Experimentation, Craft and Community: The Roots of Dropbox’s Global Engineering Culture

15 minutes — that’s how long it took for Software Engineer Ernest Rudnicki and his peers at Dropbox to recognize an issue, discuss it as a team and resolve it together. 

What would have been a quick turnaround for any team was especially so for him and his fellow engineers, considering they span several time zones. But Rudnicki wasn’t surprised by his teammates’ tenacity; in truth, he would have expected nothing less. 

That’s because Dropbox’s engineers operate in a global culture defined by three key pillars: community, experimentation and craft. These principles empower every engineer to make the most of their career journey and leave their own mark on the organization — all while receiving ample support from colleagues and leaders. 

According to Rudnicki, the “community” aspect of Dropbox’s engineering culture comes into play frequently. 

“Whether it’s an unexpected bug or a tricky issue, there’s never any hesitation,” he said. “Teammates step up right away, share knowledge and make sure no one feels alone in finding a solution.”

As engineers move quickly to overcome challenges together, they move with just as much speed when exploring creative solutions, which is where the “experimentation” pillar comes in. 

“Our team has a culture that actively encourages experimentation — both in terms of how we approach projects and how we collaborate,” Software Engineer Katsiaryna Alshannikava explained. 

She and her teammates often take an out-of-the-box approach to reimagining team processes’ or strategies. In doing so, they’re continuously uncovering new ways to maximize their impact on the company and its customers. 

All of this fast-moving collaboration and creative thinking empowers engineers at Dropbox to stay focused on perfecting their “craft,” the third component of the company’s engineering culture. Craft takes various forms across the company, but on Salesforce Developer Aleh Matsukevich’s team specifically, it looks like building reliable and efficient systems. 

To accomplish tasks such as this one, he and his peers continuously leverage their own expertise — and share it with each other. 

“Open communication within the team allows us to learn from each other and benefit from that experience,” Matsukevich said.

While Rudnicki, Alshannikava and Matsukevich live in Poland, you would think they live right next door to their peers abroad — thanks to these three pillars. Dropbox’s engineering culture empowers them to deliver their best work while working closely with others across the globe, creating a work environment that fosters connection, growth and progress. 

 

 

Community

Although Rudnicki has been a part of his team for less than a year, he has already witnessed his team members come together to tackle numerous challenges, driven by a universal desire to step in.

“One thing our team does that really reflects a culture of support and inclusion is how quick everyone is to jump in when someone faces a problem or needs help,” he said. 

“This approach to supporting each other, where all voices are welcome and everyone feels comfortable asking for help, has created an atmosphere where you truly feel included and valued.”

Rudnicki makes an effort to offer support whenever he can, which helps bring everyone closer together. That’s why, when he sees a peer facing a challenge or struggling to find a solution, he strives to suggest ideas or simply listen. 

“I believe that offering support, big or small, helps everyone feel more comfortable, valued and connected, and it creates a positive atmosphere where people know they’re not alone,” Rudnicki said. 

 

“I believe that offering support, big or small, helps everyone feel more comfortable, valued and connected, and it creates a positive atmosphere where people know they’re not alone.”

 

Rudnicki’s team aims to ensure everyone feels included at all times, which is why they host coffee meetings every Friday to simply chat about things unrelated to work. 

“These meetings help us get to know each other better, share stories and laugh together,” he shared. “It’s a simple tradition, but it has made our team feel more relaxed and connected, creating a genuine sense of belonging on the team.”

 

 

Experimentation

Experimentation underpins everything Dropbox’s engineers do — even when it comes to the way they structure meetings. 

According to Alshannikava, she and her peers recently decided to reimagine the format of their weekly sync-ups, which bring team members together from across the United States and Poland. They’ve relied on one sync-up every Monday to enable each team member to give a personal update on their work, and while it worked for a while, they saw room for improvement. 

Recently, Alshannikava’s team decided that instead of having each team member share an update, an individual directly responsible for each project would offer insight. 

“This small change had a big impact,” she said. “Our meetings became more focused and shorter, and it gave everyone a much clearer picture of the status and progress of each project. It also encouraged stronger ownership and accountability among project leads.”

Creating space for originality and creativity is key on Alshannikava’s team, which is why they take time each week to explore new tools or build out their skill sets using platforms like Udemy. 

“This dedicated time not only helps us stay current with industry trends but also fosters out-of-the-box thinking that we can bring into our daily work,” she said. 

 

“This dedicated time not only helps us stay current with industry trends but also fosters out-of-the-box thinking that we can bring into our daily work.”

 

Alshannikava and her peers also host brainstorming sessions each quarter to encourage everyone to share ideas that could improve their workflows or impact the overall quality of their product. During a recent session, a team member suggested using AI tools to simplify the process of creating test plans, and now, her team is exploring this idea further and assessing how it could be implemented effectively.

For Alshannikava, experimentation doesn’t just help her team succeed day to day — it sets them up for an innovative future as well. Her team is currently working on a few experiments, all of which hold the potential to help customers get the most out of the product. 

“I’m especially looking forward to seeing how we can leverage AI tools to help solve these problems in more efficient and innovative ways,” Alshannikava said. “It’s an exciting time for us to think creatively and test out new approaches that could have a real impact.”

 

 

Craft

According to Matsukevich, Dropbox engineers’ commitment to craft comes down to one simple yet effective practice: continuous knowledge-sharing. 

On his team, each engineer owns different Salesforce expertise, which is why it’s essential for everyone to share their understanding with each other on a regular basis. 

“It helps us grow as professionals much faster than just studying manuals or technical documentation,” Matsukevich said. 

He’s currently learning about DevOps in Salesforce from the perspective of an administrator, which involves understanding different tools, workflows and best practices. And to do so, Matsukevich is leaning on the expertise of his colleague who is an expert in this area, which he believes has helped him raise his professional bar. 

Being hyper-focused on craft has enabled him to spearhead various projects, including one he’s especially proud of, during which he modified a monthly management report to pull and display live data from Salesforce. Matsukevich explained that he received a proposal to help automate the process, which required writing Python scripts to extract the necessary data from Salesforce and format it for the report. 

“It was actually my first time working with Python, so I had to learn as I went — reading documentation, debugging and testing,” he said. “Despite the challenge, the final result worked exactly as expected, and the team was able to save a significant amount of time every month.”

 

“Despite the challenge, the final result worked exactly as expected, and the team was able to save a significant amount of time every month.”

 

Matsukevich stays busy honing new skills, which came into play recently when he started learning how to work with Copado, a tool that helps Salesforce administrators manage changes and control versioning. He said that this undertaking has given him a better understanding of the change management process from a DevOps perspective, offering greater insight into how it can be made more efficient and reliable. 

As Matsukevich continues to enhance his approach to craft, he’s eager to continue building up his knowledge of Salesforce DevOps and architecture, and is especially interested in gaining a deeper understanding of continuous integration/continuous development processes, environment management and scalable solution design. 

“These areas are essential for building reliable and efficient systems, and I see a lot of opportunity to develop in that space,” he said.

With his sights set on becoming a Salesforce Architect, Matsukevich is looking forward to taking the next step in his career, leaning on encouragement from his manager — and the guidance of his peers around the world. 

“My team — and Dropbox in general — is very supportive of growth,” he said.