Ever wonder what it’s like to work at Tandem? In this series, we’re taking a peek into the everyday life of Tandem’s product designers and software engineers.
6:30 a.m.
I wake up, pray, and get up to walk my dog. After that I go to the gym. I usually start by running a mile and then doing some core and weight training. When I come back, I shower and eat breakfast. I alternate my breakfast between a protein smoothie, boiled egg and oatmeal or avocado toast during the week.
8:30 a.m.
I choose not to have Slack or my work email on my phone, so I log in around 8:30 a.m. to check emails and messages before I start the work day. I keep a to-do sheet for the week, broken up by day, in my Google Drive that I set up on Fridays, so by Monday I’m good to go! Usually, Mondays and Thursdays are heavy on the meetings and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays are my lighter days — with Fridays being the lightest.
10 a.m.
At 10 a.m. I sync with the Features team, which includes development and product team members. Then at 10:15 a.m. I sync with the other leads on the project. This is where we speak about our team goals for the day and week.
Noon
We have a company-wide Lightning Round which is just like a stand-up. We all meet via Google Meet and share what we’re working on for the day. This is a good way to connect since we’re all remote.
I meal prep on Sundays so after Lightning Round, I warm up my lunch. After I eat, I walk my dog again. By then it’s about 12:30-12:45 p.m. and I step away for the rest of my lunch break and usually grab seaweed chips or fruit for a snack.
1 p.m.
On Mondays we have a sync with the whole design team. This is where we talk about how our various projects are going and if we have anything to show and/or get feedback on during Design Crit on Thursdays. We keep track of this via a Google Sheet. This is also when we have Lightning Talks where we share knowledge with our teammates about any topic for about 15 minutes.
3 p.m.
I am updating Confluence pages and tickets in Jira to make sure they are aligned. Also making sure the prototype for the feature we’re working on is good to go in InVision and sending that over to our client for review. And I’m writing peer reviews for my fellow Tandemites!
We do two-week sprints, so every other Tuesday my team and I have a Mid-Sprint Demo with the design, product, and engineering teams and our client. On every other Monday before I leave for the day, we have a Mid-Sprint Demo prep to go over what we will share in the meeting tomorrow and assign roles for who will present what.
After Work
I walk my dog again for the last time. After that I eat dinner, take a shower and relax. I usually try to catch up on other work for my side projects or completely close the computer and read or catch up on my shows.
Do you want to work with Jewel and the rest of the Tandem team? Check out our Careers page to apply for our open positions!
