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What Makes RapDev’s Culture Special?
Company culture is something I had always rolled my eyes at. At most companies, culture is little more than a few slides in an onboarding presentation. You learn what the culture is supposed to be, but you never really feel it. Especially in a remote work environment, it is very difficult to create and maintain a culture that helps employees to feel like they are part of something meaningful. Somehow, RapDev makes it look easy. In this blog, I’ll tell you about just a few key aspects of RapDev’s culture that I have seen in action on a daily basis.
Meaningful Mantras
RapDev’s engineering philosophy is a simple but sensitive phrase: “Fuck It, Ship It”. That doesn’t mean we’re rushing through development and handing over half-baked solutions. It means things are never going to be perfect the first time, and you shouldn’t expect them to be. We move quickly and iterate as needed, ultimately arriving at a solution that solves the business problem and empowers the customer to use their tools to their full potential. Read more about what this phrase means to us in our CEO Tameem’s blog here.
Another RapDev mantra is “Say yes, then figure it out”. With our team's cumulative experience, there is really nothing we can’t do. Don’t be afraid to take on new challenges and customer requests. After all, that is the best way to learn new things and improve your skillset. Plus, if you come up with an interesting solution to a problem, you can sign up to present it to the team in one of our “Ship It Share It” show-and-tell-style internal meetings and get feedback from the whole team to make your solution even better. We don’t want to hoard knowledge - we want to do everything we can to help each other succeed and grow.
Total Transparency
RapDev prioritizes open communication and encourages the use of open Slack channels whenever possible. This allows everyone to learn from and contribute to conversations and technical discussions, rather than having them hidden away in DM’s or curated group chats.
Transparency doesn’t just apply to engineering, though. The Operations team at RapDev also provides frequent updates on the state of affairs. Recently, our CEO, Tameem, began hosting a weekly short-form meeting where we receive updates, have the opportunity to ask questions anonymously, and start discussions about current or future events within the company, the tech industry, the world, and life in general.
Heroes & Stories
The most powerful way to build culture is to always be talking about it - directly or indirectly. One of the primary ways RapDev does this is through our many Slack channels, such as #love. In this channel, team members share their appreciation for others on the team, highlight how we can all go above and beyond to help each other and our customers, and share messages from customers expressing their appreciation for the work we do for them. Through this, we communicate the key aspects of our culture and way of working that our customers and we appreciate. This helps to remind us of our purpose and motivates us all to do better than our best.
Another simple but effective way to reinforce our culture is through our “Kept on Keeping on” (KoKo) award. Awarded once a month, the award goes to someone on the team who is nominated by their peers for persevering through adversity or challenges, going above and beyond, overcoming an important challenge, or just generally being an awesome teammate. RapDev then makes a donation to a charity of the winner’s choice. It’s a simple way of providing recognition while staying true to our ethos of helping our communities however we can.
Ownership & Incentives
At RapDev, everyone has a stake in the outcome. From day one, new RapDevians receive equity in the company, which means the success of the business is literally your success too. That shared ownership mentality shapes how people show up every day. Beyond equity, RapDev has built a culture that rewards results through performance-based incentives, including project renewal and utilization bonuses. Do good work, keep your customers happy, and you'll see that reflected in your compensation. It's a simple idea, but it works: when RapDev wins, you win.
Summer Week & Winter Week
In addition to all of those constants, twice a year, RapDev flies in all remote resources for a week-long on-site at our headquarters in Boston for a week of working hard and playing hard. Leadership gives a State of the Union address, project teams take the opportunity to connect in person for project sync meetings, and new RapDevians get a chance to meet their new peers face-to-face.
Throughout the week, work gets done, and everyone is invited to a variety of events, like tours of the city, casual team dinners, karaoke, hackathons, and plenty of nightlife if you’re up for it. All week, the culture is naturally reinforced via various working sessions and events, making the message clear: work hard and do good work, and you will be recognized, rewarded, and have a ton of fun along the way. Sound like a place you'd want to build your career? Check out our open roles and see where you'd fit in.
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