Profile

Jan-Henrik Hempel

Hello, I am Jan-Henrik Hempel.

I work as developer, architect and consultant for web, app and software solutions. With roots in web and software development, I work with a strong conceptual and technical background.

Having 25 years of professional experience in web development and software engineering as well as founding and coordinating development teams brings solid technical knowledge into my work.
At least 15 years of experience as a project and account manager and a master's degree in business administration help me to focus on hard facts like business goals, budget, time to market and productivity.

In the past 12 years I have focused on IT consulting including strategic planning, product management, project management and software architecture for larger companies in international project teams in the area of e-commerce and content publishing.

1996 - 1999

Internet enthusiast, hobby web developer and engaged organiser.

Founding of some online platforms, e.g. the first Berlin online portal „BerlinProjekt“.

Part-time web developer at pixelpark AG, located in Berlin.

1999 - 2001

Producer (team leader) at pixelpark AG, located in Berlin.
Founding and management of a developer team for frontend production of e-commerce projects.

2001 - 2003

Self-employed web developer and technical project manager.
Web development for various online agencies located in Berlin.

Compulsory civilian service at ProSeniore Krankenheim (medical facility), located in Berlin.
Assistant of the Quality Management Representative with involvement in the ISO 9001 certification process.

2003 - 2007

Cooperative studies of business administration at the University of Applied Sciences "Beuth Hochschule für Technik", located in Berlin with international semester at Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia.
Master’s degree in business administration with focus on economic computer science and a thesis on software product and project management.

Web developer and software engineer at form4 GmbH & Co. KG, located in Berlin.
Web and software specification and development including integrations to legacy systems and model driven architecture.

2007 - 2010

Director of the web unit at form4 GmbH & Co. KG, located in Berlin.
Founding and management of the web unit with focus on sales, consulting, account management, project management, project controlling and team building. The unit grew to be the major part of the company.
I’m proud to have played a part in its sustainable growth.

2011 - 2015

Independent IT consultant for globally active enterprises.

Consulting and project management with focus on IT strategy, system analysis, requirement engineering, technical conception and software architecture in national and international projects and teams.

Since 2012 CTO at Poachee including the platform develoment.

2016 - 2018

Founder and managing director, digital consultant, software architect, lead developer, full stack developer, frontend developer and jack of all trades at MOTOR Digital.

MOTOR Digital GmbH & Co. KG was the company spin-off of the small but finest advertising and brand agency MOTOR Kommunikation. MOTOR Digital realised digital solutions with a passion for extraordinary quality.

Being managing director was a great experiece, but stopped me to focus on great client solutions only. To focus more on realising technical excellent projects, I decided to quit running a company and be the techical expert again.

since 2019

Freelance software architect, full stack developer, frontend developer and automation evangelist.

Until summer 2019 software architect at IT4IPM (GEMA) for a complex business application based on REST, Java Spring Boot and Angular.

From summer 2019 I was employed as software architect and technical project manager at Sternwald Systems GmbH.

Since fall 2020 my passion is dedicated to the #bestteamintown at BITGRIP GmbH. I am working as Chief Technical Officer and Technology Coach for the team and our clients.


Web profiles:

Skills

My typical positions in the past were at mid-size and large consulting companies and web software agencies, as well as national and international corporations and organisations.

In my projects I support the scoping, planning, conception, realisation and optimisation of web, app and software solutions through the whole product life cycle. My strength (and passion) is a technical deep dive in all of these roles.


There is often a great idea, a certain need or an unsolved problem. The challenge is to manage the transition towards a solidly planned project without losing the vision.

Within this process, I

  • create, validate, sharpen and consolidate business cases,
  • define the project scope,
  • carry out a requirement analysis,
  • set up the project including planning, prioritisation, definition of phase models and rollout plans,
  • carry out a risk analysis, and
  • evaluate and select technologies and software systems.

Every web and software solution needs specification, which has been carefully thought through. A consistent, solid and extendable concept, comprising all details will create the outstanding difference.

To create concepts and specifications, I

  • specify the requirements,
  • create the functional specifications including wireframes, click dummies and prototypes,
  • formulate acceptance criteria,
  • define the technical specifications including technology and system evaluation, and
  • design the software architecture.

Ideas and concepts are worthless, if they are not realised. Bringing the vision to life and creating an up and running solution is a key factor for generating business value.

To realise client solutions, I

  • carry out technical project management,
  • design the system and software architecture,
  • organise the realisation of prototypes, proof of concept development, complete realisation,
  • integrate the system into new or existing infrastructures e.g. ERP-, CRM-, DMS-integration
  • carry through quality assurance, test planning, automated tests, and
  • produce software documentation and training.

As requirements change all the time, the software solution should be adjusted to the actual needs. Finding out what is needed and what makes the solution even better is an ongoing process.

To measure and optimise, I

  • question, evaluate and refine the scope,
  • plan, develop a concept and realise within the context of existing systems and infrastructures,
  • measure and analyse existing systems for example on performance, conversion, usability, accessibility, code quality,
  • plan regression testing,
  • do user tracking and process monitoring, and
  • refactor or migrate ruinning systems to new technologies.

Technology Skills

The most important technology skill is to be open minded and able to learn new technologies. Because the world is turning - and in software business it's fast - there are always important experiences from the past and passionate skills from the present.


Technologies I love a try to place in projects, if they match the requirements:

Technologies:

  • HTML, semantic markup
  • Javascript
  • GraphQL, REST
  • Responsive
  • Performance
  • CSS, transitions, animations
  • SVG, animations
  • oAuth

Frameworks and Components:

  • NodeJS, Express
  • ReactJS, NextJS
  • GatsbyJS
  • GulpJS
  • Nunjucks
  • LoopBack
  • MongoDB, CouchDB
  • Elasticsearch/Searchkit
  • Docker
  • SCSS/SASS, Tailwind, Bootstrap, Materials

SaaS solutions:

  • Contentful
  • Sanity.io
  • GraphCMS
  • NetlifyCMS
  • Cloudinary
  • Netlify
  • Algolia
  • Stripe
  • AWS
  • Built.io
  • Podio

To summarise technology experiences from a timespan of 25 years is not possible at all - but the following lists will give an impression of my personal technical background.

Frontend:

  • HTML, XHTML, HTML5, …
  • CSS, SCC, SASS, Transitions, Animations, Bootstrap, Materials, …
  • Javascript, React, jQuery, AngularJS, Open Layers, …
  • Responsive, Mobile, Accessibility, …
  • Performance for Delivery, Rendering, Loading, Building, …
  • SEO, SEM, …
  • SVG, Fonts, Icon Fonts, Sprites, …

Backend:

  • Javascript, NodeJS, Express, NextJS, GulpJS, BackboneJS, …
  • Java/J2EE, Spring Boot, MDA, …
  • PHP, Symfony, Zend, …
  • GraphQL, REST, SOAP, XMLRPC, …
  • XML, XSLT, Fop
  • CouchDB, Couchbase, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgresQL, Oracle, ORM, …
  • Elasticsearch, Lucene, SOLR, …

Systems:

  • Contentful, Sanity.io, Podio, NetlifyCMS, TYPO3 CMS, Wordpress, Drupal, eZ, Alfresco, Liferay, …
  • Jekyll, GatsbyJS, Nunjucks, Jade, …
  • Cloudinary, Algolia, Google APIs, …
  • Apache, Nginx, Netlify, AWS, Docker, Jboss, …
  • Varnish, Squid, Memcache, Redis, …
  • Google APIs, Mixpanel, Intercom, Zapier, Atlassian APIs, …
  • Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Wirecard, Fastbill, …

08.2017 - 05.2018 architecture and technical realisation

Online search for the scientific database SPLASH-DB of Max-Planck

Technology Stack:

  • TYPO3 CMS due to a strict client policy.

  • Elasticsearch as strong fulltext search engine.

  • Searchkit (React) for an as-you-type search experience.

  • Open Layers for an interactive data map.

  • Bootstrap with SASS.

  • GulpJS to compile all frontend resources.

  • BackboneJS as menu controller.

  • FullpageJS for a nice entry page.

  • Docker for easy to use development environment.

read more

10.2017 architecture, technical realisation, and documentation

Centralised contact forms for all Bahlsen websites

Technology Stack:

  • Bootstrap in isolated mode.

  • jQuery in strict no-conflict mode.

  • jQuery i18n for custom texts by embedding sites.

  • jQuery validator for a nice webform experience.

  • GulpJS to compile all forms, frontend code and webhook endpoints.

  • Docker to simulate third-party websites, central form service and webhook endpoints.

read more

05.2017 technical realisation

Bombardier ON:TRACK accelerator program website

Technology Stack:

  • Contentful as headless CMS.

  • GulpJS to render the entire website.

  • Nunjucks as template engine.

  • Cloudinary as image transformation and video transcoding engine.

  • Bootstrap with SASS.

  • jQuery for effects and AJAX based webforms.

  • Zapier for webform data transmission.

  • Mailchimp intregration by jQuery webforms and Zapier.

  • Netlify for fast and easy build and CDN hosting.

  • Docker for easy to use development environment.

  • Ghostinspector for automated visual regression tests.

read more

2015 requirement analysis and project management

huGO Checkout: a generic checkout solution for paid content

Technology Stack:

  • LoopBack Framework for a straight REST API architecture.

  • AngularJS as frontend technology.

  • Fastbill for subscriptions management.

  • huGO as ePaper solution.

  • BDD/jBehave for specification and test.

  • Intercom for crm and analysis.

read more

2015 technical support, maintenance, and development

Paid content news magazine NZZ.at

Technology Stack:

  • Wordpress as editors backend.

  • PHP/Javascript for the subscription module.

  • Fastbill for monthly subscriptions and recurring payments.

  • huGO as content hub.

  • Mixpanel for analysis.

  • Intercom as CRM and support solution.

  • Docker for easy to use development environment.

read more

Tech 29. Oct. 2023

Overcoming OCR Challenges: A Deep Dive into Extracting Text from Newspaper Snapshots

In my previous research, I encountered challenges related to extracting text from snapshots of newspaper articles using mobile phones. The primary issues I encountered when using user-friendly OCR software, such as Mac’s Preview, were as follows:

  1. Handling Two-Column Text: Newspaper articles frequently employ a two-column format, which posed a significant challenge for accurate text extraction.

  2. Persistent Hyphens: Hyphens located at the ends of lines remained embedded within the extracted text even after OCR and subsequent text correction, making it especially challenging when dealing with proper names.

For my current research, my objective is to identify a suitable OCR solution that can effectively address these challenges.

read more

Tech 10. Sep. 2019

Next.js: Behaviour of getInitialProps with SSR

Following the tutorials, getInitialProps is meant to work “on both server and the client”, which is totally correct.

Using server-side rendering (SSR) without any enhancements, this leads to a pwa, which is pre-baked for seo crawlers (content within html markup), but still loads content by the api, even if all data is within the rendered page already.

So be aware of implementing some client/server logic, when loading content by api is needed, and when it can be avoided.

read more

Tech 21. Jun. 2019

What I really like to do ...

In general, I am a genaralist. Project management, business management, website creation, design of complex software - it all feels like the same thing from different perspectives.

And somehow it is. It’s about collecting, manipulating, enriching, structuring, publishing and searching content or data.

That’s what I liked about content and document management. It is necessary to automate accounting and tax processes. It is the core of useful intranets as communication platforms. It is essential for task, problem and project management. It is even important in communicating with citizens for our local council.

It is all about content and data streams, flows, processes and channels.

With today’s technologies, I can build small solutions on my own while I’m on the train. Complex and large projects, which require an entire development team, are gladly led and managed by me. Manager and Product Owner I like to advise. I like to share my point of view with visionaries.

To realize amazing web solutions - whether small or really big - and bring them to life. This is my passion.

read more

Tech 16. Feb. 2019

boomerang - a no privacy solution

As looking for scheduling features for G Suite, one of the first hits might be boomerang. The feature set sounds great, but I wondered how they schedule the email sending technically.

Well, they do not explain it, so I did some research within their privacy policy. Let’s see …

Information We Collect Through Providing You With the Boomerang Service As you use the Boomerang Services, we may collect certain information about your Communications. We collect:

Now it starts:

the contents and header information from the Communications you send and receive through the service […] include at least the senders and recipient’s email address, subject line, message size, the date and time […], the system name and IP address […], […] geolocation data from your mobile device, […] information about events in your calendar, such as event titles, attendees, locations, and meeting times. responses from the recipients of your Communications […].

And hey, it’s perfectly expanding your privacy:

This information [..] allows us to analyze the content of your email […].

Tech 22. Jan. 2019

goodby facebook

So, now some new year projects are being completed. Number one: Download data from facebook and close my account. Task done.

Tech 4. May. 2018

The real value of JAMstack

It’s not a secret that I am a fan of JAMstack websites. Like REST - which is basically using the core communication of HTTP - JAMstack is basically about using static websites - with some more around.

Static websites alway were great due to:

  • best possible server side loading performace,
  • best security, and
  • low complexity.

Well, there are some downsides like the question how to manage the content by editors, using dynamic and personalised content and so on.

read more

Tech 20. Mar. 2018

Podio as CMS for a JAMstack website

In context of a collaboration tool evaluation for a client some years ago, I had first contact with Podio. And the most amazing aspect of Podio is the flexible data model. Together with all the other features, that makes Podio the perfect tool for internal data management.

Using Contentful in some web projects and trying out the built.io content stack, the concept felt quite familiar and I decided to have a second look at Podio - now as CMS for websites.

read more

Legal notes

Imprint

Jan-Henrik Hempel
Schlatkow 6, 17390 Schmatzin, Germany
Phone: +49 175 1661003
Email: jan@j2h.com
VAT No.: DE 225921172

Brand

"J2H" is a registred brand of Jan-Henrik Hempel with registration number 30674918 at Deutsche Patent- und Markenamt.

Technology Stack

All contents are written in Markdown format.
The frontend is built based on Bootstrap and jQuery.
Icons are sourced by web fonts Bootstrap Glyphicons and Socicon.
The rendering is done by Jekyll.
Hosting made possible by Netlify.
No web tracking used.

Copyright

All content including text, pictures, media assets and others is owned by Jan-Henrik Hempel. The copying and use of content has to be approved explicitly in written form by Jan-Henrik Hempel.

Privacy Note

The hosting of the website is done by Netlify. By accessing this website Netlify might be able to collect usage data. You can find more details in Netlify’s commitment to protect your data.

This website does not use any web tracking. As well no cookies or similar technologies are used.