Celebrating Our Staff on International Programmer’s Day
Q&A with Our Chief Technology Officer Matt Powell
Today is International Programmer’s Day, which celebrates the masterminds behind the code— those who turn ideas into reality, make technology seamless, and keep the digital world running smoothly.
Our Chief Technology Officer Matt Powell leads the employees on our tech teams, who work hard every day to create even better products and software for funeral directors like you and the families you serve.
Check out this Q&A with Matt to learn more about him and our team.
As we celebrate International Programmer’s Day, what message would you like to share with our programmers at Tribute Technology?
You're the beating heart of our business. The work you do truly matters. Never forget who we are serving — grieving families — or how important you are!
As a leader in the tech space, which qualities do you think are essential for a successful tech team?
This is an easy one: alignment, teamwork, empowerment and psychological safety. I'm very focused on getting the right talent in the right structure with the right focus and incentives and the right way of working. I see my role largely as org design, way of working design, product vision, and craft mentorship.
What inspired you to join the team at Tribute Technology?
I'm a softie and most interested in building things that add real value to the world. I don't want to build tech that "hacks" dopamine systems to waste peoples' time or distracts them from real life or reduces human connection. I want to build things that improve people's lives — things that make life more interesting, more connected, more fulfilling. I want to do work that matters.
It's hard to imagine something that matters more than helping people say their final goodbyes to their loved ones with dignity and grace in a way that honors their lives. And it’s hard to imagine something that matters more than empowering the funeral and cremation professionals who provide direct care and guidance to families in one of the hardest moments of their lives.
In terms of the technical aspects, it's very exciting to be working on modernizing and integrating well-loved classic systems while bringing to life new solutions that address new areas of need for families, funeral homes, and the broader community. We're doing incredibly interesting work using the latest tools: genAI, events, k8s, etc, etc.
If you’d like to learn more about Matt, check out this article he wrote for American Funeral Director: “Is There a Thing as Too Much Technology?”
