About author

Trevor Hunter

I am a leader and coach with a knack for technology. I’m a Chief Technology Officer, a mountain biker, a husband and a Dad. My curiosity to understand out how things work and my desire to use that understanding to help others are the things I hope my kids inherit from me.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein

I started BinaryRefinery as a way for me to bring my infectious curiosity and useful experience to a wider variety of situations. I have a talent to absorb many threads of noisy information and act to create a signal that teams can act on. I try to quickly start making sense of most situations and rapidly become a trusted advisor.

I am currently the Chief Technology Officer of Rakuten Kobo. Here I lead the Research & Development organization where our mission is to deliver the best devices and the best services for our readers. We innovate, create partnerships, and deliver software, hardware, and services to millions of users worldwide.

Author's posts

The RavenDB logo.

RavenDB

I discuss how we tested and adopted RavenDB at Rakuten Kobo, comparing it to Couchbase and MongoDB.

A man and a woman looking at a software design diagram on a transparent screen

How to do a POC instead of a design

We to do up-front design because it we think it is hard to change code. What should we do when it’s easy to change and deploy new code?

A woman performing a flying martial arts kick that showcases agility, decisiveness, and velocity.

Agile Fundamentals

To me, agile isn’t a process or methodology. Its a set of fundamental principles put into practice. Here are my fundamentals.

A visual of warped lights signalling fast movement or high velocity.

Redefining Velocity

In agile circles, measuring velocity is usually frowned upon. Here’s a way to use it for good.

A photo of colourful graffiti depicting Albert Einstein overlaid with the word "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."

Curiosity

In my author profile, I describe myself as “curious”. Here are a few of those ways that curiosity drives me to be better.

A stock photo of a female manager displaying casual confidence by pointing her hand like a gun.

Competence vs. Confidence

Today, a friend told me they were worried they wouldn’t be promoted because they lacked confidence in a technology. I explained how I value competence over confidence.

Blocks of wood that spell "If not now when"

Important Priorities

When we feel busy, some of us usually reach for a pen and write down our priorities for the upcoming week. We have an intention that we tackle that list from top to bottom, but we never do. Why is that?

A scene from Pixar's "Inside Out" that shows a pink elephant and two characters sorting through blocks labelled "facts" and "opinions"

Hello World

Here’s a bit of meta info about what we’re doing here.

A photograph of a sunrise over a busy road

Distributed Workforces

One day, I’d like to go to work in the place I choose to live, not lose time commuting to a central office.