Luke Charman

London, United Kingdom · ch@rman.io
Mobile all-rounder · Music maker · Product person

Hi, I'm Luke. Apple Design Award–winning technology lead / product manager. I'm a determined, enthusiastic, resourceful and different software developer, with a razor-sharp eye for detail and a constant thirst for crafting rock-solid, beautiful apps and unlocking the talent in others to do the same. I've recently picked up product management and am gradually making the transition to this exciting new role as my career progresses.

I'm a true mobile native, having worked continuously on iOS apps from day one of the App Store through to today. In this time, the app ecosystem has grown exponentially and I've been head-down and hands-on across all aspects of app development, from code to CRM, design to development, QA to ASO, copywriting to customer testing to customer service and beyond.

I've proudly presented the apps I've helped create to Apple and demo'ed them to the public in Apple retail stores. They've been featured in Apple's TV ads, used by artists around the globe, and have been used to entertain thousands at live music performances. And away from the glitz, they've helped people find new music, get where they're going, and put smiles on the faces of their loved ones.

I live and breathe mobile. From beginnings as an audio engineering student who stumbled across a "fun little touch-screen phone" to use for one of my university projects, these little tappable, swipable boxes of joy have changed my life. Mobile is changing all of our lives in infinite, intimate, inimitable ways, and I'm proud and humbled to be a small part of that change.

Want to know more? Get in touch.

Experience

iOS Technology Lead

Photobox Group / Moonpig.com

At Moonpig, I work within the PhotoBox group’s mobile App Factory, working on a range of high-profile, innovative, and profitable mobile products across Moonpig, Photobox, Sticky9 and other brands in an empowered, highly agile, test-driven environment. I initially worked on the Moonpig iOS application, helping to adopt the VIPER architecture across new features while improving my own appreciation for pure test-driven design. In January 2016, I moved across to the PhotoBox app, recently brought in-house, and began the process of modernising a large, legacy code base. All new code is 100% unit-tested and test-driven Swift, again using the VIPER design to best adhere to SOLID principles and promote reusability. I also take an active and participatory interest in areas outside of programming with strong involvement in user experience, UI design, and copywriting, as well as advising other teams in analytics and ASO.

August 2015 - Present

Agile Mobile Developer

Trainline

At trainline (then thetrainline.com), I worked in a feature-based team of eight, helping to create frictionless customer experiences for rail travel throughout the United Kingdom and beyond in a fully product-led, flat-structured iOS team. The bulk of my work there revolved around the application’s innovative mobile ticketing functionality, as well as universal app design, motion design, and fighting hard the corner for Swift adoption, code review and the adoption of agile.

June 2015 - August 2015

Senior iOS Software Engineer

blinkbox Music

Formerly known as We7, blinkbox Music was a successful music streaming service with millions of active users throughout the UK, serving over 30,000,000 audio streams per week. With blinkbox, I spent my days pushing seamless cohesion between visual design, UX and software development, universal accessibility, a wholly customer-focused approach, and innovative, complete feature implementation.
 Over two years, I influenced every corner of the application, worked on ground-up visual re-designs of the entire product, and nurtured countless new features from initial prototypes, iterative and agile designs and implementations, and release. These include finely-honed Sign Up and onboarding experiences, the addition of popular features such as lyrics, in-app rich messaging and push, a robust and modern audio player back-end, and prototyped clients for Apple Watch. I also implemented and championed accessibility and VoiceOver support, as well as taking an active role in contributing towards marketing campaigns and copywriting.


June 2013 - June 2015

Software Developer / Audio Engineer / QA / Transcribe / Copywriter / Customer Support

Agile Partners

My role at Agile was dynamic and involved trans-Atlantic work in all stages of planning, developing, and updating the firm's successful and genre-carving music applications for Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch platforms, including: 'GuitarToolkit'​ (App Store Hall of Fame Inductee). 'TabToolkit'​ (Apple Design Award Winner, 2010). 'AmpKit'​ (New & Noteworthy, in conjunction with Peavey Electronics). 'Lick of the Day' (New & Noteworthy, in conjunction with Guitar World magazine). Our mobile apps were downloaded over 3 million times, with over 1 million paid downloads, putting us in the top 0.1% of all mobile app makers.

June 2009 - June 2013

Owner

Earful

Earful offered a range of services including audio engineering, mobile and desktop application consulting, sound design for television, radio, and video games, and other skills. Operated by a first-class honours degree graduate of the international SAE Institute, the world's largest audio college, with proven experience in the mobile application market including contribution towards an Apple Design Award-winning iPad application in 2010, Earful provided its clients with professional, unique, and dynamic audio solutions.

January 2008 - May 2013

Education

SAE Institute London

BA Recording Arts (First Class Honours)

First Class Honours, subject matter including audio engineering, software engineering, mobile audio, sound design, copyright law, and music publishing / licensing.

2007 - 2009

Shiny Development

Personal Training, iOS Development

iOS Programming and Objective-C Development

2011

Kensington College

Personal Training, C++

I completed additional classes in the C++ programming language to enable me to expand my scope beyond iOS development.

2011

Skills

Programming Languages & Tools
  • Swift
  • Objective-C
  • Ruby
  • Sketch
  • Marvel
  • Abstract
  • Photoshop
  • Zeplin

Workflow
  • True Mobile Native
  • Agile Development & Scrum
  • Cross Functional Teams
  • Prototyping
  • Mobile Strategy
  • Source Control
  • Testing
  • App Store Optimisation
  • Prototyping

Interests

When I'm not writing code, I'm a keen product manager in training. I take an active interest in product development, and love to find fun solutions to customer problems – including my own!

I'm a keen musician and composer, and have performed across the UK in rock and metal bands. I play guitar, bass, drums, piano, and just about anything else I can get my hands on.

I love to cook, and particularly to bake, and love nothing more than to bring a cake in for my team to tuck into while tucking into some development.

I'm a very proud daddy to a daughter born in March of 2019.

Awards

  • Apple Design Award Winner, 2010 (TabToolkit)
  • App Store Hall of Fame, 2010 (GuitarToolkit)
  • App Store – Music #1, 2014 (blinkbox Music)
  • App Store – Travel #1, 2016 (Trainline)

Projects

2018 - Present
2015 - Present
2015 - 2016
2015

blinkbox Music (Removed from the App Store)

2013 - 2015
2010 - 2013
2012 - 2013
2009 - 2013
2008 - 2013
2012 - Present