About

About Matthijs Kamstra

Engineering Manager | Technical Lead | Product Owner | Senior Software Developer

I help organizations turn ideas into usable, technically solid software.

With 20+ years of experience in software development, innovation and team leadership, I combine creativity with technical excellence. Over the years I moved from graphic design, interactive work and creative technology into frontend, full stack development, technical leadership and product thinking.

These days my work sits at the intersection of engineering leadership, hands-on software development and AI-driven innovation. I lead teams, coach developers, help shape technical strategy and build practical solutions with modern web technology, cloud services and machine learning.

Things I do:

  • engineering management
  • technical leadership
  • product ownership
  • senior software development
  • frontend and full stack development
  • AI and data experimentation
  • Azure AI and cloud innovation
  • developer coaching
  • innovation workshops
  • creative technology
  • author in progress
  • klooier

Specializations:

  • Frontend & Full Stack: Angular, React, TypeScript, Node.js
  • AI & Data: Azure AI services, Computer Vision, OCR, Machine Learning, Microsoft Fabric
  • Leadership: Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Product Owner
  • Delivery: Agile, CI/CD, architecture, MVP and proof-of-concept development
  • Innovation: Design Thinking, creative development and experimentation

What drives me: building software that people actually enjoy using, helping teams grow, and exploring how technology, creativity and playfulness can lead to better products and better ways of working.

Social

You can follow me on my social accounts:

Writing, Articles & Mentions

Hacker in Residence: [mck] // Volume 2: Artist vs. Hacker by Matthijs Kamstra

This is the second installment of the story of the Hacker in Residence project. This project empowers Fonky creative developer, Matthijs to allocate time to making art, motivated by curiosity and creativity rather than by a business objective.

Other People’s Side-Projects 2: Paper Toys by Tanja de Bie

A series of interviews about people and their side-projects. I was the second person interviewed.

Free your mind, occupy your hands

Hacker in Residence: mck by Lydia Kooistra

A series about the Hacker/Artist in Residence: me! It's the first article in a series that will follow me in my journey.

Human after all? by Sean Hangel

We at Fonk have a couple of slack-bots helping us. I wrote most of them.

Bots

I am Grumm: my first papertoy Grumm has its twitter account, it just spits out (cross-stitch) wisdom and random generated images

Pixxel Bot: Based upon an idea from Dave Bollinger, this bot creates little pixel robots

Exhibitions

  • Urban Paper Shows (Los Angeles – Arnhem – Tokyo – Kansas)
  • AMS*DIY Urban Arts Festival (Amsterdam)
  • Sneakerness (Amsterdam)
  • Big Book Festival (Warsaw)
  • Kunstsommer (Arnsberg)
  • SHOVE IT! (Des Moines)

Publications

  • Urban Paper (HOW Books, 2009)
  • Il Love (internet magazine, 2009)
  • Algemeen Dagblad (dutch newspaper, 2009)
  • Luna Magazine (Germany, 2010)
  • Papertoy Monsters (Workman, 2010)
  • Paper Robots (Ullmann Publishing, 2014)
  • Papertoy Glowbots (Workman, 2016)

Presentations

  • engineering leadership
  • AI in software development
  • product thinking
  • technical strategy
  • innovation and experimentation
  • learning and comfort zones
  • being serious about side projects
  • creative coding
  • Haxe
  • papertoys
  • APE: art, playfulness and engineering

Books

I have appeared in books before, and these days I am also working on a few of my own. Slowly, stubbornly and simultaneously.

Urban Paper: 26 Designer Toys to Cut Out and Build by Matt Hawkins

Papertoy Monsters: 50 Cool Papertoys You Can Make Yourself! by Brian Castleforte

Paper Robots: 25 Fantastic Robots You Can Build Yourself! by Nick Knite

Papertoy Glowbots: 46 Glowing Robots You Can Make Yourself! by Brian Castleforte

Bio (by others)

I still find it difficult to write a bio about myself, so I asked others to do it for me...

This way it's more fun!

These bios were written in an earlier chapter of my career, but they still capture something essential about how I work: curious, playful, technical and human.

Great bio by Astrid Poot, the Head of Family & Children familie van fonk:

Grutte Pier was an infamous Frisian rebel leader and pirate, born in 1480. He challenged the established of the era and tried to reclaim justice for the people with fierce dedication. Matthijs is our very own Grutte Pier. He is big, yes he is.

But his Pier-ness shows especially in his brave and chronic playful attitude towards working and making. He hacked our very own bot that helps us prepare lunch and has a fully automatic alter ego on Twitter that is always sharing awkward and funny thoughts with his fans.

Matthijs uses code as a paintbrush, as an artistic tool to achieve creative goals. This – next to his superhero size - makes him a fine partner to work with. Crazy is good, laughing is important, and tech is a human tool.

And one in Dutch, by the Co-founder of Fonk Niels de Keizer:

Matthijs is nieuwsgierig. En zijn nieuwsgierigheid kent geen grenzen. Dat maakt dat hij altijd op de rand leeft van de mogelijkheden. Bots die brood bestellen, robots van papier en 3D printing van mini werelden. Matthijs is de hedendaagse kunstenaar en zijn palet is de technology. Met zijn werk inspireert hij de mensen om zich heen. Hij bouwt aan een mooiere wereld. Hij snapt dat alles begint met een doel, plezier en (samen) iets maken!