A company culture that’s cohesive and supportive creates a pathway to success for employees of all levels.
At health technology company Big Health, that means embracing what makes people unique. “This cultivates a stimulating cultural dynamic but also diversifies our approach to problem-solving and collaboration,” Product Designer Celia Fong said.
For e-commerce company Shift, a cohesive and supportive culture means working as a team to accomplish a common goal. Product Designer Chije Wangati said that designing a customer experience means ensuring that everyone is working together to produce positive and consistent interactions.
Are you looking to be part of a company that embraces teamwork and support? Built In San Francisco caught up with Fong, Wangati and a few other leaders across the city — whose companies are actively hiring — to hear more about their company’s culture, how they’ve grown into their roles and what projects they’re working on.
What they do: Education technology platform MasterClass enables online learning to anyone in the world by offering content to students anywhere anytime.
MasterClass’ culture in one word: “Empathetic,” Win Raguini, director of engineering, said. “Though there have been countless times my teammates, including managers and executives, have shown empathy in my time here, I believe this extraordinary time has emphasized what virtue actually means at MasterClass. Culture begins with the leaders and more than ever before has our leadership embodied what it means to be empathetic to our teams, our instructors and our members.
“Through this challenging time, MasterClass has been supportive of our employees, instructors and especially our members. In addition, several changes were made to our perk offerings including pay adjustments for at-home internet and phone usage. Our weekly all-hands meetings have also become a space for supporting one another, for uplifting the team with the positive impact we have on the world, and for continuing to show that we are as committed as ever to our mission of unlocking human potential in everyone.”
I believe this extraordinary time has emphasized what virtue actually means at MasterClass.”
How Raguini has grown at MasterClass: “I have been with MasterClass for a little over three-and-a-half years,” Raguini said. “In that time, I’ve experienced accelerated growth, both in my personal and professional pursuits. I started at MasterClass as the first mobile developer working on the client API infrastructure as well as the initial version of the iPhone/iPad app. After two years working as the iOS lead developer and then as an engineering manager, I took the director of engineering role to support all mobile, TV and QA engineering teams. In this new role, I have developed engineering and QA processes to streamline day-to-day work for those teams. In addition, I continue to lead the hiring and scaling of the iOS, Android, Roku and QA teams. Working at MasterClass has pushed me to become a better engineer, a more impactful manager and a more empathetic person.”
What they do: Professional services company Freedom Financial Network helps users overcome debt and move toward a brighter financial future.
Freedom Financial’s culture in one word: “Thoughtful,” Platform Developer Dave Jones said. “The folks in engineering are smart, engaged and thoughtful in their craft. Our engineering tools and processes are mature but agile. Solving larger technical problems that involve multiple teams can start off chaotic but generally end up with reasonable consensus. The technology solutions and systems being created have thoughtful teams behind them.
“For example, our team needed to decide on what timestamp format to use for event payloads that would be consumed across the company. Every team had their own favorite format but it became clear that we needed to standardize one. A technical debate ensued, for days, about a simple format. But in the end I felt we all agreed on the right format for the right reasons, despite it not being some of the most established group’s favorite choices. Reasonable arguments were presented and were ultimately honored. What could have easily turned into a political power tug-of-war did not happen. I found the process to be quite thoughtful.”
The folks in engineering are smart, engaged and thoughtful in their craft.”
The coolest project Jones has worked on recently: “The coolest project I’ve worked on recently (and am still actively developing) is a back-end system called the Universal Profile Service, codename Cerebro,” Jones said.
“It attempts to standardize data about our customers (name, date of birth, social security number, contact info, etc.) and allow each business unit to share their ‘view’ of potentially the same customer. The system matches customers across BUs (business units) and finds duplicates within BUs. It allows linking profiles with various relationship types for better reporting. Events are fired off to alert all BUs when interesting things happen to customer data that’re interested in. Our CEO and marketing department can use the global user IDs to track movement of our customers throughout the company so we can better understand them.”
What they do: Big Health offers behavior programs through its proprietary digital health software to help users address and improve mental health issues.
Big Health’s company culture in one word: “We often describe the culture at Big Health as, ‘The right amount of weird,’” Product Designer Celia Fong said. “Everyone here brings something unique to the table — whether it’s an unusual hobby, an eclectic taste in music or a different point of view from the mainstream. At Big Health, we get to show up to work fully as ourselves and we’re embraced for it.
“Some of my favorite moments have been cheese tasting parties at the lunch table (pre-COVID-19), witnessing a colleague get super into the hobby of wood whittling over the course of a year, learning about synthesizers from a teammate who is also a musician or even being the audience to a spirited water-cooler debate about capitalism. This cultivates a stimulating cultural dynamic but also diversifies our approach to problem-solving and collaboration.
“With so many unique perspectives in the room, the right amount of ‘weird’ actually gets us to better ideas and products. Every day that I come to work, I appreciate that I might learn something new from one of the many thoughtful and interesting folks that work here.”
With so many unique perspectives in the room, the right amount of ‘weird’ actually gets us to better ideas and products.”
Fong’s growth at Big Health: “I’ve been at Big Health for two-and-a-half years,” Fong said. “I started as a product design intern and became a full-time designer after a few months. Since then, I’ve leveled up within the product design role and am currently working on our worry and anxiety product, Daylight.
“In many ways, I’ve ‘grown-up’ along with Daylight, from testing to launch, through clinical trials, UI refreshes and to where it is today. Daylight is a bit unusual in that it combines animation, voice and therapeutic techniques. I’ve been lucky to try many things during my time here to accommodate for that, including writing scripts, working on design systems, interviewing users, storyboarding, collaborating with therapists to create content and more. It’s been a great journey. We ship a lot of things, and I feel lucky that experimentation is highly encouraged at Big Health.”
What they do: Shift is an e-commerce company that focuses on turning the car buying and selling experience into one that’s easy, simple and delightful.
Shift’s culture in one word: “Teamwork,” Product Designer Chije Wangati said. “Designing an end-to-end customer journey requires a lot of participation from multiple stakeholders. It’s great to know everyone is willing to share their knowledge and go the extra mile to make sure we build consistent customer interactions at every turn.”
It’s great to know everyone is willing to share their knowledge and go the extra mile to make sure we build consistent customer interactions at every turn.”
The coolest project Wangati has worked on recently: “A recent project I worked on was designing the appointment confirmation experience,” Wangati said. “I had plenty of access to research tools that allowed me to improve the way I formulated user interviews, which helped uncover new customer expectations we didn’t have before. It’s great to feel like the customer experience is valued.”
What they do: E-commerce company Fanatics quickly designs, manufactures and distributes high-quality fan gear across retail channels.
Fanatics’ culture in one word: “Progressive,” Director of Engineering Srinivas Sirigineedi said. “Fanatics is growing, innovating, and trying new things — which is precisely what progressive companies do. Accelerated growth by its v-commerce strategy, innovation as a foundation to build its globally scalable cloud platform, adapting to the rapidly evolving new strategic business initiatives powered by modern technologies speaks to that culture. Fanatics platform supports all major sports leagues in the United States and more than 600 partner e-commerce sites globally with a wide range of integrated experiences.
Under great leadership, we have a perfect setting for professional growth and an unparalleled learning experience.”
How Sirigineedi has grown with Fanatics: “I have been with the company a little over five years. I started as one of the few handfuls of core engineers hired and challenged with building the next generation cloud commerce platform. Since then, we were right on. Under great leadership, we have a perfect setting for professional growth and an unparalleled learning experience with the opportunity to build real, impactful and scalable software platforms.”
