Centrica honours Local Heroes innovation
Our team at Local Heroes were pleasantly surprised today when Charles Cameron, Director of Technology, Engineering & Centrica Innovations, paid tribute to our hard work and creativity by presenting us with three separate awards for Technology and Engineering Service.
Head of Local Heroes Mat Moakes, Head of Engineering Rob Anderson and Scrum Master Ben Goode all received awards.
“One of Centrica’s core principles is to foster cutting edge innovations in new and existing markets,” said Charles Cameron, a Centrica Senior Executive. “Local Heroes is one of our best examples of this commitment and we’re delighted to honour the team in charge of this amazing progress.”
"One of Centrica's core principles is to foster cutting edge innovations, Local Heroes is one of our best examples of this."
Charles Cameron presents Rob Anderson, Mat Moakes and Ben Goode with their awards
The award itself:
The 2017 Technology & Engineering Service Awards
Category: Capability building
Entity: Digital & Data Services, Mobile Channel Delivery (UK Home & DTS)
Winner: Local Heroes
The awards form part of Centrica Innovations, an initiative to established to "invest in new technology and ideas that will transform the way we live, work and move"1.
This entry demonstrates how the team developed an internal innovation to Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and took it to market in two months. It is now on its way to becoming the leading on-demand service across Centrica’s markets. Local Heroes is an innovation that matches trusted independent tradespeople to consumers through an online digital platform.
“Local Heroes has been a labour of love for us so it’s great to receive recognition from Centrica for the long days – and sometimes nights! – we’ve spent on first bringing the service to customers and then continually improving the experience,” Mat Moakes, Head of Local Heroes.
"Local Heroes has been a labour of love for us so it’s great to receive recognition"
"It's been an amazing experience working at Local Heroes, getting to build a new service from the ground up,” said Rob Anderson. “Right from the beginning, our biggest challenge has been that we didn't know exactly how, or if, this would work. To be successful, we had to be agile.
“Right from the beginning, our biggest challenge has been that we didn't know exactly how, or if, this would work. To be successful, we had to be agile."
"The product and development teams were integrated right from start, together we pushed over 450 changes to production just in the last year. The roadmap this year too is just as challenging, but I'm sure our growing and capable team is more than up to the task!"
Scrum Master Ben Goode says keeping everyone motivated and moving forward together has been one of the most challenging aspects.
“It’s great to receive this award,” said Ben. “We started as a really small team with everyone wearing several hats to get things done. As we’ve scaled more and more, maintaining the culture has been a challenge but we’ve had fun along the way and are pleased with what we’ve built. The team is great and super passionate about technology and making the platform the best it can be.”
"We’ve had fun along the way and are pleased with what we’ve built. The team is great and super passionate about technology."
Overall, it was proud moment for our team to receive recognition for all our hard work in getting Local Heroes off the ground. We are committed to continuing to grow our service and providing customers and tradespeople with the best possible experience.
