The Ocasta approach — transforming how people work from the inside out

This September, Luke Thompson at Hays Tech is profiling some of the best and brightest technology firms in and around Brighton.

Ocasta is a Brighton-based business that improves processes and efficiencies for employees through apps and technology. It made a particularly bold move recently — while most firms are yet to say when they’ll be back in the office, never mind predict what next year will look like, Ocasta has decided to give up its office and adopt a more flexible working style.

The business has not taken the decision lightly — Ocasta has been established in Brighton for nearly 10 years, and Ben Collier, Founder and Product Lead, is very active in the local tech scene.

I spoke with Daniel van Berzon (Frontend Developer) and Hayley Biggs (Marketing Executive) to find out why they enjoy working at Ocasta, and how the brand’s culture has translated into their new ‘work from anywhere’ initiative.

A smart strategy for success

For Daniel, it’s about who he gets to work with. “People at Ocasta care about the quality of what they’re doing and the needs of the user,” he explains. “There’s a lot less ego and opinion than you get in some places, and a lot more collaboration to come to a solution.”

Hayley agrees. “In terms of the work, I really like the fact that we are given goals and objectives to work to but we are left to decide how we think is best to reach those. There is no micromanagement here and everyone’s opinions are valued when trying to achieve the end result.”

So aside from its people and the type of work Ocasta does, what else makes it special? “There’s a real culture of trust,” answers Daniel. “There’s a flat hierarchy and it’s very collaborative. We have a wide variety of people, but the thing we have in common is that we respect each other.”

“I also feel like I’ve been very supported in terms of having a work/life balance and things I’ve been doing outside of Ocasta, like the talks I do (take a look at his ‘Demystifying Git’ MegaBites talk here). There’s real perceived value here of employees as individuals, as opposed to being just another resource.”

Optimal set-up

Despite being a bit of a trailblazer in the way it has approached remote working, the business has a pretty traditional set-up — there’s a Web team, Server team, Mobile team, Project Management team and a Designer. Daniel thinks he’s worked with everyone across Ocasta at some point in the three years he’s been there. “It’s not a huge business, so everyone knows each other well. Everyone has a line manager who does 121s, but they’re far more about what you need as opposed to what’s expected of you.”

Another trait that characterises Ocasta is that people move across teams quite a lot, so the organisation has a broad set of skills. As Daniel explains, “there’s a Server Engineer who was originally on Android, and we had someone who was an Android Developer who moved across to iOS.” If you want to learn a breadth of technologies, this is the place to do it. “Ben also used to be a Web Developer, which helps!”

As you might expect, there’s a variety of technology in use at Ocasta. “It really depends on the project,” explains Daniel. “We’ve evolved as time has gone on. We try to be cautious with what we bring in, just in terms of being able to support things. For example, the move to React was made a few years ago and involved a lot of thought.”

The Server team tends to work with Node, Go or PHP for WordPress backed sites. There’s also Native iOS and Web apps that talk to an API, and the Web team works mainly with React/Redux and some legacy Backbone. But Ocasta does work with other technologies from time to time — there was a Rails project a while back, for instance, and the team has recently wrapped up a TypeScript project.

Engineering a dream team

When Ocasta hires, it tends to be based on skills rather than experience. “When I joined as a Frontend Developer,” remembers Daniel, “I’d had a lot of experience as a backend and full stack, but not as a sole frontend. I came from full stack monolith server-side rendered stuff, and now I work with SPAs.”

There’s plenty of room for people to improve their skills at Ocasta, too. “For the most part, if you feel there’s something you can bring to a project, you’re given time to learn it,” explains Daniel. “It goes back to the culture of trust — if there’s something you think will be beneficial to a project, you’ll be given the space to pick it up and understand it.”

When it comes to focus, the team tends to work on a split of half bespoke solutions and half internal product development. Ocasta has some huge clients, like Virgin Media and Next, who require dedicated bespoke development time. But there’s definitely been a switch recently to internal product development to help grow the business’ core platform, Oplift.

Ocasta has also started exploring how machine learning can be brought into the platform. As Daniel explains, “there’s a lot of data on what people are doing, so we’re trying to figure out how to get intent from people’s usage patterns.” Exciting stuff.

Innovative working

The biggest change for the business this year, however, is the move to not having a fixed place of work.

“The decision to leave the office behind and adopt a fully flexible working style was a difficult one, but it was done very much in consultation with everyone,” says Hayley. “We were very aware that each person’s circumstances are very different. There’s going to be support for people who can’t or perhaps struggle to work from home,” with resources put aside for them to head into co-working spaces.

Ocasta is still keen to be a Brighton company, though, even if the team doesn’t have a physical office by the seaside. “Most of us live here or near here,” explains Daniel, “and we’re active in the local tech community. Ben’s very involved and has been part of this scene for a while, and I do a lot with Async (a local web tech meetup) and Codebar Brighton. We really don’t want to lose that.”

I’m sure Ocasta won’t be the last firm to let go of its offices — most local engineers I’m speaking with don’t expect to be back on site until the end of the year at the earliest. It’s interesting that Ocasta has taken the plunge already, although after speaking with Daniel and Hayley, it’s clear why — the business trusts its senior management to do right by them, and in turn, the team are given the trust to work independently.

Read more about Ocasta on their website, or reach out to Daniel or Hayley directly.

Luke Thompson is Digital Lead for Hays Tech in Brighton, the leading technology recruiters in Sussex. Have a question for him? Find him on LinkedIn, Twitter or Luke.Thompson@hays.com.