While six of Seattle’s now-hiring companies might canvas a wide variety of industries, from adtech to e-commerce and more, teammates of each expressed a commonality: collaborative environments where teammates help one another to drive business or organizational impact.
At Blue Nile, for example, that manifested when the jewelry site recently overhauled its YouTube channel while charting the e-commerce shifts of COVID-19.
“This needed to happen quickly, while also being short-staffed and adapting to working from home. Our collaborative culture delivered,” Senior Director of Product Management Andy Caples said.
Meanwhile, at authentication service Auth0, cross-functional teams pooled their expertise to implement a new customer success management platform, according to SVP of Customer Success Holly Files.
“Individuals willingly came forward to help on this project and saw the opportunity for us to really shift the customer’s experience in utilizing our product,” she said.
Below, teammates from the six organizations described what distinguishes their company cultures and the professional growth they’ve experienced along the way.
Senior Director of Business Analytics Andy Soltani said that a sense of autonomy supports the work at the Redmond-based adtech company.
Describe your company culture.
We’re trusted and empowered to run with ideas and make an impact. My team is held accountable for the ROI of insurance carriers’ investments in our marketplace. The dollars we manage have grown to over $10 million a month. It’s stressful, but also highly rewarding. Our efforts help clients grow and meet internal goals.
We’re trusted and empowered to run with ideas and make an impact.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve been here three years and have been given a chance to play a direct role in our revenue and profitability, as well as grow and lead a team, which is what I was looking for coming into MediaAlpha. I’m grateful to the team for believing me and giving me this opportunity.
The chance to approach product design proactively has characterized Head of Product Design Gaby Javitt’s experience at the company, which develops security and defense hardware and software.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Collaborative. I look at design as a multiplier: It can amplify and accelerate any aspect of product development, from need-finding and scoping to execution and delivery.
That means that I get to work cross-functionally with many teams, including engineering, product, business development and mission operations. I get to collaborate with domain experts, whether that is a military veteran who has had to defend a perimeter and can give real feedback on our user experience, or a hardware engineer who’s an expert on the development of new helicopter rotors.
I have the opportunity to bring fresh eyes and carve out design thinking and culture.”
What professional growth or development have you seen in the time you’ve been with the company, and how have you grown professionally?
I started here in July of this year. In my short time here, I’ve worked on a wide range of projects, but overall the most interesting part of my role has been the greenfield opportunity and autonomy granted for me to define product design here. I’ve been given the space to approach product design proactively, rather than reactively, and be really thoughtful about how things like design language and product direction have real, meaningful business impact. Across the tightly-scoped projects and the big architectural thought experiments, I have the opportunity to bring fresh eyes and carve out design thinking and culture here.
Enterprise Sales Manager Logan Toskey has experienced a handful of promotions during his seven years with the compensation software provider, informing significant personal and professional growth in the process.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Family. Over the last seven years, this has been my home away from home, and my colleagues have become close friends. They’re also a group of peers that cheer each other on. Reps jump in to help call strategy, business case creation and deal execution without ever seeking a split or any compensation. This camaraderie extends to directors and executives across departments.
As a manager, I’ve seen that dynamic play out as I watch my team members share stories, like upcoming births and new home purchases. Recently, to celebrate the end of a COVID-impacted quarter, the team bought me a gift card for my favorite local golf course — simply because they’re incredibly kind people who wanted to do something nice for me, unprompted.
I’ve grown in countless ways as an employee, people leader and a human.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve grown in countless ways as an employee, people leader and a human. What I love about the organization’s approach to development is that it seeks the best people doing the best work, not those who have been at it the longest.
After being with the company for just over a year, I was promoted to a senior-level role, a move based on my performance. Although others had been at it longer than me, the promotion was earned, and with it came opportunities to attend meetings that would shape the future of the company. Then, after a couple more years, I was approached with an opportunity to be a team lead. This ultimately helped lead me to where I am now as a manager.
Additionally, I’ve also been given numerous opportunities to help guide what PayScale does as a business through executive meetings, consulting engagements and more. These moments have taught me to be more vocal and more involved with the things I am doing. It’s a big part of why I am so connected to PayScale. PayScale has provided me a platform to lean in, be heard and learn from those around me.
The retailer’s digital dexterity amidst COVID-19 illustrated a strong culture of collaboration, according to Senior Director of Product Management Andy Caples.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Collaborative. Our leadership has made tremendous strides in breaking down silos and fostering teamwork. Today, the product, marketing, data science and engineering teams are all part of a collaborative organization which we call “The Growth Team.”
Going into COVID-19 in February, Blue Nile had zero presence on YouTube as a marketing channel and some of our analytical performance marketers hypothesized that YouTube might be an opportunity to combat the significant business slowdown we were experiencing.
We needed to create new pandemic-sensitive video assets, build a targeted audience campaign structure from the ground up and implement performance-tracking in our codebase. This needed to happen quickly, while also being short-staffed and adapting to working from home. Our collaborative culture delivered. Sales agents worked with brand managers to produce content. Product managers managed marketing campaigns. Data analysts implemented tagging and tracking across the website. Within weeks, we launched a successful YouTube campaign, which took advantage of the fact that others were pulling out of that channel.
Whether a test is deemed to be a winner or loser, we almost always learn something important.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve been here for two and a half years, which has been a time of tremendous change for Blue Nile, including the transition from publicly traded to private equity; and the introduction of a new CEO and executive leadership team, who have transformed the company in many ways. It’s been an amazing period of revitalization that has unlocked innovation across the company.
For me, it’s been a wonderful opportunity to take the very best ideas and approaches from 20 years of e-commerce experience and implement them with an energized team committed to growth. Probably the most gratifying of these has been implementing a test-and-learn culture from the ground up. Ideas that would have been considered far too risky to build when I joined are now able to be tested with a minimum of engineering resources. Whether a test is deemed to be a winner or loser, we almost always learn something important. Removing the stigma of “bad” ideas has unlocked the creativity of our designers, engineers and product managers.
For Front Desk Coordinator Sable Parker, helping put together an ERG centered on race and culture for the Redmond-located company — whose software helps churches and nonprofits manage donations — was a particularly valuable experience.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Growth. We don’t shy away from change and growth. That was displayed in our response to COVID-19. Shifting to a work-from-home model was made quickly, with safety as the top priority. This season has forced us to change the way we do things. We made it an opportunity for growth, both for its associates and as a company. We’re serving more customers this season, and our teams and associates are constantly looking for ways to provide the best services and product.
We don’t shy away from change and growth.”
What’s the coolest project you've worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to help build a new employee resource group that celebrates race and culture within our company. It has been one of the most rewarding projects I’ve ever worked on. It’s allowed me to see what it takes to form a meaningful group from the ground up. It’s our goal to facilitate opportunities for education and celebration of all races and cultures represented here.
One of our recent projects was a digital Juneteenth celebration, which allowed over 170 of our associates to learn the history of the holiday and discuss the importance of collectively celebrating its significance. It’s inspiring to see how our company has leaned into these conversations.
According to SVP of Customer Success Holly Files, stepping up for team-wide goals is characteristic among the workforce of this Bellevue-helmed software provider.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Collaborative. I’ve seen and experienced countless examples of teammates reaching out to each other to ask for help and cross-org engagement, or to offer help to ensure we are doing the right thing for our customers. We take the time to understand their business goals and objectives and work together to create the best solution.
For example, we’re currently implementing Gainsight, a customer success management platform. There are a number of individuals on our customer success team involved, including engineers from our data warehouse team, members of our sales enablement team and the business applications team. All of these individuals willingly came forward to help on this project and saw the opportunity for us to really shift the customer’s experience in utilizing our product.
We take the time to understand what our customers are trying to achieve and what their business goals and objectives are.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I joined the company in January 2020 to lead the customer success organization, which consists of pre-sales engineering, professional services, technical account management, technical support, private managed cloud services and technical field enablement. These are individuals who are all highly technical and engage in a technical capacity to support our customers and their teams.
Bringing these teams together as one organization was new for the company and these teams The goal is to better align and improve our customers’ experience across the full customer lifecycle. It’s inspiring to see the professional growth of everyone across the organization in delivering this integrated experience.
