Personal Details
My name: Willem Prins
I was born in: Castricum (NL), 1983
Where I live: Brandenburg, Germany
Contact me: hi [ at ] willemprins.me
About me
I am a language and music enthusiast and I enjoy running, cycling, swimming, and dancing. In addition to Dutch, I speak English and German fluently.
Professional experience
2018 – 2024: Syde GmbH
Facilitator / Content creator (2023-2024)
In July 2023, I was asked to become Syde’s first in-house facilitator, dedicated to improving processes, coordinating internal projects and leading workshops. In this capacity, I organized and co-hosted three days of hybrid workshops for our annual company offsite and facilitated an engineering leadership meeting.
After this, I supported our company’s rebrand efforts by ensuring a successful relaunch of our marketing website, overseeing content changes and bug fixes as the product owner for syde.com. After the rebrand, I stayed involved with the marketing team as an individual contributor focused on the creation of high-quality content.
Team lead and project manager (2022-2023)
As a development team lead, I was responsible for managing client relationships and overseeing ongoing development on several large-scale web projects. As first point of contact for these clients, I translated their business needs and goals into technical proposals and estimates for new projects and features.
In this role, I led the cross-team development and design effort for a successful relaunch and roll-out of a new editorial experience for SAP’s global news platform, news.sap.com.
WordPress developer (2018-2022)
As an individual contributor in one of Syde’s development teams, I worked on features and maintenance tasks for large WordPress projects for enterprise clients like SAP.
While in this role, I have led and facilitated various initiatives to foster cross-team collaboration and knowledge sharing: a monthly developer meeting, company-wide Improvement Days, a weekly tech meeting with representatives for each team and an internal project library and RFC’s.
2010 – 2018: Freelance web developer, Somtijds
After finishing my studies, I started creating websites for cultural organisations and small businesses, freelancing under the name Somtijds.
Between 2011 and 2014, I initiated and coordinated the development of Wendingen, .
I guided the development of the platform as product owner, collected and edited initial contributions, communicated with partners and potential sponsors and prepared a marketing strategy and a launch event.
The original design and some features have sadly disappeared, but the platform can still be visited at www.amsterdamse-school.nl.
Several of my freelance projects can be found in my portfolio:
- Tandem for Culture (2017)
- Digital archive with Elasticsearch for Amstelodamum – 2016
- Muziek Talent Express, an interactive tool for music education in primary schools – 2012-2016
- Relaunch aejm.org for the Association of European Jewish Museum (AEJM) – 2015
- Platform Wendingen, an online crowdsourcing platform dedicated to the Amsterdamse School architectural style – 2009-2014
Other projects I worked on:
- A poetic word-generator game to promote social media engagement for theatre festival Oerol
- A custom social media gallery for Festival Industriecultuur, which celebrates industrial heritage
- Print design and production for political quarterly magazine Tijd & Taak
Education
2011: MA Cultural History – cum laude
University of Amsterdam (NL)
University of Nottingham (UK): postgraduate courses as an Erasmus student
2007: BA in History
University of Amsterdam (NL): minor in English language and Literature
2002: Secondary Education
VWO Diploma, Jac. P. Thijsse College, Castricum
Other activities
- Internship supervisor for a communication science student researching the online activities of Berlin museums (2015-2016)
- Hosted a session on cultural entrepreneurship and online media for a group of students guided by Léontine Meijer-van Mensch (2016)
- Personal assistant and facilitator for a truly amazing human being (2009-2013)
- Building an interactive timeline using Open Data source materials of early modern Dutch responses to the works of David Hume (2009-2011)
- Mentoring an international group of teenagers on an intercultural sailing project in the Baltic Sea and co-organizing an inclusive summer camp in Corsica (2007-2008)
Skills and experience
Development
- Experienced in PHP, HTML, and CSS
- Proficient with WordPress hooks and APIs
- Intermediate knowledge of JavaScript and React
- Practical experience with server management and Linux/Unix environments
Management and servant leadership
- Team leadership, onboarding and mentoring individual contributors
- Experience leading projects with cross-discipline teams and company-wide initiatives
- Workshop facilitation, coordination and hosting in remote, hybrid, and onsite settings
Marketing and communication
- Experience with content analytics and conversion tracking
- Familiarity with best practices for content accessibility and SEO
- Experience managing relationships with technical and business stakeholders
Content creation and editing
- Writing, proofreading, and editing for blog posts, case studies, technical documentation and research articles
- Experience implementing content review and publishing processes
- Skilled in WordPress site and page editing