The ActBlue Technical Services team maintains our platform’s infrastructure and builds exciting and engaging software experiences for millions of donors and thousands of progressive campaigns, causes, and movements. ATS is made up of a diverse group of engineers, product managers, designers, and other curious technologists who are passionate about ensuring that our digital fundraising tools are the best they can be. As the small-dollar donor movement grows, so does our organization as we scale up and create more opportunities to support donors and admins alike.
We sat down with a few of our ATS team members so they could give insight into the work they do every day, plus the culture that has been developed on their teams and within the organization as a whole! If you’re interested in joining ActBlue to help create software supporting the small-dollar donor movement, apply here!
Julissa J, Senior Software Engineer
What is your favorite part about the workplace culture at ActBlue?
I work with some of the most compassionate and empathetic people I’ve had the joy of knowing. These qualities aren’t something specific to my team, but something I noticed across our organization. I’m not afraid to ask questions or ask for help, and I’m excited to learn new technologies with the assistance of others.
Describe your typical day at ActBlue.
My day at ActBlue starts with reviewing my team members’ pull requests. I like to review code in the morning, so I can focus on their work without having to context-switch from what I have been working on. Next, I will either continue a ticket I have been working on or pick up a new ticket.
Every two weeks we decide, as a team, which tickets we will be working on. Tickets are a mix of quick bug fixes, user experience enhancements, and larger features that can take weeks to complete. Meetings are sprinkled throughout the day. These consist of mostly check-ins with my team or progress updates on bigger features we are working on.
What sets ActBlue apart from other software organizations?
Because ActBlue is a mission-driven organization, it feels great going into a quarterly planning meeting and coming up with ideas that make our platform more accessible to our users. Having come from private and for-profit companies, I had become used to goals being profit- and revenue-driven. I appreciate that our mission and values are people-centered instead.
David F, Staff Software Engineer
What is your favorite part about the workplace culture at ActBlue?
I love that we care enough about culture to make it an intentional part of our work. Too many places leave culture to accident or misunderstand culture to be free beer and videogames. We’re willing to make mistakes and learn from them, so we can do our best to support everyone. The care that we put into each other is truly unique. Other places say they care about people, but I really see it here.
Describe your typical day at ActBlue.
My day generally starts with a short check-in with my team, so that we can share what we’re doing that day and ask each other for help. Roughly a quarter of my time is spent in meetings, where we coordinate future projects. The rest of my day is spent researching solutions, reviewing code before it is deployed, writing my own code, helping others get past a tough problem, and writing documentation. I’m often working on problems like “How can we make sure no contributions are ever lost, even if something outside of our control breaks?” or “How can we upgrade some of our core software without causing bugs or downtime?” This type of work rarely fits one team’s description, so I’m there to help fill in those cracks and glue it all together.
What sets ActBlue apart from other software organizations?
I cut my teeth with small software startups. We were always chasing investors and shiny clients. The executives were always massively overselling us with hopes that we could catch up to their promises as soon as an investor or client said yes. At ActBlue, we get to focus on long-term planning, culture, and our mission of empowering small-dollar donors.
Lauren T, Group Product Manager
What is your favorite part about the workplace culture at ActBlue?
I really appreciate how much autonomy the product teams have here at ActBlue. We are given a lot of runway to spend time deep-diving into how our software is used, understanding our end users’ problems, and figuring out ways we can build new features and tools that donors, campaigns and organizations love. This allows us to really focus on the most impactful opportunities at hand and deliver new and improved experiences that engage and delight. It’s really exciting when you know that a new feature or one small bug fix could be massively impactful to grassroots fundraising up and down the ballot.
Describe your typical day at ActBlue.
One of my favorite things about being a product manager is there is no typical day! Some days we are shipping new software to millions of donors, some days we’re pulling data to measure impact, and other days we’re combing through survey data trying to understand what problems we can help solve for our users. With that being said, one thing that tends to be true about every day for me is the opportunity to collaborate with my co-workers across the organization. I’m regularly working with folks from Outreach, Communications & Marketing, and Customer Service to ensure the software we’re building on ATS is useful and robust.
What sets ActBlue apart from other software organizations?
The tech team at ActBlue is the most diverse set of engineers, designers, and product folk I’ve ever worked with. I really appreciate how much of a priority ActBlue has made to ensure that we have a tech team that looks like the kinds of donors and admins that use our tools. At previous companies, I’ve often been the only woman in the room. In my nearly three years at ActBlue, I’m not sure that’s been a problem yet. It’s been a real pleasure to work alongside and learn from so many different kinds of people.
Izzy B, Product Designer
What is your favorite part about the workplace culture at ActBlue?
My team not only makes the room for, but encourages, work/life balance. We have a lot of respect for each other both as teammates and as individuals, and the shared understanding we have creates a very supportive atmosphere.
Describe your typical day at ActBlue.
I like to think of my days as usually taking one of two forms: a meeting day or a working day. If I have a day where I have multiple meetings with an hour-ish or less between them, it’s the former. This means I’ll use my energy to engage with my teammates and prepare or debrief – and maybe knock out a couple of smaller tasks in the time in between. A working day happens when I have a longer stretch of time to focus on a larger project; I try to identify a single priority for these days. Categorizing the day and what it requires allows me to be realistic with my time and mental energy, which is important as an individual contributor.
What sets ActBlue apart from other software organizations?
Absolutely the strong, shared sense of mission. The desire to support progressive causes permeates our communication and operations in a positive way. In my time at ActBlue, I’ve seen the organization’s leadership take tangible and measurable action directly after receiving feedback from employees, with a genuine desire to improve the organization for everyone who works here. There is an effort to keep communication channels open, and to not only be listening, but actually doing.
If you’re interested in joining our engineering team in working to create software that can do more for campaigns, organizations, and grassroots donors, check out job listings here!
