How this software engineer turned his passion project into a new customer innovation

German Flores, one of our software engineers, is super excited about a side project he’s continuing to develop. Learn more about German and why Intuit's Global Engineering Days are special to him.

German Flores, an Intuit software engineer smiles for the camera against a white background
German Flores, an Intuit software engineer smiles for the camera against a white background

Each year at Intuit, we host Global Engineering Days (GED), a company event where technologists team up to solve customer problems, whether internal or external. It’s an opportunity to focus on an area of passion: a bug to fix, a feature to add, a tool that needs integration, or a flow that requires some attention. The goal of GED is for all technologists to choose their own coding mission while creating production-ready code that can be shipped at the end of the week. 

As part of this year’s Intuit Global Engineering Days, German Flores—one of our software engineers—is super excited about a side project he’s continuing to develop. Learn more about German and why Global Engineering Days are special to him.

What I’m doing today

I’m part of a team maintaining the QuickBooks Self-Employed iOS app. As a software engineer, I work with designers and managers to plan delivery and implementation of new features, add different kinds of tests to the app, solve bugs, and provide feedback and estimates for a project’s timeline.

I create fantastic solutions with Intuit, while still being my true self. I love how friendly, compassionate, and fun everyone is, and even though I work remotely and haven’t met my teammates in person, we’re like family.

What I’m creating for the future

As phones grow in their capabilities, so do the opportunities for innovating our products. That’s why I can’t wait for Global Engineering Days (GED), so I can work on my latest passion project.

Global engineering kickoff in our Mountain View office

Last year’s GED has been my favorite so far. I started developing iOS widgets for the QuickBooks app. It lets users see relevant data on their home screen and get quick insights without having to take time to navigate through the app. This year, I plan to continue working on my widgets. I also want to modify the way our team makes widgets so our setup procedures are already in place—allowing us to dive right into development.

Collaborating on projects with other engineers during GED, and seeing what they bring to fruition, is so much fun. One of my teammates added a search feature for QuickBooks mobile to allow users to find their transactions faster. It seems like a small thing, but this is huge for our users. Our ideas start out as passion projects, but they often turn into something so beneficial for our customers.

What do I love most about GED? That Intuit empowers us to be innovators. I haven’t heard of many other companies that do something like GED, and it’s gratifying to use our skills and creativity beyond what we thought would be possible.

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When you join our technology teams, you’ll have the freedom to experiment with your boldest ideas. See all of our career opportunities at Intuit.com/careers.

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