Reflecting on 5 years at Iterative Health
Pros
I recently celebrated 5 years of working at Iterative Health and have been reflecting on what keeps me here and what my future looks like. Getting to see a company grow from day 1 and investing a significant amount of time in becoming an expert in a specialized field are big contributors. But it's more than that. I think everyone should have a personal practice of reflecting on what is anchoring them, and if those anchors are healthy and productive or if they are dead weight. For me, I can honestly say that I feel strongly anchored to Iterative because I genuinely believe in the mission and believe in the commitment to the mission from others in the org, particularly Jon (our CEO). It's easy to believe in Jon when you get to know him and understand how he thinks and what he has already accomplished (spoiler: he's been successfully bridging the gap to bring quality health care to people since he was a teenager, starting with a heading a very successful fundraising campaign to build hospitals in Cambodia). I have worked side by side with Jon for over 5 years now and am constantly impressed by his capability to inspire and motivate others. That said, Iterative has grown to be bigger than any one person and I am really proud of the larger team that I get to be a part of. I genuinely enjoy working with my colleagues, which I think is important given how many of our waking hours we spend with our co-workers. I have great respect and appreciation for those I work with across the org, and of course particularly for those I have the privilege of managing. Through my time at Iterative, I have had the opportunity to gain skills that I likely would not have elsewhere (and I definitely wouldn't have looked at nearly as many colonoscopy videos). I get to think creatively and problem solve every day, and I'm empowered with the resources and the support to implement solutions. I can confidently say that I have grown in both my technical and soft skills and have been fortunate to receive coaching and feedback that has helped me to grow in both areas. And, importantly, I believe that we have access to the right resources (that $150m Series B doesn't hurt), have the right talent and skills in the org, and the right advisors and partner organizations in order to be successful. We've got a track record of great achievements (ie, FDA clearance), and we did it with a lot less than we have today... even though we've recently gone through some painful growth (turns out tripling in size in less than a year is hard) I think we are about to hit the inflection point of compounding results, and I'm really excited to be around to see that.
Cons
That's not to say it is all sunshine and roses - it's not. Work can be hard, and there are challenges, and we have made mistakes as an organization - that is part of learning and charting a new path. But I genuinely believe that deep in the core of our culture we are a learning, and humble and evolving org that is growing in the ways that will support continued success. If I had to identify the biggest challenge for many folks at the org today, it is that we have a team of high achievers who have varying degrees of context based on the teams they are on, or when they were hired - and it can be frustrating to feel like people don't know everything they need to in order to be successful. I have a lot of empathy for anyone experiencing that and am trying to do my part in bridging that gap, and I see that happening across the org. We are implementing processes to bridge these gaps though everything from revamping our onboarding, to improving visibility into unified dashboards etc... and I believe that if we are patient and trust the process that we will see a lot less friction around information asymmetry in Q1 '23.
