Health Catalyst

5.0

2 Dec 2021

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Remember the final scene of the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" where Will Smith/Chris Gardner finds out that he got the job? Google it if you haven't seen it. While walking home Chris Gardner can hardly contain the excitement, relief and joy he feels. It's a beautiful scene. The challenges I faced prior to getting the offer at Health Catalyst don't compare with the struggles Chris Gardner faced. For me the emotion of that final scene in the movie captures the emotion I felt when I found out that I got the job at Health Catalyst. I felt like I had won the lottery. And now, almost 8 years later, I still sincerely feel that way. By far the biggest "Pro" of working at Health Catalyst is the pursuit of happiness. Working in a positive environment you are given adequate or above adequate pay and benefits that enable you to make a good living and comfortably provide for your family. I'm so grateful for the tremendous blessing it is & has been to work at Health Catalyst and provide for my family in this way. When we go to movie nights I imagine that the founders well up with pride when they look out and see all of the people their company has enabled to earn a good living. While good pay and benefits get you past dissatisfaction, Health Catalyst really understands (and practices) the truth that there is a lot more to the pursuit of happiness than pay and benefits. First, the mission. Browse some the case studies on the website if you don't know what the company is about. Even though I work with technology instead of directly with healthcare workers, when I see those case studies I realize that the work we are doing is literally saving lives and helping to turn around the US industry that is perhaps the most in need of being turned around. The mission-driven orientation takes place in the context of a very healthy culture that assumes positive intent while not being naive about our need to fix real mistakes. A culture of striving to listen first, learn and err on the side of team members. When you have 1) the freedom to do your best at interesting work that 2) makes a real difference for people and society in a 3) great culture and 4) get very fairly compensated for it, all while 5) having the encouragement to pursue life balance... now that is a recipe that allows team members to pursue happiness. When these things aren't in place or the opposite of these things are in place, work can be a real drag on your life happiness... even if the compensation is good. Hence, the biggest benefit of working at Health Catalyst is the pursuit of happiness.

Cons

Overall, there is a great culture and tone at Health Catalyst. However, I feel like your experience at Health Catalyst is 50% tied to the (excellent) tone set by the C-levels and 50% tied to the tone of your particular, local, middle management. It's that middle layer that might be a question mark for you. I've been extremely fortunate during my ~8 years to have extremely high-caliber managers. In my mind they've been as good as the C-suite. Just when I think, "Wow, ____ is the best manager I've ever had... it won't get any better than this," my next manager has turned out to be as good or better (at least for what I needed at that stage). However, I know that the experience I've had is not the case for everyone, unfortunately. For some teammates, the high tone set by c-level is mixed with a the local culture set by their direct manager that doesn't quite match up. I purposely turned down two internal job opportunities because I sensed that the local culture/management experience would be a downgrade from what I currently had. The company has been very aware of what I'm describing for some time and has taken steps to improve it and my sense is that things have improved. Also sometimes stuff gets communicated that we can't sustain and we later have to go back and revise. Some examples are: "Unlimited PTO", 6% 401k match, default 5% annual salary increase for solid performing team members, professional services hourly expectations and more than one poorly-communicated major reorg. In each of the above cited examples, a standard was communicated which we found to be unsustainable we got more experience/maturity and in each case we had to trim back what was initially communicated. Those moments have been real downers - for some team members more than others - depending on how you were impacted and how you chose to see the situation. I say, "how you chose to see the situation" because that's crucial. In each of the "downer" examples I cited, there was always another way to look at the situation and appreciate some good coming from it. For example, rather than dwelling on the fact that some of my benefits were trimmed back, I chose to be grateful that I work for a company that was initially a little too ambitious in their generosity. In my mind, that's actually a really important signal that leadership sincerely, really, truly wants to be generous with us. Each of the downers had a silver lining or trade-off that would help to cushion the blow if you were open to considering the big picture. Most of the team members I know that have voluntarily left over one of these "downer" situations was negatively impacted by a poorly executed reorg and decided they wouldn't stand for it. Some of them have later come back. There are other cons of course and there always will be. Individuals will have their local gripes. There will always be opportunities for improvement. As long as leadership continues to humbly and transparently acknowledge all of it, we can work through anything. Even though my writing in the cons section might be as long as what I wrote in the pros section, I strongly believe that the pros of being in the Health Catalyst family HEAVILY outweigh the cons (like, it's not even close).

Health Catalyst Response

Thank you for this thoughtful, reflective, detailed, and insightful review. I've read it and reread it -- and I love the movie you referenced, and have felt those same emotions many times over the past decade about working at Health Catalyst. I also appreciate your expressed concerns about some longtime teammates leaving Health Catalyst and pursuing more entrepreneurial opportunities at smaller startup companies, and the worry that perhaps we're losing some of that entrepreneurial flair that has helped us grow and be successful. I too worry about this, while also recognizing that different chapters of our company's maturation will require different skills, capabilities, areas of focus and deliverables. In some ways we are permanently changing -- somewhat like a person grows from being a child, to an adolescent, to an adult, and some of the changes that take place are permanent and necessary. But some things can be and should be retained always -- like even as adults, we can still hold on to being child-like in some positive ways -- child-like wonder, child-like humility and goodness, while coupling this with wisdom and responsibility and capability borne of experience. We too are maturing as a company, and must focus on scale, consistency, and sustainability and profitability. These things are often secondary or not a focus at all in early stage companies. But in order to survive and thrive long-term, every company must eventually mature in its focus and achieve lasting capabilities. We are striving to make Health Catalyst "built to last" using Jim Collins' vernacular which is very hard to do. But its worthy of the effort, because this is a special place, with world-class team member engagement and mission-orientation. Let's work together to make the next decade also remarkable and even more impactful because of our ability to keep growing and scaling! Thank you again for being my teammate this past decade, and in the centrally critical role of Tech Director no less! I appreciate all your contributions! Best, Dan

The Pursuit of Happiness - Technical Director Health Catalyst Employee Review

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