Jimbo: The Developer Who Grew With Evoluted
When James "Jimbo" Thomas walked into Evoluted for the first time on 17th March 2008, the company was nestled inside a small Chesterfield office with just two people. Seventeen years later, Evoluted looks very different.
New leadership, larger offices, dozens of specialists and an impressive roster of clients. Through all of this change, few constants have remained, but one notably, Jimbo. We sat down to hear his story and to learn about his seventeen year history as an integral part of the Evoluted team.
A Job Interview with Robots
Back in 2008, Jimbo had been searching for developer roles, interviewing here and there without success. Then he received an invitation from a small agency called Evoluted. The interview included a quirky technical test - a mini website titled "Holy Shit! Robots!" with missing pieces of code that he had to fill in. He finished the test, shook hands with Ash and Gareth, and went home. Soon after, he was invited back for a second interview and offered the job.
Before accepting, he looked up Evoluted's work and spotted a familiar project. Weebl's Stuff. The wildly popular internet cartoon hub behind Weebl and Bob, Magical Trevor and Badger Badger Badger. For a young developer who had grown up as a fan, it felt like fate.
“When I looked up Evoluted to see what they were about and noticed one of the sites in their portfolio was "Weebl's Stuff" and I was sold straight off the back of that alone. Eventually, a couple of years later, I got to work on that site and that's still a personal feather in my cap!”
Why Jimbo Stayed
By his own admission, Jimbo is a "settler." He does not leap from job to job. He values connection and comfort. Evoluted offered both.
The team grew, friendships formed and the company culture developed around flexibility and trust. Hybrid working, flexible hours, fully funded socials and an office snack cupboard that has achieved near legendary status. These things helped, but for Jimbo, the people mattered most.
“I’ve had such a good rapport with all the people that have come and gone over the years, and so I have gotten so comfortable here, and that's important to me. This job has been a huge part of my life!”
From Three People to a Growing Sheffield Agency
Jimbo has witnessed almost every chapter of Evoluted's journey. When he joined, it was just three people squeezed into a small unit. As projects landed and the team expanded, Evoluted outgrew its space and moved to Sheffield, where numbers continued to climb.
One of the biggest transitions came when founders Ash and Gareth passed the company over to Sam and Giorgio. It was a significant shift in leadership, but for Jimbo it felt like a natural next step in Evoluted's evolution.
A Role That Grew Alongside the Web
Although Jimbo’s role as PHP Web Developer has stayed the same on paper, the industry around him has changed dramatically. The tools are more powerful, workflows more efficient and the expectations of the modern web far higher.
He recalls a time when creating rounded corners required custom graphics. Responsive design did not exist. Mobile browsing was an afterthought. CSS did far less. PHP behaved very differently. Now, the challenge is keeping pace with constant innovation.
“It's hard to ignore how the tech world's come along in the 17+ years I've been here. PHP has come on quite significantly and there's so much we take for granted in today's CSS capabilities which were an absolute chore before. It does mean there's a lot more to learn, but that's what I like! Another big thing of course is the boom in web-connected mobile and tablet devices; going from making sites purely for desktop computers to ones that have to look good and load quickly on mobile gave us a whole lot more to think about!”
Favourite Projects and Toughest Problems
Although Jimbo loves long running projects that feel familiar and comfortable, he does get a real kick out of tackling something completely new. Shopify development has been a recent highlight for him, especially exploring its API and experimenting with GraphQL.
However, not every challenge has been simple.
“We once had a site which had an off-the-shelf SVG editor tool which had been heavily customised by us; it interfaced with a backend so that people could load and save designs, and allowed those designs to be attached to products for sale on the site. They wanted to upgrade this tool to the next version but that version was practically a full rewrite, and it was a nightmare trying to get everything hooked back up, not to mention reapplying the custom tools we'd made to the new editor as well as the interface reskin they wanted.
Javascript is not my day-to-day, so this made it very challenging, but finally getting it all working and looking better than ever was extremely satisfying, plus I learned about something called the Shadow DOM which I never even knew existed.”
Learning Together
Jimbo has worked alongside many people across his 17 years here, and doesn’t pinpoint a single mentor. Instead, he credits the collective. Every colleague who shared advice, solved a problem or suggested a better approach contributed to his growth.
“I couldn't really single any one person out because I've learnt so many things over the years from so many people, from little hints here or there to whole processes.”
Looking Ahead
No one knows exactly what the next five years of development will look like, but Jimbo believes AI will play a major role, although its long term impact is still uncertain. What he does know is that unpredictability can be exciting. New problems, new tools and new opportunities have been the constant rhythm of his career.
Asked what he would tell his younger self, he says: "Seriously, just relax. You are doing fine!" This is the kind of advice that comes from experience, but also reflects something important about Evoluted’s culture:
“I've spent a lot of time in stressful situations at work over the years where I worried far too much about doing the wrong thing, other thinking problems, or simply thinking that I'm not good enough - the support network here is solid and everyone's always happy to help with things you're having problems with.
When something does go wrong there's no blaming, shaming or shouting, just getting down to resolving the issue, followed by genuine hints and help as to how to resolve such a problem yourself, or steps you can take to avoid the situation entirely next time.”
Part of The Furniture (In the best possible way!)
Jimbo once joked that he is "part of the furniture." If that is true, to us he is the good kind. The kind that holds up the room. The kind you rely on without thinking. The kind you would really miss if it were not there.
Seventeen years is a long time in tech. For Jimbo, those years have shaped him, but he has shaped Evoluted, too. A steady hand in a fast moving industry, a quiet expert who has grown with the company, and someone who continues to play a key part in our story.
“Not knowing what's going to happen next is exciting! I've had plenty of new unexpected challenges over the years and I'm always ready to tackle whatever comes up next!”
A huge thank you to Jimbo for his continued hard work, and contributions to the growth and success of Evoluted. We can’t wait to see where he gets to in another 17.
