From Code to Care: The Hidden Impact of Our Work

I’m surrounded by friends who save lives, treat diseases, deliver babies, and heal people. I doubt they go to bed doubting their impact after a full day of work. If I’m honest, sometimes I feel a bit meaningless compared to them. I didn’t save anyone’s life today or bring a new human into the world, and hopefully, I won’t be put in a position of that magnitude. 

I want to live a life with purpose, but my goals are different and involve fewer life-or-death circumstances. I’ve always been a trial-and-error, learn-from-your-mistakes kind of leader. My team at Blend Interactive just rolled their eyes because I am actually a perfectionist, but the older I get, the more I embrace that I am human and have made some important mistakes to get where I am.

I was drawn to web development because if you make a mistake, you can quickly correct it by deploying a new version. (Okay, maybe that statement isn’t the most timely, given last week’s CrowdStrike chaos.) However, I’m beginning to see how much our work affects lives, even if it comes from behind a keyboard.

For example, on a recent visit to one of our children’s hospital clients, one of the staff members thanked us for all the site improvements — not because we wrote beautiful code, but because we improved the experience for parents trying to find a doctor for their child’s newly diagnosed illness.

“Visiting the children’s hospital — and seeing firsthand how their work impacts kids — was an experience I won’t forget. I’m proud to work with a client who makes such a positive impact, and seeing it in person truly strengthened our partnership in a special way.” - Nick Cobb, Director of Project Management at Blend

If we’ve simplified the process for parents to find care for their kids, we’re doing good work. We’re impacting lives at a time when they must feel like the ground is crumbling beneath them. Our clients look at us as an extended part of the care team at the hospital, appreciated alongside the doctors and nurses who are all part of a child’s journey to healing. It truthfully takes a team, and it is an honor to play a role in that experience.

We build websites. But we also impact lives. 

Knowing how much we are appreciated made me tear up a bit and made me even more proud that the key people on my team who work on this site every day got to hear how they are also heroes in their own way.

During a recent all-staff onsite, I facilitated an exercise that focused on our company’spurpose. With a stack of blank Post-It notes and a Sharpie, the challenge was to write down what they felt our purpose was at Blend. Our team members shared how they thought we made an impact and how our actions made a real difference. The outcome was a wall full of colorful reasons why we do what we do. Our work with children’s hospitals was just one of many answers to why we each serve a purpose in our roles at Blend.

“I had the privilege of meeting the children’s hospital team and touring their facility. As a father of two girls, this experience was especially meaningful. Knowing our work at Blend makes a difference for families like mine was inspiring.” - Marshall Crosby, Lead UX Developer at Blend

One of my most outstanding achievements as a founder is creating a workplace that impacts others’ lives. While I once thought that was limited to impacts within our own team — a rewarding workplace, respectable pay, and a culture where everyone belongs — I now know that we’ve also created a company of people who help others and make the world a little bit better. It fills my cup.

I’d love for kids not to need a hospital or a doctor. But we hope to make that circumstance as painless as possible for families when and if they ever do. We strive to continuously improve that experience, one code deployment at a time.

This post was originally posted on LinkedIn.