Careers with the Ohana

Welcome to the blog series "Careers with the Ohana." If you’re curious about life within a dynamic and innovative company, this series is tailor-made for you.

Our Product Mission

The Product Team’s mission lies in a commitment to build software that delivers the utmost impact to our customers. “The Product Team’s primary function is to develop and maintain the software our clients use,” said Nick. “Our work includes adding new features, fixing bugs, or making existing features more streamlined.” 

Contributing to Excellence

Individually each team member plays a valuable role in helping the team collectively reach their goals. As Product Manager, Emily’s day-to-day responsibilities “include collaborating with both the Sales Team and Customer Success Team to figure out what needs to be on our product roadmap” said Emily. Developers Grant, Cullin, and Nick then build new functionalities and or fix current features based on the feedback Emily receives. Once completed, Jonathan will test the functionalities to ensure everything is working as it should before it is sent to the customer.

Team Culture and Dynamics

The Product Team members are not strangers to keeping their heads down, but they also know how to have fun and foster community. Cullin describes the culture as “very upbeat, very close-knit…sometimes in Software Engineering, it feels like you’re stuck on a problem for so long, so when we finish, we just go up (to the game room) and get a game of foosball or shoot some hoops.” Emily added, “It’s a very special group of people I work with both within the Product Team and the company at large because everyone here is really mission-oriented. They want to make a difference, and I think that we’re doing that.”

Ohanafy understands the importance of creating an environment that supports a range of collaboration styles, “We have everybody sitting together so that when there is an issue, it’s very quick and easy to ask someone else for their experience on the problem that you’re having,” said Jonathan. “But then we also simultaneously have separate spaces where you can go and have your own quiet area, your own spot to focus. Having the mix of both is really nice.”

A major source of job satisfaction among the Product Team is the team culture and being able to build a product for an industry that has yet to receive a lot of technological advances in the past. Grant expressed, “I enjoy making new features. I think it’s really cool to build a new platform and make innovations for an industry that doesn’t get new features that often.”

Advice from the Product Team

To wrap up our discussion, we asked the product team what advice they would give to individuals pursuing a career in product development. The consensus highlighted the pivotal role of communication and collaboration in achieving success within a Product Team.

Nick shared his perspective, stating, “The best advice I could give to someone in a similar role is that you aren't going to understand everything right away - you may get "imposter syndrome" because you feel as though you can't contribute as much as others on your team. But in reality, it takes time to fully understand a software product, so get comfortable doing what you can while you learn as much as possible.”

If you or someone you know envisions joining our Product Team - or any other facet of our workforce - keep an eye out for job postings. Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes looks into “Careers with the Ohana.”