Software engineering is a vast job category constructed from many different purposes, functions and goals. However, at these two local organizations, the objective is the same: to improve people’s lives.
While incentivizing customers with e-gift cards for engagement and app-based primary healthcare might seem completely unrelated, both tech solutions grew out of a vision for cost-efficient benefits available anywhere on demand.
Built In Seattle sat down with software engineers at Tango Card and 98point6 to learn more about how they have overcome uncharted technical challenges in the face of innovation and why customer satisfaction is a direct result of team unity.
At Tango Card, what started as a gifting app in 2009 for consumers to deliver e-gift cards has evolved into an enterprise for digital reward solutions. By helping thousands of companies motivate millions of their employees each month, Tango Card’s team is using their rapid growth to explore new technologies and continuously teach each other something new.
Give us a bit of insight into your tech stack. What are some of your favorite tech tools your team is using?
Currently, our main tech stack consists of Vue.js as our front-end framework and Spring Boot as our back end. My favorite thing about our stack is how quickly and easily I can write quality code and get it out. Whether it be a simple bug fix or a massive complex feature, I love being able to see my code in action very quickly.
In addition, one of the best things about Tango Card is the fact that we aren’t limited to a certain stack. Everyone is encouraged to seek out new technologies and explore the idea of integrating them into our current stack. Having the freedom to investigate new tech, even if it isn’t related to the work we’re currently doing, really opens up possibilities and keeps our team up to date.
What’s the most interesting or challenging project you’re working on right now, and what do you enjoy most about it?
One of the most interesting and challenging projects that I’ve worked on here at Tango Card is around machine learning for fraud detection. Machine learning is such a broad, growing field. We’re trying to apply it to our business in a very unique way.
Even though I’m pretty new to machine learning, I get to work with others who are knowledgeable in the area and who are willing to help guide me. I am constantly learning new things. It’s great knowing that I’ll be able to apply these new concepts and ideas in other parts of my work.
Machine learning is such a broad, growing field. We’re trying to apply it to our business in a very unique way.”
What’s something unique about your team from other engineering orgs you’ve been part of?
One of the most unique things about my team is definitely our culture, which emphasizes continual growth and learning. Every person adds a different strength to the team, and we’re always willing to share and teach other members.
For example, we have daily codeshares where someone is able to bring up something that they found new or interesting. Whether it be a presentation on a topic or a question about something they don’t know, these sessions allow others to share their knowledge on certain subjects with the team. Topics can be work related or just interesting to the individual. But in the end, the entire team gets the opportunity to teach as well as learn.
Primary healthcare is a system based on patience, appointments, waiting rooms and affordability concerns. Mobile app platform 98point6 sees it differently. Their mission is to improve individual quality of life conveniently and cost-effectively by giving physicians greater patient reach. Engineering Manager Jeff Beorse explained what makes his team’s relationship with physicians unique and why empowerment brings about relentless improvement.
Give us a bit of insight into your tech stack. What are some of your favorite tech tools your team is using?
I’m personally not a big evangelist for any particular piece of tech. I like using the right tool for the job, and that’s how we do it at 98point6.
In some cases, we deploy Typescript to AWS Lambdas backed by Dynamo. In other cases, we run Java/Kotlin web servers with a PostgreSQL database.
Lately, I have been experimenting with Rust and particularly enjoying its memory safety features. Overall, we are always looking for the tool that helps us deliver the most impactful results to our patients.
What’s the most interesting or challenging project you’re working on right now, and what do you enjoy most about it?
Currently, my team is focused on innovating our patient triage system to help our doctors be more efficient in delivering primary care to patients. We’re unique as a business because we not only build our end-user app, but also the interface through which our physicians deliver care.
That means our customers are physicians, but they are also our coworkers, which creates a tight feedback loop and fast iteration. It’s both exciting and challenging because we are going beyond what is possible in a traditional brick-and-mortar clinic and exploring an entirely new problem space.
We empower engineers, no matter their seniority or title, to take action and form targeted teams to fix problems they identify.”
What’s something unique about your team from other engineering orgs you’ve been part of?
One of our core values is relentless improvement. We practice it by empowering engineers, no matter their seniority or title, to take action and form targeted teams to fix problems they identify.
For example, to help support our hiring goals in 2021, I formed a working group to help improve our engineering onboarding experience. Another one of our engineers recently formed a group to improve our tooling and automation for auditing the security of NPM packages.
No matter what the project is, we give everyone the tools to implement their ideas to make our organization stronger.
