Our work

Selected work and experience

Software, publishing and data platforms, with a clear account of our role. Client work, products and the founder's earlier experience are identified separately.

Products and publishing

Co-founded by Will Poynter

ResearchWiseAI

Product development and ongoing engineering

A suite of tools for market research, from survey analysis and reporting to text analytics in Excel.

Our contribution: We build and maintain the platform, including its Data Analyzer, PII Scanner and Pulse for Excel. Will co-founded ResearchWiseAI and led its technical architecture from concept to customer delivery.
What this enables: Researchers can analyse survey data, export reports and work with text responses in familiar tools. The PII Scanner processes sensitive text on the user's own device.

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Created by Will Poynter

Word Cloud Plus

SaaS development, billing and hosting

A text analysis and visualisation product with free previews, paid exports and subscriptions.

Our contribution: We develop and host the application, its billing and its supporting blog and guides. Text processing runs in the browser, with controls for phrases, shapes and visual presentation.
What this enables: People can turn text into a configurable word cloud, try it without an account and choose paid features when they need them.

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Research community knowledge base

NewMR

Publishing, content discovery and hosting

A publishing and learning platform bringing together research webinars, recordings, speakers and articles.

Our contribution: We develop and maintain the WordPress publishing platform, search, analytics and hosting, supporting a substantial archive alongside new events and articles.
What this enables: Visitors can discover recordings by topic or speaker, follow upcoming events and find learning resources in one place.

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Client publication

RayPoynter.com

Content migration and hosting

Ray Poynter's free personal blog, covering running, travel and life beyond his research work.

Our contribution: We migrated years of writing onto a modern publishing platform and host the publication alongside the family of NewMR sites.
What this enables: A free personal publication with its archive preserved and a straightforward platform for continued writing.

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Part of ResearchWiseAI

ResearchWiseAI Academy

Learning resources and publishing

Practical learning resources for researchers using AI and ResearchWiseAI tools.

Our contribution: The Academy is part of our ResearchWiseAI platform work, bringing together videos, supporting materials and guidance.
What this enables: Researchers can find learning material alongside the tools they use, connecting product development with education and content delivery.

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Founder portfolio

Will Poynter's portfolio

Website development and hosting

A professional portfolio bringing together experience, projects, publications and talks.

Our contribution: We build and host the site, organising a broad professional history into an accessible public profile.
What this enables: A clear place to explore Will's work, technical background and published material.

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Open-source experience

Public code is part of our engineering experience. These projects were developed through the founder's earlier roles and ResearchWiseAI work.

Founder's previous work at CLOSER

Archivist

Open-source research software

An open-source editor for documenting questionnaires and data using DDI Lifecycle.

Our contribution: Built through Will's work with the CLOSER cohort-studies programme to make structured survey and data documentation easier to create and maintain.
What this enables: Publicly available research software for working with structured metadata, with its source code available to inspect and reuse under its licence.

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ResearchWiseAI open-source work

LangGraph.js DynamoDB checkpoint saver

Open-source integration

A DynamoDB-backed checkpoint saver for LangGraph.js workflows.

Our contribution: An implementation of the checkpoint-saving interface that uses DynamoDB to persist workflow state, developed through Will's ResearchWiseAI work.
What this enables: A reusable component for developers building persistent workflows, published with its source and usage documentation.

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In development

Our own products, with their current stage made explicit.

Our own product

sheffield.rocks

In development

A free community app for Sheffield, bringing together events, clubs, pubs and travel.

Our contribution: We are developing the product and the systems behind its local information and discovery features.
What this enables: Being built to help people find and enjoy more of their city.

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Experience we bring to your project

Previous roles held by our founder, Will Poynter. These organisations are not presented as Porter Valley Tech clients.

Babylon Health

Director of Engineering

2019-2020

Led the Platform Foundation tribe, covering identity, membership, consent and shared business systems. At its peak the organisation included more than 70 people, including 55 engineers.

Tinto

Chief Technology Officer

2020-2022

Led IT, product delivery, architecture, security and compliance for a UK startup connecting mothers, building and running its engineering function.

CLOSER, University College London

Metadata Officer, then Technical Manager

2014-2017

Managed research metadata and led engineering for CLOSER Discovery, a search engine for documentation from UK longitudinal studies. Chaired its Technical Oversight Committee.

Full professional profile

Some work is confidential and is not listed here. References are available on request.