Veronika Zwickenpflug works in software development at the Munich startup Accurate. Veronika works on the advanced development of the software program Crowd:it. She does so by developing new features, providing customer support and working on research projects to keep the simulation software innovative over the long term.
Munich Startup: What does your morning routine look like?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, developer at Accurate: I start my day by ignoring my alarm for a half hour to an hour. My alarm is set to the lowest volume, so that lets me wake up slowly (instead of having a heart attack first thing in the morning). Then I get up and get ready. After that, I make some coffee and clean up the kitchen while it’s brewing. As soon as I have a cup of coffee in my hand, I think about whether I want to eat something or not. No matter what I decide, I sit at the breakfast table for about a half an hour, talk with others, enjoy the peace and quiet or watch something. Then I make my way to the office or go to my home office to get the day off to a relaxed start.
Munich Startup: What is your favorite tool at work?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: As a software developer, I definitely have to say IntelliJ Idea from JetBrains. For all non-developers: it’s a development environment. That means the tool helps us create program coding. I’ve tried out several different development environments, and this one supports our workflow best of all.
Must-haves for Veronika Zwickenpflug: Trello, Telegram and Spotify
Munich Startup: Which three apps are must-haves?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: Must-have apps for me are Trello, Telegram and Spotify. We use Trello in all of our teams to structure and assign tasks and to give a quick overview, for example of the progress that’s been made on the next software release. We use Telegram for quick communication between team members, when we – like now – aren’t sitting in the same room. And the last one is Spotify, since I often listen to music while working on complicated tasks because that improves my concentration.
Munich Startup: What book would you recommend?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: On a professional level, I would recommend “Effective Java” by Joshua Bloch. It summarizes the key areas and best practices of java development. Apart from that, I think it’s difficult to make book recommendations, because every person likes to read different things in their free time.
Munich Startup: What is your favorite kind of meeting?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: I think you need to choose the kind of meeting based on what you want to achieve. Ever since corona and working from home, I’ve become a big fan of standup meetings. We discuss the current state of affairs each morning in a small group. That makes it possible for us to react very quickly and immediately help each other solve problems. You also start the day by seeing your colleagues, which always puts you in a good mood in our team.
Standup meetings for good-mood mornings
Munich Startup: What is your biggest stumbling block in daily business?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: As a computer scientist, obviously too little coffee and too much sunlight. Joking aside, the biggest stumbling block in daily business for me are people in a bad mood. That bad mood affects everyone else, which keeps anyone from being able to work productively and in good spirits. Fortunately, that rarely happens in our team.
Munich Startup: What gives you a boost of motivation at work?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: I’m motivated by any feedback from our software users. Regardless of whether it’s about how much time they’ve saved thanks to a new feature or simply feedback about what could still use some improvement. It just really makes me happy to see that I’m working on something that is of value to others.
Munich Startup: How do you end your workday?
Veronika Zwickenpflug, Accurate: I usually end my workday by checking off my to-do list for the day, writing a new one for the next day and checking my emails one last time. I then say goodbye to everyone at the office or write a short message in our team chat.