Dev(ing) @ UpHill Health
Hey there!
Many times we find ourselves looking for job opportunities, trying to get the perks that really matter, trying to discover if the salary is good enough and if our future team rocks with awesome javascript or fancy frameworks. And, even so, most of the times, we miss the most important points.
Ever wonder what’s like to work at some startup that is rocking its way up to the Moon? (Wait... it’s Mars now …)
Well, being my seventh month as Junior Backend Developer at UpHill Health, I’m going to tour you through the seven things I most enjoy while working as a Backend Developer.
1. Async work
Sometimes I see this motivational quote:
“The sun rises in New York three hours before Los Angeles, but that doesn’t make Los Angeles slow.”
And that’s right. Everyone has their timings. Some people will produce better code right in the morning while some others need to go to the gym and run a bit before getting their hands dirty.
At UpHill we don’t work from 9 am to 5 pm or any other similar schedule configuration. We are encouraged to manage our time in order to do the most important things for us while producing an impact on what we do and build.
Additionally, we don’t have to go to the office every day. As I’m going to explore a bit later, it’s incredible to experience the office environment and get to know our colleagues, but as we all know, some days working from home it’s the best thing to do.
To do that, we empower ourselves with the best platforms to make sure we are able to work and communicate asynchronously, like Clubhouse and Notion.
2. No meeting day
Meetings … If only we could track the time spent in meetings. Preparing meetings, attending meetings, and maybe composing ourselves after them to start working, trying not to smash something?
We are aware of the impact that getting our calendar full of meetings will have on our team’s productivity, even if they are the best meetings on the planet.
That’s why at UpHill we try — and are encouraged — to get a day fully empty of meetings so we can totally focus on ours projects and tasks.
3. Talented team
Startups are always full of talented developers but how many have a CEO that rocks rebranding the company logo? (yes, that’s true, even if he got a little help from our design team to close the process). From Business Development to Customer Success Management, all of my colleagues put magic in their work to make sure that, at the end of the day, we have happy clients and happy users.
At UpHill, we are always looking for the best approaches and processes to work within a team and we review it every month in order to be updated.
To get the best out of us, every quarter we run a hackathon. These are 24-hour long events where we all leave the office to go to a nice AirBnB around town and work on something we like. We work in pairs and build new tools that impact our users’ journey or “simply” improve our daily basis. Remember the logo created by a CEO story? That happened in UpHill’s last hackathon!
4. Power to decide
At UpHill, developers have an incredible impact. We are not employees transforming others' ideas into a product or feature. We care about what we are building so our users can improve their skills.
Is there any point more powerful than working with your Product Manager to shape and define the next cycle of awesome tasks? It’s simple: instead of developing what is told, you shape and embrace your product.
5. Shape Process
At UpHill, we dig into Shape Up to build tools that empower people to provide and receive the best care.
Shortly, we have two cycles of six weeks per quarter and between them, we have the cool-down.
That means that while the cycle lasts, developers are busy building tools and the product manager is working on the next cycle tasks (shaping). Between them, we improve some details found during the developing process and work on stuff that we think can help us working and the product performance.
For a deep understanding, check David Honório’s article about how we shape up.
6. Office culture and environment
What’s probably the best thing about working on a small-sized startup? You can get to know better all your mates and then it’s no more just work.
Arriving at the office and seeing our Product Manager being shot, with a very good headshot worth of score 10, with the Nerf gun of the Head of Engineering is delightful. All the scream and the pain and laughs...
Or maybe just enjoy the playlist with the speaker maxed up, while getting surprised by your mates' musical preferences. Who would have guessed that he would like so much Brazilian music…
7. 1–1
Last but not least: people. At the end of the day, people are all that matters.
We wake up early in the morning to build products that are going to change the way we all see healthcare, improving people’s lives, and building a better future.
We can only achieve that if we — people at UpHill — are happy, focused, and motivated to break all the barriers. That’s why we have a 1–1 meeting with our team leader and regular retrospectives with the whole team.
I’m going to highlight the 1–1 because it’s a specific moment where we can express how we are feeling and freely discuss the most toughs moments from the previous month. It’s a moment where you can even talk about how you are getting through this current pandemic situation and what are you struggling with.
Mental Health is important for developers, as it is for everyone, and more than ever is important to have someone to talk about how we are.
I think we had a good talk, So I’m giving an extra point.
These are a few of my favorite things
These are the seven things I like the most about working on UpHill, but there’s a lot more to discover. We are driven by results and truly believe that great people build great products.
Ps: we have open positions!
Healthcare continuously needs improvements and so that we need more and more people sharing our values and ambition. So, if you enjoyed the seven points, you should definitely visit our careers page ;) (Maybe we’ll be able to add the eighth topic to the list above).
