Behind the Flame: Ellie Cherrill

Welcome to Behind the Flame, a series created to showcase our incidentios.

Meet Ellie Cherrill, Product Engineer here at incident.io.

Q: What is it like being a product engineer at incident.io?

It is tons of fun, it's really fast paced and we get to work on lots of different parts of the product. In my first five months I think I've worked on most parts of the product now.

Q: What was it like coming from a more traditional engineering background?

In my previous role I was working in a much more traditional environment, and the first day I walked through the incident.io doors, I could feel the pace hit me like a truck, but in the best way possible, we move so quickly. My first project was done within week two for one of our customers. It's just been so fun working with a group of people who have been here from the start, who have so much context on why we've built what we've built, but are still so passionate about the product we have today.

Q: What does a typical day look like for you?

Ill get in, have my breakfast, which is the most important as you don't want to be dealing with a hungry Ellie. Then I'll look at Slack, see what I need to catch up on, and head to stand up to see what the rest of the team are doing. Most of my day after that is coding. We have very few meetings as a product engineer. Maybe I'll have a product review with Pete, our CTO, where he'll share thoughts on what we're working on. I'll probably get in a room with one of our engineers and whiteboard something out. Then more coding, it's very much coding 90% of the day.

Q: What is something you're excited or proud to have worked on?

The thing I'm most proud of is a project from a couple of months ago where we finally let people customize their Slack messages for their alerts. It sounds simple, but it's something we were able to put loads of magic into, and customers loved it. It was great to feel so valued by our customers and give them something they'd been waiting on for a long time.

Q: What are you most looking forward to with incident.io this year and beyond?

Just seeing it grow, and seeing myself grow here too. I've only been here five months, which feels crazy. It feels like I've been here much longer with the amount of work we've got done. I can only imagine where we'll be at the end of this year and the end of next year, with so many more people getting involved.

Q: What does collaboration look like on your team?

On the On-Call team, we're very much a get in a room, grab a whiteboard, and start sketching things out kind of team. Our system is one of the most critical pieces of the incident.io product, and there are so many different parts to it. It's really important, when we're changing things, to work out how it's going to impact other parts of the product we might not have thought about.

Q: If you were to work on another team for the day, what team would you join and why?

I'd probably join the Sales team. It's the most different from Engineering and I think I would feel so uncomfortable cold calling people. But it would be so interesting to hear how our Sales team does such a great job of communicating what we're working on as product engineers.

Q: What was something that surprised you when you joined?

How much passion everyone still has for the product. You expect people to enjoy what they do, but not to love it and be super passionate about what they're building. You see it at the end of a project sprint: in another company, you'd just ship it and move on. But spending those extra few days really polishing, having what we call a polish party, hearing people's thoughts, making it better, making it magic. That's what keeps the passion for the product so strong.

Q: What does incident.io do differently from anywhere else you've worked?

What the founders call the weekly heartbeat of the company which is our All Hands. We all get together every week, hearing what other functions are doing. It keeps everyone aligned, not just Engineers within Engineering and Sales within Sales, but everyone together. You get a real feel for the pace and momentum of the company, rather than a quarter going by and having no idea what other people have worked on.

Q: What is the value that most resonates with you?

Win Together, we're very much a company with no blame culture. We have a million incidents here all the time, running out of coffee is an incident, and when those happen, there's no pointing the finger. It's about how we prevent it from happening again. You also see Win Together in how we approach projects: even though someone leads it, it's very much about the team building it. There's no "this is all about me." It's about what the team has been able to achieve.

Q: What is your favourite customer interaction?

When we launched Maintenance Windows last month, Starling Bank very quickly said it gets the vote for their favourite feature of the year. Although we're only in April, fingers crossed no one beats us. It's just so amazing to hear how valued what we build is by customers, and how quickly that comes back.

Q: What's a perk or benefit you didn't expect to love but actually do?

First Friday of the month. I know it's not a surprise, but it really is such a good way to reset. We work fast here, we work hard, and that break every month makes a real difference. Because you're not using a holiday day, you don't feel like you need to plan anything or go somewhere. You can just take your time. I know Nicole always books herself a massage on that Friday, which I think is the best thing.

Q: What's something you've learned since joining?

How powerful a company can be when everyone inside cares about it just as much as one of the founders. It feels like we all own a piece of the product here. Engineering, Sales, Talent, Workplace everyone feels so passionately about the culture we build and the product we build. When you have that, you can go so far and so quickly.

Q: What's something you've changed your mind about since joining?

I've always been someone to dive straight in and get going, but the autonomy and ownership you're given so early was quite scary. Week two, you don't have the domain knowledge, and you are already leading a project on something pretty critical. It's changed my mindset that just because you're leading something doesn't mean you have to have all the answers. Everyone on the team is still there. We're a company where no one is afraid to not be the smartest person in the room. Everyone is humble, and you can have those conversations without any ego.

Q: What would Ellie five months ago be most surprised to know about your role now?

That I'm actually really enjoying the back-end side of the role. Before I came here I was a Front End Engineer, and now I'm very much a full stack engineer. I'd be surprised that I genuinely enjoy the back end work, and that it's something I can continue to develop the longer I stay.

Q: What is one piece of advice you would give yourself on your first day?

Because we are growing so fast, everyone here still feels very new. You can just chat to everyone and anyone about anything. No one has really got it all figured out, even the people who have been here for years. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. You can sit with anyone at lunch, chat with anyone, and just learn about why people have come to incident.io.

Q: What is one thing you'd tell someone joining the On-Call or Engineering team?

Download Claude, but do not use it to code in your first month. Make sure you really understand how our product is built and how it all fits together first. Then you can pick up Claude and go a million miles an hour.

Q: Why shouldn't you work at incident.io?

If you don't like being given a very ambiguous problem. When you're given a project here, it's typically a sentence and maybe a few customers to go and speak to, and you have to drive everything from there. If that is not your bag, you probably won't enjoy it here.

Q: What type of person thrives here?

Someone who is not scared to get dug in and talk to everyone, whether that's other Engineers, product designers, or customers. If you're waiting for people to tell you who to go and speak to, you're not going to get that far. You thrive if you just go and chat to people and say: hey, can I have five minutes to pick your brain on this?

Q: What made you say yes to incident.io?

I wanted to try the startup life and see what it was like on the other side. But honestly, how I felt in every single interview is what made me say yes. Each one felt like a conversation. It was very two-way, everyone was super curious, and I came out of each one thinking: I've learned something from that. And everyone was so warm and friendly.

Q: What advice would you give to candidates interviewing with us?

Take a breath and be yourself. Everyone at incident.io has their own distinct personality, and we want to work with people where we know what they're like and we know we can get on with them. Be yourself, and remember it's a two-way street: you should only join if you're inspired by our product and what you could do here.

Q: What is one word you'd use to describe life at incident.io?

Energetic. The projects and what we work on move at a super fast pace, and you need to have energy about it. But our culture and how friendly everyone is, also gives you that energy to build something really cool.