Team Q&A: Kelsey Kopecky
January 18th, 2024 by Gage Pacifera
Kelsey Kopecky joined Harmonic Northwest as a full-time employee at the end of 2022. Since arriving she has taken the lead on much of the WordPress and Shopify work we do, has wrangled Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager setups and leveled up the user experience on several websites.
She graciously agreed to do a Q&A with me for a blog article.
Gage: Who is Monty the Toad?
Kelsey: He is a smooth-sided toad who is very good at wearing hats.
G: How do you know Monty?
K: I adopted him five years ago. He hangs out by my computer.
G: I believe Monty has an online presence of some sort, right?
K: Yes, he has an instagram! It’s @montythetoad.
G: Do you have any other little friends?
K: I also have a chinchilla named Ludger and a robo dwarf hamster named Bilbo Baggins.
G: How did you get into web development?
K: I started playing around with websites in middle school doing these back-and-forth fantasy writing role-play sites with my friends. I learned the basics of web development: html, css, iframes. I started getting more into it in high school and took programming classes at my school in the early 2000s.
G: What was it that you enjoyed about creating websites back then?
K: I loved doing art and manipulating photos. Being able to take those creations and turn them into an online layout was a lot of fun to me. I loved taking something flat and artistic and making it usable.
G: What do you do at Harmonic Northwest?
K: I do site updates and create new websites mainly on the WordPress platform. I also work in Shopify, React, Next.js and MailChimp.
G: What do you like about working at Harmonic Northwest?
K: It’s a nice relaxing environment where I can work at own pace but still get a lot done. There are lots of opportunities to learn in new areas I normally wouldn’t touch. It’s definitely nice having a work life balance.
G: Before you came to Harmonic Northwest, what were you focused on?
K: Mainly larger clients and a lot of projects focused on homes, real estate and hotels. Moving to Harmonic Northwest where we have a bit more variety and work with clients I can feel good about helping is definitely a plus.
G: Are there any projects you’ve worked on for Harmonic Northwest that you are particularly proud of?
K: The Bothman Construction website—that was a full new WordPress build. The Fort George Brewery Shopify site, too. It was challenging figuring out a solution for their beer club subscription platform. But they were super happy with how it turned out and it was like… success!
G: Anything fun coming up?
K: I’ll be selling art at a chinchilla show.
G: I feel like you need to explain that more.
K: It’s like a dog show but with chinchillas.