When one of us achieves a personal and professional goal, the whole team celebrates.
This time is Nelson’s turn to shine: meet our OutSystems Champion!
We are here, once again, to boast about our people. This time is Nelson André, who has gone above and beyond for Near Partner and OutSystems. Let us introduce him.
Meet Nelson
Do you know one of those persons that make it fun to login to work on the gloomiest Mondays? Meet Nelson, a developer here at Near Partner, a dear colleague, and a friend. He is also an OutSystems Champion. Although this is absolutely no surprise to us, we couldn’t help but be incredibly proud of his achievements and excited for him and his journey. Outsystems, by the way, is a lowcode platform that speeds up development of enterprise grade apps. It is also the fastest way to get your new project off the ground.
If you are not familiar with the OutSystems Champions Program, let us break it down for you. The Champions Program essentially identifies, recognises, and rewards community leaders, such as Nelson. The program provides a framework for collaboration between community enthusiasts and OutSystems teams. Champions are there to guide and help the whole OutSystems community.
But now, back to Nelson.
Being an OutSystems Champion is, for Nelson, a recognition of the availability he has always shown to all his colleagues, partners, and clients, but also to the contributions in mentoring and coaching to the OutSystems community. And, yes, Nelson is an avid OutSystems enthusiast and a bit of an advocate as well.
For Nelson, becoming a Champion is, in his own words, “one more step” in his “relationship and personal investment with the OutSystems community and technology”. It represents one more step in his career path, towards becoming an OutSystems MVP. One day soon, he might join the ranks of Marcelo Ferreira, a fellow colleague here at Near Partner who reached that rarefied MVP-air only a few experience.
But for the time being, Nelson is busy celebrating:
“More than implementing projects, we aim to be true partners to our clients.”
Nelson has been with Near Partner since 2018 and, during that time, he has both improved as a developer and contributed to a fantastic workplace. We can say that, like with the OutSystems community, Nelson has learned quite a lot, and he has also given back a lot.
When questioned about his work at Near Partner, Nelson says that “more than implementing projects, we aim to be true partners to our clients, to understand their realities and struggles, and to really put ourselves in their shoes.” In the end, the goal is to help clients succeed in whatever their endeavours are.
“Near Partner has a certified, diversified team, with many years of experience in projects across several business areas, geographies and technologies,” Nelson adds, “and we’ve shown that we can tackle any challenge we face.”
For Nelson, the pillars of his and his team’s work, as well as the pillars of the working philosophy at Near Partner are “the pillars of the Agile methodology: Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation”. These core values, although being a part of a project management methodology, are used every day at Near Partner “among teammates, between teams, but also in our relations with clients”.
How is the selection process at the Champions Program?
Curious about the OutSystems Champions Program? Luckily, Nelson is willing to give us a sneak peek into the Champions’ world:
“First, to become a Champion you need to have vast experience in OutSystems and contribute to different areas of the community. Then you should choose an area of focus where you must share knowledge and experience. In my case, is Mentoring Community members to become more mature OutSystems developers, which is something I love to do!”
According to OutSystems, the focus areas are intended to help Champions stand out in their specific contributions, but also allow OutSystems to support them in the best possible way.
“The eligibility criteria will depend on which area of contribution you will be focused on. But range from contributing in Forums, creating components in Forge, organizing events, speaking at events, write technical content and mentoring people across organizations. Once you meet all the requirements, you will be invited to an interview with an OutSystems’ Community Manager. The interview is focused on your interests, motivations, and expectations, as well as to determine why and if you should be selected.”
After the interview, the OutSystems community team will analyse your application and decide whether you will be invited to join the program or not.
“If you are an experienced developer and participative in the community, it is highly likely that you already meet many of these criteria. So, what you waiting for? Take a chance!”
“In my experience, this achievement is another step to grow both personally and professionally within this incredible community that is OutSystems!”
Working at Near Partner
Is Near Partner suited for a Champion? We were considered one of the happiest companies and we are proud to know that it shows.
“Near Partner is a people-centred company. More than having the best professionals–which we absolutely do–we also want to have the best people, and that they are happy here, and can take this to their projects with clients. When you hear that a company is strongly committed to everyone’s personal and professional development, you normally dismiss it as corporate propaganda. But here at Near Partner it is not just talk, it actually means something.”
This is what a fantastic team of talented and brilliant people looks like. If you’d like to know what it feels like to work with an expert team in laid-back environment, reach out. We have a spot for you.
