Taster

Dayvid Kayal is Chief Technology Officer at Taster, where he spearheads the tech team. As the first developer to ever join Taster in 2019, Dayvid has witnessed the rapid growth of a company that has its sights set on redefining the very essence of the restaurant experience.Humble team playersPreviously, I was in charge of the data engineering team at a consulting agency called Artefact. In 2019, I was the first engineer to ever join Taster. After a few months, I hired four engineers, and step by step, we managed to grow into a team of 20 engineers and product people today.In terms of hard skills, what we’re looking for really depends on the position. We have front-end engineers, back-end engineers, DevOps, data scientists, and data analysts. In terms of soft skills, I would say that we have something in common across the entire team: we are humble and we really work as a team to realize the collective vision of the company.The road towards gender parityAt Taster, we are redefining the taste and experience of delivery food. We create digital restaurant experiences and are experts in everything related to food delivery. We build tools and software that are used by the kitchens to ensure the best cooking experience, by managers of the kitchens to get an overview of how the business is going, and by customers who order the food in a fun and easy way.We’ve struggled to hire women in tech roles. Right now, it’s around 10%, which is why we’re partnering with several initiatives such as 50inTech to get to the point where we’re 50-50. Right now, we’re educating everyone in the company about unconscious bias, discrimination, and inclusive hiring practices, such as ensuring that out of all shortlisted candidates we have as many women as men. It’s important that everyone is on board and contributing towards this mission.When it comes to hiring, if we have to choose between a man and a woman with very comparable skill levels and job fit, we will prioritize the female candidate. We’re confident that all these small acts, combined, will lead to real change.Hands-on onboardingIt’s really important for the tech team to understand our core business, which is why during the first week of onboarding, new joiners get their hands dirty by visiting a real kitchen to learn about cooking methods, kitchen safety, health and hygiene. We teach them all the processes and tools that we have put in place, and every new joiner has a buddy to help them answer any questions.The onboarding topics lead to the first communicable success for every new joiner. It has been designed to give them their first achievements and confidence for their next topics.SynchronizationThe agile method we use at Taster is called ‘synchronization’, which is all about communicating within and across teams. It’s about sharing achievements and issues, so that everyone within a project, team or expertise can feel supported. On top of that, we have a 360° employee feedback run twice a year for every. It helps ensure that they are on track regarding their career path or ambitions.

“It’s crucial for the tech team to understand the core business”

Dayvid Kayal