Quickfire Round

We started with a few light-hearted questions to get to know Lydia better.

Favourite beverage:

“If I’m really treating myself, a Fanta — but usually it’s sparkling water.”

Pets:

“Love them! I’d have a whole farm if I could.”

Desert island disc:

“That’s a tough one! At the moment I’m loving ‘You Can’t’ by Justin Bieber. I also like Drake and Dave — I’m into pop and R&B.”

Superpower for a day:

“I’d love to breathe underwater. Or fly — it’s got to be one of those two!”

Go-to feel-good movie:

“Finding Nemo! It’s easy to watch and genuinely funny. I also love the Minions.”

From Discovery to Delivery

Lydia’s day-to-day is anything but predictable. Her role covers the full sales cycle — from managing discovery calls and qualifying leads to closing deals and handing projects to the delivery team.
She’s also a key player in Zahara’s partner strategy.

“I work with a range of partners — from accountants and ERP resellers to e-commerce platforms and reporting tools,” Lydia explains. “It’s about maintaining those relationships, finding new ones, and identifying opportunities that help both sides grow.”

When she’s not building relationships, Lydia spends time making sure every lead from Zahara’s website, outreach, and trials is tracked, followed up, and reported on. It’s a fast-paced, multifaceted role that keeps her constantly moving.

What Makes a Great Salesperson?

For Lydia, success in sales isn’t about a single big win — it’s about curiosity and resilience.

“I’ve always been curious by nature,” she says. “That curiosity helps me understand what customers really need — their challenges, their priorities, and how Zahara can genuinely help.”

She also admits that tenacity is essential. Sales can be tough, and rejection comes with the territory.

“You need to be thick-skinned. You’ll hear ‘no’ a lot, but you have to pick yourself up and keep going.”

Lessons From Hospitality

Before joining Zahara, Lydia spent years working in hospitality — from nightclubs and casinos to fine dining restaurants. The experience taught her invaluable lessons about people, patience, and hard work.

“You deal with every kind of customer in hospitality. It teaches you people skills, resilience, and the value of graft — especially during those 14-hour shifts!”

That background in service has translated well into sales, where understanding human behaviour and keeping your composure under pressure are everyday essentials.

Staying Sharp and Learning Every Day

Lydia believes continuous learning is key to staying effective in sales.
She keeps up with market changes, listens to podcasts, joins webinars, and makes a point of understanding each client’s unique needs.

“Every industry Zahara works with is different,” she says. “The nuances matter — from how they process invoices to the systems they rely on. Knowing that detail helps me tailor how we position Zahara.”

Advice for Aspiring Sales Professionals

When asked what advice she’d give to someone starting out in sales, Lydia doesn’t hesitate.

“Be open to learning and adapting. Don’t get stuck on one process or think there’s a single right way to sell. Every client and every situation is different.”

Adaptability, she says, separates good salespeople from great ones.

What Drives Lydia at Zahara

For Lydia, motivation comes from challenge, collaboration, and belief in the product.

“I love having my finger in different pots. I’ve also got a great working relationship with Jonathan (Zahara’s COO), which makes things flow. And I genuinely believe Zahara is a brilliant system — it’s just about talking about it in the right way.”

She’s excited by Zahara’s potential and committed to helping more businesses discover its value in a crowded marketplace.

Professional Pride

When reflecting on her proudest moments, Lydia mentions her first corporate role — a big leap from her hospitality days.

“My first nine-to-five was with Web Expenses. It was tough at first, but I stuck at it and adapted. I’ve always been determined to make things work.”

That same grit has followed her to Zahara, especially in her partner work, where building strong, lasting relationships takes time and patience.

Beyond the Office: Sharks, Adventure, and the Open Water

Away from work, Lydia’s passions take her below the surface — literally.

“I’m obsessed with sharks! I’ve got my diving licence, a shark calendar on my desk, and one day I want to swim with reef sharks.”

She’s also a self-confessed daredevil who loves snorkelling, travelling, and embracing adventure — including a childhood stint at school in Australia.

Final Thoughts

Lydia’s story reflects the spirit of Zahara — curious, committed, and always ready for the next challenge.
Her mix of people skills, determination, and genuine passion for connecting with customers makes her an essential part of Zahara’s growth story.

The post Zahara Insights Interview with Lydia Hartles appeared first on Zahara Accounts Payable Automation Software.

Quick-fire Round

Q: Sweet or savoury?
A: Savoury. If I can skip dessert and get an extra starter, that’s the route I’ll go down.

Q: Cinema or Netflix at home?
A: Cinema, 100%. You just can’t beat the experience.

Q: Your all-time favourite film?
A: Heat by Michael Mann. It stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Val Kilmer. My dad introduced me to it and it’s become my most re-watched film.

Q: Best meal you’ve ever had?
A: At Nobu in Mayfair, London. Incredible food, great service, and unforgettable oysters.

Q: Superpower for a day?
A: Teleportation. Think of all the time saved on travel!

Career & Design

Q: Did you go to university, and what did you study?
A: Yes, I studied Computer Games Design at the University of Gloucestershire. It was a great mix of creativity, problem-solving, and learning new tech.

Q: How did your degree shape your current path?
A: I didn’t end up in the games industry, but the skills transferred well into UX design. Both aim to guide users through complex systems in a natural way.

Q: How did you first get into UX design?
A: It was a happy accident. I graduated in 2020 during COVID, which made job hunting tough. I joined Zahara in the support team and was trained as a UX Designer by our Head of Product.

Q: Who or what inspires your design thinking?
A: Feedback from users, sales, and support teams. It bridges the gap between design intentions and real experiences.

Q: What part of the UX process do you enjoy most?
A: The design iteration phase. Collaborating with stakeholders and refining designs until they’re both functional and genuinely useful.

Q: Can you share a design problem you’ve solved recently?
A: Users often got stuck when buttons were disabled with no explanation. I mapped out the conditions and explored ways to show that info directly in the product.

Design Trends & Advice

Q: What’s one UX trend you love and one you’d like to see disappear?
A: I love dark mode. I’d like to see overly complex “immersive” scrolling designs disappear — they’re resource-heavy and not user-friendly.

Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in UX design today?
A: Immerse yourself in design. Read books, follow design leaders, and engage with the community. Stay up to date but take advice with a pinch of salt.

Q: You recently earned a certification with Smashing Magazine — can you tell us about that?
A: Yes, it was a course on measuring design success by Vitaly Friedman. It helped me learn how to evaluate whether designs genuinely improve user experience.

Fun Facts

Q: What’s something about you that might surprise your colleagues?
A: I log every film I watch. This year alone, I’ve watched over 111 films so far.

• Link “Zahara” to your About Page or Features Page: Zahara AP Automation features
• Where “user-friendly experiences” is mentioned, link to: Accounts Payable automation software
• For “support team” reference, link to: Invoice processing

The post Meet Tom Northeast: UX Designer at Zahara appeared first on Zahara Accounts Payable Automation Software.

By Martin Peirce, CEO, Zahara.

Introduction

I’ve always been a frustrated programmer. Capable enough to do a lot of techie bits, not capable enough to actually code. I’m in awe of my development team. They can convert requests into code while thinking about scale, the implications, the gotchas.

But AI changed everything, likely forever. Now, with vibe coding, an unaccomplished programmer like myself can convert ideas into applications, and ones that really work…

So far this year I have written three mobile apps – including Zahara Go, so blame me if you don’t like it – a complete back-end system we now run Zahara on, a supplier portal, and a whole spread of customer tools.

I started off asking ChatGPT to code for a particular task. “Hey Chat, I’m looking to create a list view connected to this SQL table, can you give me the code for the back and front end please.” (Always be polite to AI is my recommendation). Then – and this is where the ‘vibe’ comes from – I might say “Can we add a button at the top, make it our blue #2a68ec and have that pop up a new modal.”

You start to think, that will be nice, let’s add that, or tinker with this. No more scratched heads or sweated brows attempting to figure where you mistyped your application code. Just pure, instinctive building.

This method taught me the basics and I started to understand how the code fits together. But it had its limitations. Bugs were slow to fix copying and pasting between my code editor and ChatGPT, and the larger the file got the harder it was to understand where the issues lay. Then things changed again. People started talking about Cursor and Claude and well, quite frankly they’re amazing. Now I code with context.

Cursor shows me the entire file structure and how the project fits together. When I ask for something new, I just sit back as it creates files, edits existing ones, fixes its own code and then congratulates itself, usually with “Perfect…”

So, what do my development team think of me creating things like mobile apps? Well, the great news here is that they are on-side. They recognise they too will be able to do more. And quite frankly the faster we do things, the better chance we have of delighting our customers. Our mobile app was long overdue a re-write and, with the next eighteen months already mapped out, no one in-house had the time.

Vibe coding is a threat and an opportunity. The businessman in me sees the opportunity – I can write stuff that no one else in the team has time to do, and as a creative, it’s as enjoyable as crafting something out of wood (one of my hobbies) or tinkering with an old motorbike. It ticks a lot of boxes. But the threat is this: We have already canned Calendly and Zoho CRM, and have our sights on countless other pieces of software that will be absorbed into our in-house system, The Bridge.

Would we give Xero the boot? Here’s the kicker (excuse the pun): Absolutely not. How about HubSpot? Nope. Definitely not. Why? Because they add value – a lot of it. And I think this is the takeaway point for anyone in the software business today. You better make it valuable. Better yet, it should be valuable and meet a lot of needs.

We think Zahara does exactly that. It’s far from a one-trick pony like, say, Calendly. As a result I would hope our customers see the value and don’t think “Let’s write our own”. I can assure anyone reading this, it can’t be done over a weekend. Could you write a simple purchase order generator quickly? Yes. Absolutely. You could vibe that pretty easily and get it hosted on Azure or AWS. But the value comes when you apply a number of business functions into one application and provide a beautiful user experience. Then paying, say, £150 a month for an application that in our case controls costs, manages suppliers, checks budgets, reads and matches invoices, and updates Xero is pretty good value.

Insights

Insights

Martin Peirce

Founder and CEO

AI, is opening up huge opportunities. It’s not just a buzzword — it’s already helping me work smarter. From writing code to researching ideas or even figuring out the best way to plaster a wall (which is harder than it looks, by the way), I’m seeing firsthand how it can improve how we live and work. And that’s the goal: to make life better.

At Zahara, we’re building software that people genuinely enjoy using. Tools that simplify, save time, and help people focus on what matters most — whether that’s bigger business priorities or simply enjoying a bit more free time at the end of the day.

AI, in particular, is opening up huge opportunities. It’s not just a buzzword — it’s already helping me work smarter. From writing code to researching ideas or even figuring out the best way to plaster a wall (which is harder than it looks, by the way), I’m seeing firsthand how it can improve how we live and work. And that’s the goal: to make life better.

The Xero community we work with are generally what I call “Top-end SME”, scaling fast, and as a result, may not have an in-house development team or expertise to vibe code software. But in the enterprise space, change is afoot. We’ve heard about the big tech companies going all-in on AI and shedding development teams. I’ve also read articles about very large corporations like Klarna removing expensive software like Salesforce (although they seem to have buyers’ remorse). Software subscriptions in the millions of dollars a year may soon be a thing of the past. They might even seem laughable a few years down the line.

Vibe coding has added real value to Zahara without compromising the core product. I think it’s a fabulous opportunity. It also puts us on heightened alert to be the best and to move at pace. It allows us to say yes, a lot more than we once could, and that’s great for customers. As for me, righting the wrongs of my stunted programming career has been an experience I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.  

The post How Vibe coding is changing the face of software appeared first on Zahara Accounts Payable Automation Software.

Interviewer: Oliver Smith, Digital Marketing Manager at Zahara and Jordan Davies, QA Tester at Zahara

Q: Could you introduce yourself—your name, age and position?
Jordan Davies: Hi! I’m Jordan Davies. I’m 27 years old and I work as a Software Quality Assurance Tester here at Zahara.

Q: Quick fire round—coffee or tea?
Jordan: Coffee all the way. Take away my citizenship, but coffee.

Q: Cats or dogs?
Jordan: I actually have both, but right here is my little cat—so I’ll say cats today, just to make her happy.

Q: Emojis—yes or no?
Jordan: 100%. If I’m not using an emoji in a sentence, something’s probably gone wrong.

Q: If you could pick any activity to do at all, what would it be?
Jordan: I’d love to try an adult obstacle-course challenge—think Ninja Warrior style—so you can just be a kid again.

Q: If you could have any superpower for a single day, what would you choose?
Jordan: Flying—but only for a day. After that, I think it’d be too depressing to land and go back to normal. So, mind control for purely nefarious reasons… Hah ha ha.

Q: How did you first get into QA testing—was it planned or a happy accident?
Jordan: Totally a happy accident. I graduated in 2d animation and even dabbled in game development, but then I moved back to the city of Bath and browsed Indeed for “software jobs.” One QA tester role said “no experience needed,” so I applied without really knowing what QA was. I didn’t get that first job, but they kept my details—and about a year later they emailed me saying a position had opened up. No second interview was needed, so I jumped at the chance!

Q: You’ve worked remotely in other countries—where did you go?
Jordan: Most recently, I worked from Lisbon, Portugal, and I also spent a week working in Italy.

Q: What was day-to-day remote working like, and how did being abroad affect you?
Jordan: Day-to-day, the work itself didn’t change much—I’m used to remote days in the UK. But the change of scenery made me much happier. Evenings and weekends broke up the routine, and everything felt more “temporary” and freeing—you still have to cook and clean, but you’re just enjoying being somewhere new.

Q: Did you have a favourite local dish?
Jordan: I’m not the biggest fan of Portuguese food overall, but I fell in love with the Francesinha: a sandwich stacked with layers of cheese and meat (mine was vegetarian), doused in a beer-tomato sauce, and topped with a fried egg. So hearty and delicious. And, of course, the pastel de nata was a must.

Q: How do you stay focused and connected when you’re not in the office?
Jordan: Discipline is key. I put on headphones, play some music low, and narrow my vision—blinkers on, really—so I don’t get distracted. That’s how I lock in.

Q: What was the biggest challenge or surprise working remotely abroad?
Jordan: Noise and distractions. In Lisbon I stayed in shared accommodation, so there was always chatter in the kitchen or dogs barking outside. And the heat—it was sweltering. It wasn’t the country itself, but just being somewhere unfamiliar threw me some curveballs.

Q: Is there a tool or gadget you wouldn’t live without on the road?
Jordan: My wireless mouse—I can’t go back to a trackpad—and I always carry a little back-massager. It’s a lifesaver when you’re hunched over a laptop all day.

Q: What’s something about you that would surprise your coworkers?
Jordan: People are usually surprised when I mention that I lived in New Zealand for three years. I’m also a fully qualified personal trainer—something that tends to catch people off guard!

Q: What advice would you give to someone just starting out in QA testing today?
Jordan: Always keep your network tab open. When errors pop up, you might not know how to recreate them otherwise. Pressing F12 brings up stats, and anytime there’s an error, it’ll appear there in red. It only tracks from when you open it, though, so keep it open.

Also, don’t get too excited about finding your first bug—I remember that feeling of excitement, but it does get less thrilling over time. Finally, embrace making mistakes and breaking things. You’re trying to break things intentionally so that once they’re fixed, no one else can. Be destructive—it’s part of the job!

Thanks so much, Jordan, for sharing your story—and thanks to everyone for reading Zahara Insights. Stay tuned for more conversations with the people behind our products!

The post Zahara Insights: A Conversation with Jordan Davies appeared first on Zahara Accounts Payable Automation Software.