The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

Who are you, and what do you do?
Paul Middlin, Lead Developer on Camtasia:mac

How did you find out about TechSmith?
Mike Malinak had found the company in 2002, while we were in grad school. Said it was a fantastic place. There were about 40 people here at the time. At first I took his ravings with a grain of salt, but when Tony Lambert was equally impressed, I sought out an interview!

What do you like most about working at TechSmith?
We really do have an entire company focused on building and creating useful things. Everything is pushing towards that goal, so as a developer, I feel fully supported and given the tools needed to make that happen.

What setup (hardware + software) are you using?
Mac Pro, working hard with 8 cores, 12gig ram, and an SSD, displayed on an 27" LED Cinema display. Ready to compile.

What was the most interesting thing you've seen and/or done while at TechSmith?
It's not every day that you write a musical about pair programming.

What is a trick that you do all the time that you think not very many people know about?
Get a hotkey for reformatting your code. It'll save your sanity!

Explain how a feature goes from conception to completion on your team
We rely pretty heavily on Dan Latterner's impressive design and workflow skills, and get a pretty good idea where it needs to end up. But, iteration is your friend, especially after some user testing. Most the team watches these and we brainstorm solutions and tweaks together. We've been using task cards and trying to share each feature as much as we can to spread code knowledge.

Explain how your role as a lead developer differs from a regular developer
More meetings ;) Really though I try to represent the technical side of the product in the business team, or core team. I try to help identify areas of growth for fellow devs and do what I can to open doors. I keep an eye on the whole product in order to connect people and look for patterns in what we're working on, to keep us moving forward as fast and as well as possible!

Is there anything else you think people should know about being a developer at TechSmith?
Read that core traits thing on the wiki. We really mean those things. That really is how you rock it as a developer here.