[Build] Contributor interview: Pululu Kinanga André

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An open source community is more than just pull requests made by faceless strangers. In order to better understand the people who contribute time and skills to the PrestaShop project, we’re writing a series of interviews with contributors of all ranges. This week, meet Pululu Kinanga André, one of our great developers on GitHub!

Hi Pululu! First, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am Pululu and I come from Angola. I arrived in France in 2013 for my studies, after graduating in electronics and telecommunications. I have a degree in Management Information System (MIS), software development, and design. I am currently assisting the IT department of a digital agency in their migration and automation strategy. I am also interested in systems administrations (Unix), development, software design, and embedded systems.

If I had to summarize myself in a few words, I would write that I am “a discreet lazy lazybones who works hard and an Eternal admirer of the complexity of simple things”.

When and why did you get involved in contributing to the PrestaShop project?

I started to be interested in the open source philosophy in 2014. I found it was an amazing way to be able to help and share my vision with the world! It is now a conviction that we can all help each other and, together, build powerful and sustainable solutions. And a few years later, I started to interact on StackOverflow.

I had my first contact with the PrestaShop ecosystem in 2016, I was engaged in a work-study program at Alibabike, in La Rochelle. In 2017, I joined the agency123 as a developer and designer, and I made huge progress very quickly because PrestaShop is their area of expertise and their core business.

What motivates you?

In my opinion, the decision to migrate Prestashop to Symfony has divided the community. Many members and contributors were disappointed and discouraged. I believe most of them were afraid of not understanding the new system and therefore losing their expertise.

As for me, it motivated me to contribute because it was a way of saying: guys, come back… this is no big deal, look, it’s very simple! I also wanted to learn and make progress, discuss with the authors of the solution, be credible, and reassure our +200 customers that I master the solution we offer with the agency.

Finally, I think contributing is also a way to thank all of those who have contributed before and to help the software evolve.

Do you have any advice for first-time PrestaShop contributors?

You are not alone! PrestaShop has a rather large community and, likely, other users have already encountered the same problems as you. By contributing, you are helping to improve the solution, and this is an opportunity to share directly with the PrestaShop team.

What’s the number one thing you’ve learnt by contributing to Open Source projects?

I was not alone and there are many ways to look at it!

Thank you Pululu, we hope to see more from you as PrestaShop evolves! :)

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