Writing on software, systems, and hard-won lessons.
Writing on developer experience, systems thinking, and the mistakes behind both - covering AI workflows, continuous improvement, and the mental models that drive better decisions.
Writing on software, systems, and hard-won lessons.
Writing on developer experience, systems thinking, and the mistakes behind both - covering AI workflows, continuous improvement, and the mental models that drive better decisions.
When I was a kid I wanted to be a doctor because my name is MD Hansen and I wanted MD Hansen MD on my office door. My passion for coding was too strong for that path, but somehow by fate or destiny from 2007 onwards my main focus has been on health tech.
My wife and I moved to Melbourne in 2013 after the Christchurch earthquakes. We weren't planning to stay, just a year then somewhere else, maybe Vancouver. I was contract programming for New Zealand clients and used to keep an eye on job listings to see what skills people were looking for. About 3 months in, I noticed a health tech job at Halaxy. I was surprised how the job requirements were just like reading my own resume! This seemed too good an opportunity to ignore, so I created a new email address yourehired@mattyhansen.com and then applied through their website.
The interview was great, my favourite part was talking about programming with another person IRL instead of the usual WFH. It was literally the first time I had applied for a programming job as an employee. My original plan was to work for 6-12 months and then keep travelling to another country, working remotely. But I stayed. After years of contracting where I would build something, hand it over, and never see what happened next, I finally got to watch the code and user base grow.
My first impression of Halaxy was set before I even started. I asked if I could have my third day off, it was my wedding anniversary. Probably not the best first impression, but I really appreciated the flexibility... and that same flexibility is still there today.
We were working out of a co-working space, which was new for me. In most places I had worked, the CEO was behind a closed door, but with Halaxy I was sitting right next to the founders. That openness made them instantly approachable.
I'd met my wife working in a call centre part-time, so I was comfortable on the phones. I even had a different call centre voice, to make it easier for the other person to understand my accent. It turned out to be the fastest way to really learn how the product worked.
One of my favourites was when someone said the Halaxy website wasn't loading. I asked them to try googling 'Halaxy'... and Google didn't load either. The problem wasn't us, it was their internet!
It didn't take long until the dev team grew, and I thought back to the toughest parts of my own first weeks and tried to make it easier for the next person. I'd worked in places where people guarded knowledge to stay the expert, but I've found the opposite works better. When you share what you know, everyone levels up faster. Seeing that shift from "my code" to "our code" was one of my favourite moments. It felt like the start of the dev team culture we still have today.
There are two core principles that have shaped my entire career.
The first is the idea of marginal gains, which was famously used by the British Olympic cycling team. They figured out that if they improved every tiny thing by just 1%, from nutrition to pillow comfort, the compounded effect would be huge. I apply that to everything: code quality, communication, process improvements. Always looking for the small 1% gains that compound into massive improvements over time.
The second principle was learned the hard way, during 12 years of running my own business. I lived in the unforgiving world of fixed-price contracts. If I estimated too high, I didn't get enough work. If I estimated too low, I'd be working for free just to make rent. That pressure forced me to master the art of ruthless prioritisation, developing an instinct for exactly where to spend time to get the maximum return on investment.
Together, those lessons taught me to focus on what matters and to keep improving, even in the smallest ways. That 1% habit still drives me today, and it's the same mindset that keeps me sharp, one improvement at a time.
I thought I'd stay for 6-12 months. It's been 12 years, and I've still never worked on my wedding anniversary. I'm not saying it's because of Halaxy, but I'm still happily married!
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