We recently connected with Morena Fiore and have shared our conversation below.

Morena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

I have worked for about 10 years as web developer in permanent and contract roles and found first hand how hard it is for us developers.

When working for big agencies, we rarely get involved in the early stages discussions about scoping out projects, agreeing deliverables but most of all timelines. Not only the process often involves client managers, designers but not often developers, but I found that estimates not often were crossed checked with developers – who ultimately have to carry out the work.
The work can also often vary, which means as developers we have to quote on new work almost all the time, getting into unknown territory with very little knowledge for specifics.
On top of all this, we are all different and might have completely different speed and skills that would mean that one estimate doesn’t fit all.

Projects often get finalised and start late (lots of red tape in big companies; too many people involved in the decisions), there are often hiccups along the way and during the design process but the deadlines stay the same.

So, by the time the project gets in the hands of the developer, the project is already late, the estimates might not be a realistic fit to the developer taking on the work and it’s too late for any objections for the agreed features that need to be built or agreed deadlines. The developer has to rush the job and it’s always under a huge amount of stress, it’s not a great experience for anyone and surely won’t be the best results; this leads to complaints from clients, would they come back for another project?

As a freelancer I found most liberating to be in charge of estimates. I know a lot can go wrong on a project or that most times, we don’t really know how we can get something done, until we actually try something out before we can be sure of the approach to take. The job is then almost done, but it’s hard to know how long this part would take us and to estimate it beforehand.

There have been so many times in my career where I wish coding was following a set of pre-established historic rules and routes, so that estimating would be easier.
I think this is something not many out there realise and that coding / creating a website can really take a long time and can have lots of unforeseen hiccups.

When providing estimates as a freelancer now, I feel able to be as pessimistic as needed, thinking of a worst scenario when I estimate, letting my clients know and that in the end the work might take less time, but we’ve prepared for the worst in case it happens.

I remember when I used to get asked to give estimates as a developer: they would often get pushed back or shaved. Then problems would arise during the build and there wouldn’t be any contingency for any kinds of things to go wrong.
It’s so important as a developer, ultimately the actual figure building the final project, to have more control over estimates.
This has a huge impact also on mental health, where, knowing that you have covered your back suggesting an estimate for the worst case scenario, you don’t have to feel super under pressure if things don’t go according to plan or if unforeseen issues come up.
Finally, you also will not burn out, trying to get the project over an unrealistic deadline you never agreed to!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Web Development has always been my passion since I was a bored teenager in Southern Italy who started exploring computers during what you might call Siesta time of the day.

Many years after, here I am in the UK – I have worked as a Web Developer professionally since 2008 for all size agencies for clients such as HSBC and Specsavers, as well as early days start-ups.

Today I am the head of a small North London Web development & SEO agency and I help small and medium sizes business with their websites: from audits, to building custom websites, to SEO.
Why I am different
I am not your typical developer! I won’t hide behind the laptop and shy away from client meetings: I am very personable and have developed excellent client-facing skills as well as an ability to discuss and explain technical concepts in a less technical way to any audience.

I believe in empowering my clients, so I teach them how to use their website and I give them full access to their website and hosting.

I also run a product based e-commerce business (I make Jewellery at https://kodes.me.uk) so I also have a good marketing background and I understand what it’s like to run a small business.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

My dad’s best friend convinced my dad to buy a computer in the early 90s. I still thank him to this day, because it has made my career. I was a bored child in Southern Italy, where you can’t really go out after lunch. The city is dead, everyone is eating, sleeping or going back to work after lunch.
So while I waited for better “godly” hours to go and see my friends, I would just spend the time exploring my computer.
I got to know the ins and outs of Microsoft Office (the joy!), but it’s only when Internet arrived in our house that I then started exploring web pages. How were they made? How could I recreate them?
I learned on my own and then took the passion with me to the UK where I did an Access to A level course in Digital Media, because my English was good enough.
I tried to go to University after that to further study Digital Media, while I worked in bars and cafe, but the boss of the pub I worked in cut my hours down massively and stole money from me and other staff members.
I quickly ran out of money and had to drop out of uni.
It took me another 3 years of admin work until the day I was working as a training courses sale administrator and I was liaising with the design and web department, giving them instructions on how to update the website, when I realised I wanted to be on the other side!
I interviewed for an internship at Thomson Reuters as Front End Developer – it was meant for University students, but my mentor told me a few years after, they offered me the job because my passion for the role came across very strongly.
I was so scared to hand in my notice, my boss was super religious and often used 121 meetings to preach to me, but I will never forget her reaction: she said that God had put this dream in me and that I had to follow it!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I am a freelancer now because after about 11 years, I had enough of working in the tech industry. Things have hugely improved, but it has never been a comfortable industry for me. Most developers I worked with were men, strongly opinionated about they way they would do the work, extremely confident (or using confidence as a shield to hide insecurity) and were not at all great communicators.
I am a bubbly passionate woman and I could feel it in the room that everything about me would irritate most people (if not making them feel threatened?).
I am also not a fan of confrontation and as a contractor later on in my career, I enjoyed adapting to the circumstances around me, getting the job done rather than arguing my coding standards and views, but still didn’t appreciate having others’ showed down my throat all the time.
I used to not really be very assertive. I didn’t know how to be assertive and through therapy I started learning about it and started practicing how to.
So on one particular contract I started, I decided to be assertive from day 1. I must have been done a great job, because after a few months, I was moved in a team where HR saw me as the perfect person to “sort things out” (they told me this only months after!).
The team was made of 3 men in their late 40s and 50s – this was a stark contrast with most of the younger colleagues in other teams in their early 20s.
One man had been placed completely in the wrong role. He wanted to learn though and I was happy to share my knowledge.
But the main problem was one of the other 2 men, who was against this (and many other things) and made this man’s life hell.
When I was asked my opinion I defended my colleague and pointed out it’s the other man who is actually causing a lot of trouble.
This man was smart though and never put anything in writing. He would have 121 calls with me (and others individually) and say all sorts of awful things, towards his colleagues and especially the younger ones, but of course there was no proof to expose him.
He bullied me subtly constantly.
He proudly used to say that he lived his life and made each life choice based on his learnings from the book “The Art of War”.
I was shocked, hurt, scared. I had lots of therapy because of this and worked very hard on myself to get through this.
I even had compiled a list called “10 reasons to be compassionate towards Luke” that I would read every morning before I started work.
Then one day I was lucky to have a witness, our project manager, in the call with us, when we had an argument. He was strongly opinionated about how he wanted to get things done, I argued back putting forward the company’s standards instead.
He argued and argued with me, I kept just saying “I don’t agree”, until in the end he said that if I didn’t do as he said, he would delete the code I wrote.
That was the opportunity for me to go straight to HR.
That was the hardest experience I had in my career. The tech industry is broken, allowing intelligent people to roam around bullying decent hard working people only because they’re indispensable.
There is no management around these personalities.
There is no training.
I had enough. But shortly after that incident I was moved to a new team and told my job had been saved and the project in my old team quickly wound down and the offending person disciplined and then made redundant. I gained respect in the company and amongst my colleagues. But nobody was there with me while I was getting bullied every single day, with no way of proving it.
I see it as a personal victory and a story of resilience. But without the support of the therapy I was paying myself, I wouldn’t have been able to stay strong.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://morenafiore.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morenafiore_digital/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morenafiore/