### 1. Snowflake acquires Neeva

```cv
tweet
https://twitter.com/Neeva/status/1661469901712945152?s=20
```

### 2. Universal Search

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2F6x0nl9OqozGiH923HZyR%2F4c089539-3204-447d-a7e0-203af6f820ae.gif?alt=media&token=445a3b80-3760-473a-8f92-b6872bdbe99f","id":"4c089539-3204-447d-a7e0-203af6f820ae","width":1200,"height":675,"filename":"IMG_9380.gif","type":"image/gif","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

I worked on the OpenAPI specification, Go server API implementation and the React UI for universal search. This feature allows the user to search data objects from their Snowflake catalog, or listings from the marketplace.

Snowflake

The CEID is Yale's makerspace, serving thousands of students, faculty and collaborators every year. As a Design Fellow, I served our makers with apps, tools and programming to assist them in their creative works. 

### Skills and tools 

* Frontend tech: TypeScript, React, D3, NextJS, Tailwind, Prisma

* Systems tech: Python, Arduino, Raspberry Pi

* Design: Figma, Autodesk Fusion 360

* Hardware: Laser cutter, 3D printer, prototyping techniques

### COVID in wastewater early warning system

At the CEID, I worked with the Peccia Lab to build the Yale COVID Wastewater Tracker. It concluded operations on 1 June 2022. An [archived version is available here](https://covid-wastewater-website.vercel.app/reports). The tracker was built with React, D3 and Recharts.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FyRSerePHceKcYtFD5rAG%2Ff3b1259c-36bd-4c87-9447-54ff9a58bd66.png?alt=media&token=3ff88e36-bc70-478b-a86c-e897869ad747","id":"f3b1259c-36bd-4c87-9447-54ff9a58bd66","width":3790,"height":4568,"filename":"screencapture-covid-wastewater-website-vercel-app-reports-2022-06-07-22_20_57.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":true}]}
```

Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design

Neeva was a fast-paced startup seeking to reimagine search experiences with differentiating features such as personal account search, bookmarking, large language models (LLMs).

I was hired as a frontend engineer to build new, creative experiences for our users. I also did full-stack work.

### **Skills and tools**

* Frontend: TypeScript, React, GraphQL, PNPM, NextJS, Framer Motion, Radix

* Design: Figma, Framer

* Backend: Go, SQL, Scylla, some Python, some K8

### **1. Can we bridge the political divide?**

As part of our mission to give users more control and agency, I worked with a designer and a team of backend engineers to build a new experience: the “news slider” is a meticulously designed control that can let users view news across the political spectrum. We hoped to empower our users and increase their empathy towards one another.

The slider was the result of weeks of prototyping, followed by user testing internally, with our Makers community and prominent journalists, before eventual release slated for Nov 2022.

Here is a video of the near-final experience:

```cv
youtube
{"url":"https://youtu.be/rnaavbEMAfY","width":200,"height":113,"thumbnail":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rnaavbEMAfY/hqdefault.jpg"}
```

In process work:

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2Fb3c3c961-3622-4661-a4b1-fbe291cc37f0.mp4?alt=media&token=e0e7b9f8-85ca-44cf-96a3-a0d09e765b29","id":"b3c3c961-3622-4661-a4b1-fbe291cc37f0","width":1690,"height":1238,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-23 at 01.56.55.mp4","type":"video/mp4","caption":"","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2Fcd1ba7dd-c393-41c2-b4f3-0ec7211c8bb5.mp4?alt=media&token=0ae5e199-ce85-47b8-8322-3e338672e49d","id":"cd1ba7dd-c393-41c2-b4f3-0ec7211c8bb5","width":1152,"height":1100,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-27 at 12.05.19.mp4","type":"video/mp4","caption":"","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2Fa8892a64-f37b-4d55-b3b2-badb4818b615.mp4?alt=media&token=5c43a1d7-bce2-440e-84e9-88ca4a42515a","id":"a8892a64-f37b-4d55-b3b2-badb4818b615","width":1070,"height":1438,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-27 at 12.03.38.mp4","type":"video/mp4","caption":"","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2F107494f1-79dc-4b3a-8c0d-141eac3c1593.mp4?alt=media&token=8bfb008c-5aa7-4599-9bea-0928836b56f0","id":"107494f1-79dc-4b3a-8c0d-141eac3c1593","width":1068,"height":824,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-27 at 12.02.01.mp4","type":"video/mp4","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

Tools used:

* React, Framer Motion

### **2. Redesigning the home page**

I worked with our Head of Design ([@hwi](https://read.cv/hwi)) to create a new homepage, codenamed "Ikea". It was so dubbed because it sought to more effectively communicate Neeva's value proposition with a series of visual building blocks, inspired by successful marketing pages from Amie, Linear and Notion. In 10/2022, the Ikea homepage became the default experience for all traffic.

Screenshots:

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2Fb7e133b1-22b7-45ba-ac72-94fde4a802d6.png?alt=media&token=a6308b85-de1c-464c-a70c-1a071c14a659","id":"b7e133b1-22b7-45ba-ac72-94fde4a802d6","width":1549,"height":3786,"filename":"Neeva-Ad-free-private-search.png","type":"image/png","caption":"The new Ikea-style homepage","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2F5c205273-e8e9-411a-ad4f-117a54be6a4d.png?alt=media&token=2e53b91c-46f7-406f-9761-224b4850d731","id":"5c205273-e8e9-411a-ad4f-117a54be6a4d","width":1834,"height":5185,"filename":"screencapture-neeva-index-2022-07-27-14_36_12 1.png","type":"image/png","caption":"The older homepage","border":false}]}
```

In process work, with numerous iterations:

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2Fee8acb65-6d76-4e30-b396-2303fbf0dcd0.png?alt=media&token=47e6d6d5-a8ea-4208-9c74-cdcb9fccde4d","id":"ee8acb65-6d76-4e30-b396-2303fbf0dcd0","width":3080,"height":2276,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-27 at 11.37.09@2x.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2F189d8d80-a69a-482e-8762-20faa89fa30c.png?alt=media&token=048beb84-de78-49d8-87a4-ff06a5fe5dab","id":"189d8d80-a69a-482e-8762-20faa89fa30c","width":3080,"height":2278,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-27 at 11.37.22@2x.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2F8716ff59-a4cc-4233-aa4a-5dc1ff5b1617.png?alt=media&token=a84d66d8-bded-48c0-a878-a72cfdbd14cc","id":"8716ff59-a4cc-4233-aa4a-5dc1ff5b1617","width":3080,"height":1718,"filename":"CleanShot 2022-10-27 at 11.37.54@2x.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

Tools used:

* Figma, Framer

### **3. Improvements to our Spaces product**

Neeva's Spaces was a bookmarking tool that let you save any search result from the web, via the Neeva website or browser extension. For Q2 2022, I took on a PM-like role, leading a team of mobile engineers, Spaces Makers community moderators and designers to polish our offering and introduce new features. I also took on a full-stack and web engineering role.

I rewrote our drag-drop controller logic using a library called "dnd-kit", which provided a smoother, glitch free experience for our web users (compared to an older implementation using "react-beautiful-dnd", which is no longer maintained).

```cv
youtube
{"url":"https://youtu.be/8r7Bn5ELQRM","width":200,"height":150,"thumbnail":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8r7Bn5ELQRM/hqdefault.jpg"}
```

I improved Lighthouse scores by serving Space item images from Cloudinary CDN. This also improved page load time. I wrote a K8 cron job in Go to backfill existing images. I helped coordinate the mobile team to land the necessary API changes for image proxying on iOS and Android.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2F96de9b8f-c3ec-4742-8bc6-febb21e387d4.png?alt=media&token=eed2277b-cf2e-4a9f-9540-2e5f1f9e05c8","id":"96de9b8f-c3ec-4742-8bc6-febb21e387d4","width":2048,"height":1521,"filename":"fbcac46b-3cf4-4cf9-9237-fd53761c2cc1.png","type":"image/png","caption":"Improved Lighthouse scores","border":false},{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2FjFo4k8RQReQi65ih6mcnwNl1SaU2%2FybDagm7AmlPAeZ8k96TD%2Fb643f4da-5ee6-4836-ac61-798108f40c3c.png?alt=media&token=7d8bd3f4-e1e2-4652-871a-0087d3ac9eeb","id":"b643f4da-5ee6-4836-ac61-798108f40c3c","width":2048,"height":1521,"filename":"0b8bc628-4325-4376-a966-068770972e21.png","type":"image/png","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

Lastly, I sourced feedback from our Spaces Makers community to implement a top requested feature: pinning.

Tools used:

* React, Chrome extensions, Go, Cloudinary

### **4. Improving our web build time**

Improving web build times can be a productivity multiplier for the company by helping frontend engineers iterate much faster. In Q1 2022, frontend build times were extremely high, about 10 minutes on average. Our build system used Webpack. Native build tooling (written in Go, Rust etc.) can provide much faster build times.

I drove an effort to improve build times. By tweaking our Webpack source maps, analyzing the slowest plugins, reducing our dependency on SASS, I cut build times to around 5 minutes.

I also experimented with porting our Webpack setup to Vite for local development, further cutting on first-run page load time.

Tools used:

* PNPM, Webpack, Vite, Esbuild

Neeva

Software Engineer

Pirates of Khadda Market

Coldbrew is a GUI web-app to bring tens of thousands of apps and tools from Homebrew and Homebrew Cask to your Mac.

Coldbrew

We are flooded with stuff on the internet, and we bookmark a lot of it. But why does it feel like everything we save goes into an abyss? Chaos is an ongoing project to rethink how we save and interact with useful information on the internet.

Chaos

Trout was a webhook relay to simplify local development.

Sarim Abbas

2023

2022