Arty Starr

Founder @FlowInsight

I'm a technical founder, software engineer, artist, 2D/3D animator, keynote speaker, author, and PhD student at University of Victoria. My research is in constructing a theory of momentum and flow in software development, and designing tools that help people get in flow and stay in flow more easily. We are teaching workshops on "Flow Journaling", a micro-intention journaling technique, designed to help you get in flow and stay in flow more easily, while adding a little fun to your day with celebrations. I wrote a book called "Idea Flow" (leanpub.com/ideaflow) focused on measuring the "friction" in our experiences as a way to get insights about what to improve, leading to many of the innovations in our tools. We combine art and animation with smart tooling ideas to create solutions that are both practical and fun, and are on a mission to bring back joy to our everyday work.

I also organize virtual unconferences. Last year, we organized Bridges Summit (bridges-summit.org), bringing research and software industry communities together to reframe the conversation around "developer productivity", raising the question of, "What we are aiming for?" to clarify the vision of what it is we want, and create new possibilities for getting there. The conference was so successful, we are now helping clients to organize similar conferences.

We are also pioneering grant-funded projects that reimagine education as a peer learning and dream building community, teaching both 2D/3D art and software coding skills at the same time. Rather than an education system motivated by grades, we are building a platform that allows students to dream and build fun projects, and letting the desire to create and share an experience with the community, motivate the learning. We're looking for collaborators and connections in the creative education space that are open to exploring new paradigms.

FlowInsight is a productivity toolset designed to optimize flow for software teams. Rather than measure the code, we measure the friction in our experiences, and the momentum of developer productivity, to get high quality insights on where to improve. By identifying the biggest friction points across the team, and quantifying the time in hours, we can make smart data-driven decisions to accelerate productivity, and keep our projects in control.