EliseAI Career Growth & Development

How does your team cultivate a culture of learning, whether that’s through hackathons, lunch and learns, access to online courses or other resources?

We believe the fastest learning happens when engineers share context as they solve problems, and that means everyone is teaching as much as they’re learning. Most of it happens in the flow of work: tapping someone on the shoulder, sketching on the whiteboard or pairing on the code until it’s clear. When someone builds something new, they’ll walk the team through it, record it and make sure others can build on it. We keep learning and teaching lightweight, continuous and part of the way we work.

How does this culture positively impact the work your team produces?

This culture shows up directly in the work; knowledge spreads quickly, engineers unblock themselves faster and the team keeps moving at high velocity even as we grow. New engineers land a pull request on day one and ship real work in their first week. By the end of their first month, they’re already owning full features or products. They’re not waiting on long training or digging through stale docs; context comes from pairing, a quick whiteboard session or a short walkthrough they can replay. Because learning always comes with teaching, explaining your work forces clarity. It surfaces issues early and results in a higher-quality product.

What advice would you give to other engineers or engineering leaders interested in creating a culture of learning on their own team?

Normalize questions and context-sharing. Treat asking questions as a strength, and recognize that sharing context is high-leverage work. Ten minutes at a whiteboard can save hours later.

Capture and improve knowledge. Write down or record the things that come up repeatedly. When new people ramp up, ask what was clear and what wasn’t, and then have them improve the docs as part of the process.

Keep feedback loops tight. Don’t let people sit blocked or wait weeks for review. The faster you trade feedback, the faster everyone learns. And make teaching everyone’s job: If you learned it today, explain it tomorrow.