do. We love sharing what we do and I'm looking forward to being a part of that.
But if there was one thing I could control in the future, it would be to stop time. I like naps but there are not enough hours in the day to take as many, and as long, naps as I require.
Get to know me better
I lack a bone in one of my hands. I don’t know which, I was very young when we found out. We were trying to predict how tall I would become – I’d like to say it’s very important to be a tall strong viking in Norway but alas it was because I was very disproportionate as a kid and my doctors were concerned that only my head was growing normally. Apparently you can tell with some room for error, how tall you will become by the length of a certain bone in your hand, so we had X-rays to measure it. Not only did they condemn me to a mortal life in a child's body but they could also inform me I was lacking in bones. I’ve always wondered if there’s more than one bone lacking. Did they ever check the left hand? I don’t know.
Oh, you meant social media?
In that case, catch me on LinkedIn.
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