Lyft Engineering - focus on customers, people and problems.
I joined Lyft Engineering on the Technical Program Management Team a few weeks ago. Here are my top three thoughts on the first two weeks:
Customer obsession. We are laser focused on doing the right thing for our customers. We’re obsessed with building a better service for passengers and drivers. So much so that I could not personally fully understand the driver experience and pain points that we need to solve for our drivers. I saw the many metrics we track and detailed feedback but how could I ship things to improve what drivers experience if I hadn’t even driven for Lyft? I needed to be able to empathize with drivers. At the weekend I bought a car and on Monday completed my first few rides. It felt great to see the service/app come to life on the road from the other side of the passenger/driver relationship. I had amazing passengers who were full of interesting stories and suggestions for improvements. As I build up my miles on the road I also want to stop by some of the driver meet ups that our incredible driver community run to listen & learn more.
Talented & happy people. There is a real energy, excitement and a good vibe in the office. People are busy doing meaningful work that they are passionate about. Positive intent is assumed and you are empowered. Teams work and socialize together in a genuine & refreshing way while respecting work life balance.
Interesting problems. From mapping, accurate estimated times of arrival to autonomous cars we have some tough and interesting engineering problems to solve. At times these can be daunting but I know we can do it with our focus on customer obsession and talented people.
Before I joined I knew I loved the Lyft service as a passenger — so much so that we took a Lyft as our official wedding carriage and have since become friends with driver who was so awesome on our wedding day. It feels amazing to be a part of the engineering team powering so many special rides everyday.
