At this point, you might know a little bit about us and what we do. If not, and in case this is the first time you read one of our blog posts, let us tell you that we work with the future of autonomous vehicles 🚀. It sounds tremendously exciting, and it is!
How do we do that? By providing the only software available in the market tailored to measure and improve perception performance for autonomous mobility. Our everyday routine is filled with code, technical conversations, a lot of problem-solving, creative thinking (we always come up with solutions!), some meetings (alright, we admit it, we have meetings too!) and, also, passion.
Yes: we love what we do 🥰. We feel proud to be contributing to such an interesting area in automation that is constantly developing and evolving! This means being dedicated and diligent, it’s hard work. But in business, as in many other things in life, nothing comes without an effort. Or as we sometimes like to put it: no grind, no shine. There’s also this metaphor that describes our reality at Kognic very accurately: this is like a train driving at a very high speed: it won’t stop for you, so you need to jump in fast, otherwise you will miss it! It’s a race against the clock, but we are in it to win, and have fun while doing it!
The scale of the challenge, namely, enabling safe perception, is huge. It requires a lot from us. And that’s why we’re constantly growing as a team 🌱. Kognic is its people, and nothing would be possible without such a talented bunch of individuals. We use every opportunity to celebrate them. So let's use this one too!
Up next, you will read about what a day at Kognic can be like through the testimonials of seven kognicians working in different departments 👀👀👀.
Talented, bright, and humble
Some of us have always dreamt about the future, and maybe that’s why we’re now working at a place where we can actually help build it. In fact, at Kognic we have a lot of bright minds joining efforts to improve our platform and providing our customers with what they need. If you ask Anna Hüllert, from Customer Success, she can just confirm: “The best thing at Kognic is its team. People here are extremely talented and still so humble, down to earth and friendly! It’s a great combination.”
Also Sara Thiringer, Data Scientist, only has kind words when talking about her role and her team, Advisory Services: “Solving safe perception for autonomous driving is incredibly interesting. All machine learning heavily depends on the data, and that part is never as easy as you think. Working close to the data, measuring its quality and ensuring we deliver reliable ground truth is both challenging and exciting. On top of that, talented and collaborative colleagues make my department a really cool team to be part of”.
Because being smart won’t take you far if you cannot play in a team. That’s why here at Kognic we ensure we welcome the people with the right technical and social skills. Active listening, helping others and acting like a spider on the web is essential in each of our departments, no matter what your role is. Jon Jaleby, from the Sales team, also gives account of this: “We are constantly pushed by the multiple stakeholders to iterate our way forward to find a commercial solution that enables most value on both sides of the table. It's hard work but together we make it inspiring and developing. You are constantly being challenged in what you do, but through a transparent, diverse and humble culture”.
Of course, creating a positive and safe environment where all questions are welcome takes its time, it’s an ongoing work. But it’s absolutely worth it. “When you have a question and ask for help, at Kognic you will always find someone who wants to help you and wants you to succeed. There are no stupid questions, no eye-rolling”, says Isak Hjortgren, Team Lead of the Data Quality Product Area. Jon Jaleby adds “You never feel questioned. Instead you feel that people challenge your arguments because they listen and are genuinely interested in your thoughts 💡”.
The right working environment
Having the right environment is also decisive for the team’s learning curve. That might explain why we all have grown here as we never imagined! That’s no easy thing when we’re so diverse. We come from different places, have different backgrounds and, in some cases, have different mother tongues. Nevertheless, being open, curious and service-minded unites us and makes us succeed. When talking to Polly Jing Li, VP of Advisory Services, she also highlights the importance of creating the right working atmosphere: “I always try to ensure that we have an open and supportive environment because I don’t believe one can win. Everyone has their strengths and their challenges, and that’s how we complement each other. You need to build that safe environment to be able to ask and be asked for help.”
Yet another aspect that shapes our culture is trust. “The whole approach at Kognic is more like a pull instead of a push approach, and I think that’s what differentiates us in a lot of ways. Because it’s not about who’s managing who and how many years experience you have, but rather believing that people want to do their best work and that they can help out with whatever is required”, explains Marko Cotra, Team Lead of the Self-serve platform. “When we’re working we try to make it transparent so that everyone knows what’s going on and the purpose of what we do”, adds Isak Hjortgren. “Making sure you include everyone makes a big difference. It’s the best way to create team spirit, everyone feels involved and thus contributes to the team”.
We work, and we care
But there’s more to it than just work. Ester Svensson, from People & Culture, tells us about this initiative they have in her team, and how they adapt their days depending on the workload: “We have an initiative lately where we start weekly meetings by providing positive feedback to each other so we can begin the day with a good boost. And that’s great! On the other hand, when it comes to our daily reality, we’re quite new and some questions pop up for the first time, so it requires a lot of collaboration and support from everyone. Sometimes, someone has a super hectic day and another one a calm day, so we try to divide tasks and help each other. It’s all about lifting others up and teamwork''.
Ester couldn’t have explained it any better. Not to brag, but we haven't just built a company, but also a community where people care for each other. And that is also Kognic 🙌.
*By the way, we are hiring! If Kognic sounds like the place you’d like to be, visit our careers page and check out our vacancies. Who knows, maybe we'll see you at the next All Hands?!
