Every company is comprised of individual team members, each of whom brings a different background and expertise to the organization. Company culture is found at the intersections of all these identities and skills, and develops into a collective ethos that drives strategy, team rapport and growth.
With so many possible ways to describe that culture, choosing just one word is a challenge that highlights the most significant and impactful aspect of a particular workplace experience. To that end, we met with one member of eight different local companies for their take on company culture, and how that philosophy has fostered their professional growth and fulfillment. With more than 150 open positions between them, these organizations are ready to kickstart the year alongside enthusiastic new hires.
Alteryx’s platform automates business processes by unifying data science and analytics.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Trust. Our leadership grants us a lot of autonomy so we can do what we think is best for ourselves, our team and our customers. In turn, this builds a culture of resilience, which has been especially important these past few years.
An example of trust in action at Alteryx is in the current project that I’m working on. Our company has built and launched a new product that will truly impact the lives of our customers. To really be innovative, sometimes we need to break away from existing patterns. This can be a risk, and scary, but our leaders aren’t intimidated. They treat us as subject matter experts and trust that the approach we’re taking will pay dividends for our customers and our company.
What professional growth or development have you seen since you started at the company?
I’m part of the product engineering organization, which is responsible for building high-quality, scalable solutions for our customers. Over the last two years, I’ve been part of a movement at Alteryx to modernize and bring our flagship products to the cloud.
Bringing this new phase of the product to our customers has been exciting, as well as a great step forward for me professionally. From the start, I’ve been fortunate to help develop the vision, build the product and take it to market. Seeing our ideas become reality has been the highlight of my career.
Flatfile handles the complexity of CSV import while providing an easy-to-use data import experience.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Highly engaged. Technically that’s two, but at Flatfile, the culture is such that everyone on the team has the ability to jump into lots of different projects to learn and grow. Because Flatfile employees are so engaged in the work we’re doing and the problems we’re trying to solve, there’s a collaborative energy that can be felt not only on the engineering team but across all departments. For example, there’s an open-door policy for engineers to join sales calls and customer calls. Learning is critical, so there’s no red tape when it comes to interacting with other teams, especially if it will help someone develop a new skill or learn something they didn’t previously know.
Learning is critical, so there’s no red tape when it comes to interacting with other teams, especially if it will help someone develop a new skill.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
Revamping our engineering workflows. A startup environment can feel chaotic and we’re all tempted to try to tackle 100 things at once. We’ve learned that, with a single threaded focus, we’ve been able to establish a better sense of clarity for the team.
As a manager, I’ve grown by thinking outside the box and leaned away from strictly running traditional engineering team methods like scrum and Agile. Instead, I’ve helped incorporate the best pieces of different engineering cultures. As an engineering team, we adjust our workflows to reflect the needs of the team and the company at large and we’re continuing to iterate to figure out what works best. The team takes lessons we’ve learned from the previous workflow and discusses ideas on how to improve moving forward.
AIR Communities provides quality apartments across twenty key markets in the United States.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Collaborative. Our team works closely with every department across AIR, and we believe in building cross-functional teams to tackle complex business problems. When team members from different business groups come together, we are able to build well-rounded solutions from the ground up.
No matter who you are working with, everyone is treated equally. This has helped me to develop as a leader instead of a ‘boss.’ The collaborative nature of our business has led to several promotions for my team outside of our department. I’m incredibly proud of how their ability to collaborate has led to tremendous growth.
What professional growth or development have you seen since you started at the company?
I have been with AIR for over ten years, and started with very little real estate knowledge. Through support from AIR’s leadership, I have grown from an analyst role to now leading a team.
While I started with some technical abilities, I’ve learned how leadership, support and vision impact our ability to achieve results. I have grown into a leadership role that helps others on my team through mentoring, collaboration and brainstorming, always putting them first.
Travelers Haven is a tech-enabled, full-service housing firm that manages temporary housing.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Innovative. Our work environment cultivates a setting in which no idea is left unexplored, every voice is heard, and thinking outside of the box is encouraged. We do this by having one eye on continuous improvement and the other eye on future opportunities. We identify problems through Gemba, going to where the action is and really understanding points of friction through the lens of the users. We then solve through Kaizen sessions that include end users and all relevant stakeholders. Our innovative culture empowers us to ensure we’re creating the best possible experience for our clients.
My input is actively sought, and I always have a seat at the table where discussions are had and decisions being made.”
What professional growth or development have you seen since you started at the company?
I have been with Travelers Haven since March 2020 and recently moved into a new position as an associate product manager. My role is dynamic and consistently presents new areas for growth, opportunity, and exciting challenges when solving for internal and external needs. I’ve been able to thrive thanks to supportive leadership who have encouraged my development. My input is actively sought, and I always have a seat at the table where discussions are had and decisions being made. Additionally, I’ve had the opportunity to attend product-related conferences to ensure I’m always learning and keeping current with the best practices. I consider myself very fortunate to work for a company and leader who values associate development and success.
Evolve aims to simplify vacation rental management.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Transparent. One of the best ways we work as a team is by bringing everyone along for the ride, from the smallest initiatives to the largest goals, and a big part of that is always sharing the “why” behind our decisions. We’re also very open when it comes to performance – whether that be related to role expectations, individual teammates, specific teams or the wider company. It’s important for us all to be informed and aligned in order to work toward a common goal — and that requires a lot of transparency.
It’s important for us all to be informed and aligned in order to work toward a common goal — and that requires a lot of transparency.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
Evolve recently launched a transformative upgrade to our value proposition called the “Risk-Free Guarantee,” which is a promise to new homeowners that if they are not satisfied with our services, they’ll get their money back. This was one of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on recently because it required a lot of cross-functional collaboration, gave us the opportunity to enhance our sales messaging, and — most importantly — aligned with our customers’ best interests, which is a win all around.
Enova aims to help small and mid-sized businesses access fast, trustworthy credit.
Describe your company culture in one word.
I would describe Enova and my team’s culture as inclusive. In fact, Enova’s five values derive from this inclusivity. When a company successfully integrates a group of diverse individuals, it empowers each person to operate as an owner, put the needs of our customer first, foster innovation so that the best answer wins, objectively assess problems and be accountable for results, and collaborate with other top talent while encouraging diversity of thought and teamwork.
I am fortunate to have a team that is diverse in background, experience and expertise, which brings rich insight. Our response to remote work, both as a team and business, exemplifies this culture. Unfortunately during remote work, informal chats in the kitchen and by our desks were replaced with more formal and time-consuming video calls. This initially created some fatigue within my team but our inclusive culture helped us collaborate and share best practices for remote work. Most of my team members participate in several affinity groups, which help immensely in building a culture of belonging.
I am fortunate to have a team that is diverse in background, experience and expertise, which brings rich insight.”
What professional growth or development have you seen since you started at the company?
I joined in August 2010 as an analyst on our business analytics team and had the opportunity to work on a variety of business problems until March 2013, when I left to work at a bank. However, I missed working on new business opportunities and learning from the brilliant minds at Enova, which brought me back to lead the portfolio analytics team with the aim of building my technical and model building skills.
As I raised my hand to take on more, I was tasked with leading one of our U.S. products in 2016. This stint challenged me to work with stakeholders to help grow our direct mail program. In 2018, I was handed the reins of all our U.S. products and exposed to cross-product decision making. This brought together cross-departmental minds to build a unit framework to assess lifetime customer value. This gave me the opportunity to learn new skills, own new responsibilities and help each stakeholder make decisions that keep our customers first. Now as a director of portfolio analytics, I lead a team of data scientists and credit risk analysts who oversee all consumer products. Enova’s commitment to its people and the value of ownership has allowed me to carve out my own unique journey.
Nomad helps rental property owners protect against costly vacancies by improving the long-term rental experience.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Passionate. We are passionate about our mission to improve the lives of everyone involved in the long-term rental community, and are constantly looking for how we can help our owner-partners be successful on their journey with their long-term rentals.
We recently had a property owner named Joe who was interested in renting out his single-family home, but unsure whether it was the right time to sell. He had previously been leasing it to family members and was getting ready to find new tenants. During the walkthrough, a member of our team let Joe know Nomad could lease the property for top dollar; however, with minimal work, Joe was also in a great position to sell.
Joe ultimately decided listing the property for sale made the most sense for him. After listing with Nomad, the property was under contract two weeks later for more than the list price. While Nomad certainly would have been happy to lease the property, we were excited that we helped Joe with an outcome that worked best for him.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
We recently worked with two different customers to capture their testimonials for use across the Nomad website. It was the first time I spearheaded a video project of this scale. It took advanced planning, locking down a film crew and an entire day of shooting to collect all the footage we needed.
Following the shoot, I worked closely with the production crew to edit and highlight the points that best spoke to our customers’ experiences. We were really happy with the outcome and extended the testimonials for use across social channels. While there were some lessons learned, I was excited to have played a substantial role in the final product and am looking forward to doing more of these in the future. Nomad is the kind of company where, if you have a good idea or want to try something new, you are encouraged to take on the challenge.
Whispir automates workflows so that organizations can easily communicate and engage with their customers.
Describe your company culture in one word.
Unique. Our product combines various communication channels into one product, and we meet the needs of many industries. The people are great. Today I was speaking with one of my fellow employees in Australia and we were talking about how great the people are at Whispir. We combine cultures from Asia, Australia and the United States to ensure we enhance and encourage diversity.
We combine cultures from Asia, Australia and the United States to ensure we enhance and encourage diversity.”
What professional growth or development have you seen since you started at the company?
I have been with Whispir for just over a year. When I started in the U.S., there were very few of us. It’s been exciting to see the growth for our company as a whole while we’ve doubled in size. In terms of professional growth, it has been very exciting to learn new technologies, improve in giving presentations, and refine my speaking and sales skills. Whispir is a global company, so I have been able to learn more about business culture in other parts of the world and improve my interpersonal skills while meet great people.
