Five things I’ve learnt from accuRx
I’ve been at accuRx as a Senior Developer for five months now and, in the spirit of arbitrary anniversaries, here are five things which have stuck with me.
Some of the below are relevant to anyone, some are more technical. This post has a few links for reference, be aware of the high rabbit-holing risk!
1. It’s all about the team
This was a strong first impression when I initially met everyone — there’s a lot of effort being made to build relationships and establish a great company culture. Much of what I’m going to mention is published in our public employee handbook, so if you’re interested then have a read through. A lot of these ideas are not novel but you’d be surprised at how little of it is the default in other places, and they’re all very deliberate choices rather than checkbox items.
We use slack for a lot of internal communication, and my favourite integration (besides the ones that let me do my job!) is Donut, which we use to randomly pair you with someone else in the company once a month to catch up over a coffee. Whether it’s eating a bubble waffle with Annie (way too much sugar, but no regrets), or sitting down with our CEO Jacob in the local park, it’s a chance to spend more personal time getting to know those who aren’t in your immediate team.
Some things we have in place today won’t remain quite the same as the team gets larger, for example I expect our monthly company-wide dinner format will change soon as nobody will be able to fit us around a table, but the general company values here have been set up and always pushed forward. A lot of effort is put into working out ways to ensure there’s effective communication between teams and individuals, and there’s a strong sense of personal ownership.
2. The NHS is really active in the digital space
I had absolutely no idea how active NHS Digital is. Since joining accuRx I’ve seen them rapidly improve public documentation on several major integration points and iterate on their NHS mobile app. The public, and I include myself in this up until recently, doesn’t see the work that goes on behind the scenes as it doesn’t directly impact them, especially in primary care. Patient expectations are changing, as we become increasingly digitally-aware, and they’re trying really hard to get ahead of that.
On the other hand, many GP practices are using essentially the same desktop software they were a decade ago — they’re so strapped for time that new technology is only introduced if it’s mandated or provides an immediate improvement to their working day (we’re really pleased to be in the latter group). This is compounded by the diverse technical abilities of users.
3. We’re surrounded by other startups
This one is mainly aimed at those who’ve never worked at a startup, as I think it’s something you take for granted once you’re there. A lot of this naturally occurs as a result of social interactions amongst founders, after all if you’re at a similar point in your (company) life there’s a lot of common ground. On top of that you’re going to be introduced to people via investors or in your alumni network.
It has also been really interesting seeing the different tooling choices. Inside a startup there’s a lot of things you don’t want to have to manage yourself and you don’t tend to have many of the complexities or restrictions that encourage traditional “enterprise” software use. The natural result is you reach for tools with easy on-boarding and low cognitive overhead.
First class mobile support is often a requirement, and typically SaaS over on-premise. Of course, you’re more likely to hear about tools used by other startups and even know the people building them, plus less likely to be considered a small fish by a similarly growing supplier. Software which makes our day-to-day roles easier include Notion, Intercom and Slack and our services are all cloud hosted.
4. You get to see a bigger picture
A large portion of this is related to the company size, but it’s really refreshing how transparent some of the decision making is. As part of a smaller team you get a chance to see much more of what’s going on behind the curtain. This is often a great learning experience, and when something isn’t working or doesn’t make sense there’s more opportunity to bring it up early and help shift the plan!
I’ve also really enjoyed the few times I’ve been out to chat to users in GP surgeries, and in some cases look over their shoulder as they use our software — there really is no substitute for observing how it is used in the wild, and it’s a good reality check when the obvious steps you’ve built turn out to be anything but when put in front of people unfamiliar with it.
5. Things can change quickly
Honestly, I expect that this one is a bit obvious to some, but it does make a big difference in what you’re doing day-to-day and very different from working in a large corporation. At the point I joined, work on a major feature was well underway and several other tasks were on the back-burner. Having now come back from our planning sessions during the retreat, along with getting some other good news, focus has shifted and we’re currently working on a bunch of new integrations. As part of this I’m now working through NHS approval processes, and learning a lot around how that works.
Finally
If any of the above appeals to you, we are hiring!
