Nature really inspires me... its diversity for example. I’m captivated by flowers, so different from one another, in their form, colour and smell. Its greatness also inspires me in its landscapes, ocean and waves…

To think of a technology inspired in Nature in the sense of imitation takes me into the artificial intelligence or machine learning field. Using technology to recreate an activity such as logic or deduction is extraordinary. It’s an area in which I have great interest and admiration for those investigating and developing it.

On the other hand, it may also lead me to think of a technology that recreates a feeling of enlightenment and admiration in me or awe of those who continue to see something new in every flower they (re)see. In that sense, I would choose the internet, or more specifically the world wide web. I consider it truly inspired in nature due to the dynamism, diversity, cooperation it promotes during its usage and by the amazement it causes with the things we discover and that never cease to amaze!

I am currently responsible for the agile delivery of the self-service and e-shop portals at Vodafone Germany. My focus is the management of the various dimensions that delivery implies; managing the client’s business context, the people involved, the risks that can impact our deliveries, the plans we are trying to meet etc. For many of these we have limited degrees of control…

The parallelism between the weather and my job can be established on the following analogy:

An agile team can be compared to a boat crew whose mission (its product) is to cross the Atlantic. Well, for that to be possible, we must place people on-board that have skills in different areas such as navigation, sailing, communication, mechanics, safety and cooking... Throughout their journey, the team is autonomous in what concerns the decisions they must make to sail across the ocean (or deliver their “product”). However, they might need my support to get an updated understanding of the ever-changing weather conditions so that they can decide and act effectively.

Maybe I would choose a bird like the Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis, Northern Goshawk).

The Goshawk has the ability to soar up and see at a distance with great accuracy, I think that’s an important characteristic of my job. On the other hand, they are agile and fast when following their preys and those would also be important tools to complete my tasks, in the sense of being determined, making decisions in an effective manner and attacking problems in a very assertive way.

I would like to create a new type of tree whose fruit is sweet and juicy and that, instead of vitamins, it provides us with good sense. Something like quercus bonus-senso. The tree would be big and strong with lots of leaves, perfect to plant on the side of the road and in gardens because of its shade. The fruit, difficult to describe but very tasty, would be recommended to increase immunity to those who display aggressive, stubborn or ignorant attitudes. If consumed excessively, it could have a collateral effect which would imprint a desire to run the streets and transform the world into a better place, cleaner and fairer for all of Humanity.

Naturally, I’d take a Swiss army knife because it solves most of the known possible problems in the woods, right?

But I would also take a flask to carry water, which is the symbol of life. At best, and in case I didn’t have much to worry about that couldn’t be solved with that swiss army knife, I would take an e-book reader to keep myself entertained and as a way to constantly learn something new (with endless battery and storage).

There are a lot of things invented by humans that fascinate me…

But I would say, art in the first place, representing in realist or abstract ways nature or some aspect of human reality; art as painting, sculpture or photography.

Art is born from human’s need to communicate… I find it interesting to think of the futility and short-life of some works of art and try to imagine what was in the origin of the author’s impulse to create something so “useless” for their existence.

Like I said before, in what concerns nature, I’m an admirer of the diversity of flowers, their form, colours, utility etc. I think that variety is comparable to the unlimited creativity applied to art in its endless forms.