Curai Software Engineer Spotlight: Taka Ishikawa
Curaians agree that one of the best aspects of Curai is working alongside our teammates each day. To highlight what it’s like working here, we are writing a spotlight series to showcase our colleagues and share a bit more what the day-to-day is like and what we are building.
Taka is one of our very first product engineers and our next spotlight! His answer to the company icebreaker question (what is your favorite kind of cheese 🧀) is mozzarella. Yum!
Why did you decide to join? What keeps you here now?
I had a long time interest in healthcare since I had members of my family and friends who suffered complex health conditions and wanted to do something to help people like them. When I was contacted by Curai about the opportunity, I learned that the company has a long-term vision of providing high-quality healthcare to everyone on the planet. We initiated a conversation and I soon realized that the people working here are so passionate to tackle this hard problem. I decided to join.
Curai’s focus is to serve people who need better healthcare access and everything we do is centered around the focus. Above all, I cannot emphasize enough that there are amazing people here who always bring unique values and perspectives and I never stop learning from them. This is what keeps me here now.
What makes our engineering team culture unique?
Our engineering team is super collaborative. We seek a deeper understanding of why and what we’re trying to build and then clarify how we do it. In the process, we raise questions, give feedback, and suggest new ideas anywhere around the company. This way of collaboration is supported by the mutual acceptance of differences in backgrounds, ideas, and perspectives. This is I think what makes our engineering team culture unique.
What were you afraid of before joining Curai?
I wasn’t sure how different and challenging work on innovation in the healthcare industry would be especially since I had no background in healthcare. But after joining Curai, I soon realized that all people here are willing to learn from each other. We have many channels to go just ask questions and get immediate answers in Slack and have lots of learning workshops.
What have you learned since you joined Curai?
I have learned so many critical lessons. One that stands out to me is to focus on bringing a better outcome to the end-users as efficiently as possible. At a process level, for example, we invest in the processes to define and ship better user experience such as fast iteration cycles integrating feedback in product development and engineering implementation. This is what I find very useful and effective especially since previously I tended to think or build too much before seeking feedback.
What are you working on right now?
I’m currently working on a note-taking tool to help our care providers make clinical decisions more efficiently.
How do you hope to grow at Curai?
I’d like to keep contributing to building a better product to help our users access higher quality healthcare and learn as many varieties of things as possible in the process.
Favorite Curai moment?
Whenever we share a story about a patient who uses our service and finds it useful. Also, when we celebrate any achievement of a team member regardless of if it is personal or professional.
OOO
Outside of the office, Taka can be found:
📚 reading books on different topics in “random order” :)
🏞 strolling around outside and getting fresh air
🎉 preparing to win any and all holiday costume competitions (see pictures)
🖥 working from home as Curai fights COVID-19
What would you say to someone thinking about joining our team?
I believe that this is one of the best places to collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds and make tangible positive impacts on healthcare. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us to initiate a conversation!
Please stay tuned next month for our next Curaian spotlight! We’ll pass the baton to Taka to highlight a teammate. If you’re passionate about healthcare access, up for bold challenges, and curious about working alongside really great people, don’t hesitate to say hi 👋
