Today marks my third anniversary at One Medical. Aside from my own ventures, this is the longest I've been at one company. It can feel like an eternity in Silicon Valley. Despite that, I feel there is still so much left to do. I'd like to share a few thoughts from the last 1,095 days.
The biggest thing I've learned is that rather than anticipating change, prepping you and your team to embrace change is the key to a solid foundation. What I set out to do when joining on my first day is drastically different than what I'm doing now, and that's okay. A lot of unexpected change has led to new opportunities I never would have imagined.
I've changed a lot as a person during my time here both professionally and personally. Working in health made me really cognisant about wellness in my own life. In fact, I lost 25 pounds since I've started until now (that probably fluctuated a bit over the holiday). On a professional level, I discovered the love for the team I lead and their continued success. As someone who thought they wanted to be the best individual contributor for the rest of their career, this was a big realization and change. My managers have embraced this continued evolution.
There is no doubt that One Medical is the place where I've felt the most impact during my design career. As I grow older, my desire is to use Design for good and maximize the impact that it can have on people and industries who need it most. We have the opportunity to shadow our clinicians on a daily basis and really be in touch with who we're designing for. It is really easy to get up in the morning to go to work.[caption id="attachment_45694" align="alignnone" width="4032"]
Our frequent research sessions[/caption]
In addition to people on my design team, I've seen people all over the company grow. Whether it is first-time managers or one of our interns returning to join full time and now is a feature lead, it's amazing to see people develop on a day-to-day basis.[caption id="attachment_45690" align="alignnone" width="3264"]
Our interns Finn and Priya in 2016. Finn ended up joining us full-time![/caption]
A mentor once told me that if you truly want to make a difference at a company, it sometimes takes years to see it come to fruition. This really resonated with me as the design team has grown from two people to now 10 with continued growth. What you decide and set in motion continues to grow over the years.
For me, the most important thing about a place of employment is the people. I'm a person who always will recruit friends to join. In 2018 my friends Tyten and Sofia joined—making it such an added bonus to see friends at work and see them love work.
I am thankful for everyone who has made it such an amazing journey and continues to do so.
