Connecting Systems with the Customer in Mind

For most ParadeSmart ticket buyers, the process was simple: buy your tickets, and they arrive by email. It worked well for ordinary purchases. Then people started buying tickets in larger packs.

Every ticket was still going out by email, and those emails could get so large that tickets were missed. The obvious fix was to make the email handle more. Dove Nelson saw it differently.

"It was a good reminder that sometimes the answer isn't to make the existing solution work harder. You have to step back and look at what would actually make the process easier for the person using it."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

That instinct, to understand how all the pieces connect and then look at the result through the user's eyes, shows up in nearly everything Dove builds at Virgo Development. So does something she was quick to point out when she reviewed an early draft of this piece: none of it happens alone.

Dove is the sixth engineer in our spotlight series. Earlier conversations covered how to scale software without adding more servers with John Leith, how to scope a software project the right way with Izzy Hymas, and why simplicity takes discipline with Ian Anderson. All three show up again in Dove's story.

01 — Where it started

From Early-Morning Lessons to Team Lead

Dove's path into software started with a conversation. A coworker mentioned they had taught themselves to build a basic website, and Dove remembers thinking, "I could do that." She started teaching herself HTML, CSS, and basic JavaScript early in the mornings before work.

"I quickly realized how much I enjoyed being able to be creative while learning something new every day."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

She went on to complete the full-stack development program at Dixie Technical College and stood out in her hiring interview at Virgo. Her move into engineering was planned from the day she was hired. First, a temporary assignment supporting ParadeSmart gave her something many engineers never get: a close-up view of the product, the customers who use it, and the business behind it.

When she moved into engineering, she picked up our stack quickly and grew into owning projects. Today she is a Software Engineer and Team Lead.

02 — Specialty & craft

Making Different Systems Work as One

Dove is at her best on projects where a change in one place can affect several others. One project she's especially proud of is Zion Call Management, where a big part of the work has been integrating with several different property management systems and making them work together within one platform.

"I've had to learn different APIs, troubleshoot unexpected issues, and figure out how to create a consistent experience even when the systems behind it aren't consistent."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

She has taken ownership of a lot of the project and watched it grow over time. She says it has made her a better developer, because the job is bigger than writing code. She has to understand how each system works, how clients use them, and how her decisions affect the people actually using the product.

Why "just connect the systems" is harder than it sounds

Integrations often rely on middleware: software that sits between your systems and helps them talk to each other. (If the term is new, our plain-English explainer on what an API is is a good place to start.) From the outside, it looks like information simply moves from one system to another. Behind the scenes, Dove has to plan for:

• Permissions: who is allowed to see and change which information
• Missing data: fields one system expects and another never sends
• Timeouts: systems that respond slowly, or not at all
• Unexpected responses: every API works a little differently
• Ripple effects: a small change in one system can affect everything connected to it

"The challenge is making all of those systems work together while keeping the experience simple for the user."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

Planning before the first line of code

Dove believes business owners often underestimate how much planning happens before any code is written. Once she understands what a client is trying to accomplish, she works through the change in her head before touching anything:

• Which files, features, and existing implementations could this change affect?
• Does the original request make sense as written?
• Is there a simpler way to reach the same goal?

That up-front thinking avoids unnecessary changes and keeps the project cleaner, which matters a lot when one system is wired into five others. It's the same discipline behind our system integration work, and it's why we walk through how CRM integrations actually work with clients before we build one.

03 — The customer's view

What Changes When You Understand the Customer

Back to those ParadeSmart tickets. Instead of pushing bigger and bigger emails through a process built for smaller orders, Dove worked with John, Izzy, and Jessica to rethink the experience for large purchases. The feature was first built for one of ParadeSmart's Home Builders Association clients, and today it is live and in use:

• Purchasers can access all of their tickets from one place
• They can download, print, or distribute tickets as needed
• Large orders no longer depend on oversized emails reaching the inbox

The same thinking shapes the small details. Dove pays close attention to accessibility and error states, because users won't always use software the way you expect.

"I try to think about what happens when something goes wrong. Does the user understand what happened and what they need to do next?"
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

04 — The team behind the work

No One Builds Alone

When we asked Dove which parts of Zion Call Management she owned and which she built with teammates, she answered by naming them.

• John Leith helped her get her footing when she first took on Zion Call Management, building both her understanding of the project and her confidence
• Izzy Hymas helped with testing
• Ian Anderson took on a few frontend tasks
• On ParadeSmart's ticket access, she built alongside John, Izzy, and Jessica

"Without the support of John, I would have been lost."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

That's the part of Virgo I'm proudest of, and it's easy to miss from the outside. Our engineers each own real projects, but nobody owns them in isolation. Someone who has been there before helps the next person get started. Someone else tests the work. Someone picks up the frontend tasks so the integration work can keep moving. Then the person who was helped turns around and does the same for the next teammate.

Now a Team Lead, Dove offers her colleagues the same respectful help she received. To her, that's a big part of what good engineering looks like:

"A great engineer takes ownership of their work, communicates well with their team, and is willing to ask questions when they don't understand something."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

The habits Dove brings to the team

• Take ownership of your work, including when something goes wrong
• Communicate so teammates aren't guessing
• Ask questions when you don't understand something
• Treat mistakes as fixable. Figure out what went wrong, fix it, and carry the lesson into the next project

She is clear-eyed about mistakes. They're going to happen, and in her experience almost anything is fixable. Those moments are often when you have to be the most creative. The same sense of ownership shows up in how she weighs tradeoffs. Speed and budget matter, and sometimes you have to make tradeoffs to meet a deadline. The key is understanding what you're giving up.

"I would rather build something that is reliable, maintainable, and will continue to meet the client's needs than choose the fastest solution just to get it done."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

05 — Technology, AI & judgment

AI Is a Tool, Not a Substitute for Judgment

AI has had the biggest practical impact on Dove's day-to-day work. She uses it to:

• Troubleshoot issues
• Get up to speed quickly on unfamiliar code
• Research different approaches to a problem
• Speed up repetitive parts of development

But she's firm about where it stops.

"I don't treat AI-generated code as finished code."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

She reviews and understands code before it goes to production, because AI doesn't always have the full context of the application, the business requirements, or potential security concerns. As she puts it, AI should make good people more efficient, not remove the need for experience and human judgment.

Her standard for "done" has grown, too. A feature isn't complete just because it works. It also needs to:

• Work securely
• Handle unexpected input
• Make sure users only reach the information and functionality they should

06 — Advice for business owners

Dove's Advice Before You Spend the First Dollar

If that list sounds familiar, our guide to what to do when your business outgrows off-the-shelf software walks through the options.

Start with a baseline

• Define what has to work from day one, and what can wait
• Describe a fully operational MVP (minimum viable product) built around those essentials
• Get it in front of people sooner, then let real users show you what to build next

It's easy for a project to grow as new ideas come up, but not everything needs to be in the first version. A clear baseline keeps the project focused. (For more on building that first version around what customers actually want, see The Aha Moment.)

07 — Off the clock

Outside the Code

Away from her desk, Dove enjoys staying active, spending time outdoors, and taking on hands-on projects. She enjoys learning new skills, creating things, and figuring out how things work.

"I think I have a good mix of enjoying technical, hands-on work while also needing that creative outlet."
— Dove Nelson, Software Engineer and Team Lead

That's a fitting description of her engineering, too. For Dove, the most satisfying moment in any project is when all the separate pieces of the puzzle finally come together. Whether those pieces are systems or teammates, it's the same work.

08 — Common questions

Quick Answers

09 — Let's talk

Let's Make Your Tools Work Together

If your team spends its days working around your tools instead of with them, organization and collaboration make the difference. Engineers like Dove start by understanding how your systems connect and how your people actually use them. Then we build integrations and custom software around the workflow you need.

Ready to talk it through? Book a Discovery Call with me and the team, or email [email protected].