#buildinghouzz

As a software engineer, Karthik is focused on building the visual and interactive experience you see on our website. Outside of work, he is an outdoor adventurer, enjoying everything from skiing and snowboarding, to hiking, running and cycling.

Why did you decide to become a software engineer? Growing up in Bangalore, which many consider to be the Silicon Valley of India, it was motivating to see others achieving great success in the field of computer science. I was inspired to follow a similar path and really honed my skills in computer science while studying for my masters degree. My love for front-end engineering developed through courses in the field of human-computer interaction.

What brought you to Houzz? Houzz is a very visual site by nature and holds the mantel for web design. I realized that the wide range of problems that Houzz is solving for its community presented opportunities for me to be creative and make an impact on a large scale, so I wanted to join the team.

How did your previous experience prepare you for working here? My graduate studies and previous work experience equipped me with the skill set to learn quickly while managing multiple challenges at once. At Houzz, I have had the opportunity to work on web infrastructure, which has been a new experience, so I’m learning and contributing at the same time.

What project are you most proud of? I’m most proud of launching the front-end stack of the Node.js framework, that enables us to build a faster, and richer, app-like user experience. As a team, we rebuilt the entire web infrastructure from scratch and migrated one of the largest pages on Houzz. The most challenging part of the project was replicating the many years of development effort and quality without affecting any of the user engagement that the existing page was driving. It was a major cross-functional collaboration involving an array of teams both locally and internationally.

Do you have any productivity hacks that you use when you’re faced with a challenge? They say necessity is the mother of all inventions. When I’m struggling to find a specific solution, I put myself in a scenario where I have limited resources, which forces me to think outside of the box.

When do you write your best code? I’m a night person and write my best code after 4pm.

What do you like most about working at Houzz? We really are true to our core values. We are a family, we build the future and we make things happen. Because of the flat structure of our organization, everyone is treated equally and given a lot of responsibility. I feel empowered in my role and am surrounded by smart, yet approachable and supportive teammates who will go the extra mile to get things done.

You may have spotted Kia in our April Fools’ Day spoof, but she isn’t really creating our cryptocurrency. As a full stack engineer on our growth team, Kia builds features that help new users engage with Houzz. When she’s not at work, Kia can be found at her improv comedy class, rock climbing or filling out the latest New York Times crossword puzzle.

What project are you most proud of at Houzz? I’m most proud of my contributions to the new room-centered landing experience for our community. It helps our users to find all of the resources Houzz offers by room, from inspirational photos to home professionals to editorial ideabooks, in one place. I worked on the front-end code, which impacts what the user sees. It’s been very successful helping people to discover new home pros in their area and Houzz Shop products.

Do you typically work on front-end code? As a full stack engineer, my work touches both front-end and back-end code. In some instances, I’ll handle the whole project from the data sets to the UI, but sometimes I’ll work with the team and focus on the front-end. I like that I get to mix it up.

Did you always want to become an engineer? Actually, I originally went to school to become a neuroscientist. Working as a lab manager, I learned how to write code in MatLab to help with analyzing data. I realized I enjoyed that part of the job more than other aspects of my research and decided to make a change. I enrolled in a coding bootcamp and the rest is history.

What attracted you to a career in STEM? My parents were very supportive of my interests in math and science. I went to a women’s college, so it was both powerful and inspiring for me to see every position, across subjects and at every level of prominence, occupied by female leaders.

Do you have any advice for young women considering the STEM field? You don’t have to see something to know that it can be possible. Just because young women may not see as many females in STEM positions, doesn’t mean they can’t be in that role.

What was your first impression of Houzz? When I first visited the office to interview, I was completely taken in by the feel of it. You can tell a company is “all in” on home design when you sit in a conference room decorated like rooms in a home. That level of dedication was really appealing. I was also struck by the fact that most of the people interviewing me had been with Houzz for years. I hadn’t seen that at other companies and I was really impressed.

What do you like most about working here? I work with many teams in my role; it’s very interdisciplinary in that way. For example, I’ll work solo writing code, then I’ll run it through an AB test with a colleague to see how the new feature performs and then meet with the front-end engineers to build a pop-up into the flow. I also like that the work environment is transparent and educational. I’ve benefited from our weekly deep dive into what’s under the hood of our front-end framework.

What is your most productive time of day to write code? Do you have any productivity tips? I’m most productive right before dinner. When I sit on the couch in the lobby, I can really get in the zone. If I ever get in a slump, I remind myself to think about how cool it’ll look when the feature is done.

In his role, Jichi focuses on ensuring that the Houzz search functionality delivers the most relevant results to our community. Forever a student of the world, when he’s not at work, you’ll find Jichi out exploring new places and learning how to play new sports or musical instruments.

How did you hear about Houzz? I was looking to join a company where my work could help to shape the foundation of their technology from an early stage and was drawn to Houzz after reading an article about the company.

What does your work entail? My work helps to scale our search functionality to encompass a growing database of information as well as improve search results for our community. More specifically, I build the infrastructure for photo search, product search, user search, and many other key functionalities.

Why did you become a back-end engineer? As a back-end engineer, I have more direct control over the large scale software stacks that I build. That’s one of the reasons I like working at a startup, like Houzz. Additionally, I enjoy creating solutions at the back-end which serve the business, and are mathematically and scientifically challenging to solve.

What’s your favorite part of working at Houzz? It’s very self-directed, so the work is controlled by your own hand. You personally have ownership over projects that will make a big impact for the company. I’m also impressed by the culture. Coworkers are more like family than colleagues.

Based in our Tel Aviv office, Shelly works to ensure our iOS community has the best possible mobile experience. Outside of work, she enjoys walking her dog, Chuck, going to the beach, hiking, cooking and traveling to new places.

What do you do at Houzz? In my role at Houzz, I’m continuously testing our app for the iPhone and iPad and working with our developers to create the most functional, intuitive and enjoyable mobile experience possible.

Why did you decide to work in quality assurance? I originally worked in customer support, where I gained some experience in product testing. One of the developers I worked with thought I had a knack for quality assurance, and I liked the idea that my work could impact product development. I decided to go back to school to learn more about QA, as it is known in the industry, and ultimately chose to pursue it as a career.

How did you hear about Houzz? A previous colleague told me about Houzz, so I downloaded the app and thought it was amazing! As I learned more about Houzz as a company, it felt like joining a family, which was a big advantage over other companies I’d researched at the time.

What Houzz project are you most proud of? View in My Room 3D is an amazing feature within the Houzz app that allows you to virtually place furniture and other products in your home before you buy. It puts Houzz at the forefront of innovation and technology and I’m proud to be a part of the team that’s making it a reality for our community.

What is it like working with other teams at Houzz? Beyond the iOS team, I work with the design team and other developers at our HQ in Palo Alto. I’m impressed by everyone’s drive and motivation to create the best possible product.

What’s your favorite part about working at Houzz? What excites me most about working for Houzz is the fact that I have responsibility over an app that is used by and impacts millions of people. It’s a huge honor and something that makes me very proud. I also love my team. We work well together because we have great communication -- the key to a successful work environment!

Based in our Tel Aviv office, Tom works to ensure our Android community has the best possible mobile experience. When he’s not busy exercising his mind at work, you’ll likely find him building furniture in his workshop or outside growing hot peppers to flavor his favorite spicy dishes.

Did you always know you wanted to become a software engineer? Yes, but I didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. Growing up, I always tinkered with mobile devices, questioning why things worked in a certain way, and coming up with ideas to make them better. I went to school to become a communications system engineer, which put me in the right direction, but I’ve grown away from the communications aspect of my degree. About four years ago I realized I had always wanted to be a software engineer. I’m pretty lucky that the path I took led me to my dream job (even if I didn’t know this was what I wanted when I started out).

How did you hear about Houzz? I used Houzz as a great source of inspiration for home and furniture design long before I knew there was an office in Tel Aviv. When I found out that not only was there an office here, but that it housed the mobile division, it felt serendipitous!

How would you describe what you do at Houzz? I work with the Android team to provide our community of homeowners and home professionals with the best mobile technology and tools for Android devices. We connect with the iOS team to ensure there is consistency across platforms and use the latest APIs and frameworks to keep the app up-to-date with cutting edge technical features. We were humbled to hear that Google named the Houzz Android app as the overall best Android app of the year at the inaugural Google Play Awards last year.

What Houzz project are you most proud of? When I started at Houzz, bringing videos to the mobile platform was a major focus for me. We had seen how popular our videos were on the website and wanted to offer them in the app. It was challenging to create a video component that supports both old and new devices and is flexible enough to be used in a variety of displays like lists, popups and full screen. Our video component now uses the latest frameworks, plays smoothly across the app and can be easily integrated into new features.

What is it like working with people in varying time zones? It’s incredibly collaborative, so you’re brainstorming and getting feedback from teams all over the world. It makes for a very dynamic day, where everyone makes an effort to be responsive to teams in other time zones when something is needed urgently. And it does take a little patience in those moments when you’re really excited and want a response right away, but know that the person you’re emailing might be sleeping.

As a member of the Houzz backend team, Minwen works on infrastructure and platform products to improve the Houzz community experience by making the website faster and more reliable. When she’s not working, Minwen enjoys traveling with her family to places they’ve never been before. Their last stop was Iceland.

Why did you want to become a software engineer? I’ve always liked building things, but didn’t start coding until I was in college. When I was a teenager, computer science was just getting started in China. In high school, the top four students from each province were sent to a national physics competition where we met professors from the country’s top universities. I met with one professor who offered me the opportunity to attend Tsinghua University and study computer science. All I knew of computer science was that it was an exciting new technology, but I said yes right away. It’s pretty incredible that a decision made by a high school student, far from home, with no input from my parents, could drive my lifetime career.

Why did you decide to join Houzz? A few of my friends worked for Houzz and told me about the supportive community culture they experienced, which is what drew me to apply. My interview confirmed what I had heard from my friends and I couldn’t wait to get started!

What is the best part about working at Houzz? From an engineering perspective, I appreciate the Houzz code review process. It promotes quality and productivity, allowing you to focus on the big picture to improve the overall experience of the Houzz platform for our community.

From a workplace perspective, I was so pleased to find that my friends were right about the culture at Houzz. My particular focus on the Redis database allows me to interact with different teams within engineering, and I can see that teamwork and collaboration are valued and encouraged on all projects.

What Houzz project are you most proud of? When I joined Houzz last year, we realized that as Houzz continues to scale, we’d need to identify and implement solutions to handle the growing amount of data required to run the platform. Houzz historically used Redis as our main de facto data storage cache. In the past, as the company scaled up and we outgrew the storage capacity in one Redis server, we’d open a new server and manually move a subset of data from existing sources to that server. That move wasn’t transparent to the applications in Houzz that access data from these servers, so we’d have to go back and modify code for those applications. It was a very manual process.

In order to automate the applications we use on a daily basis and create transparency between those applications, we decided to migrate all of our data from individual Redis servers to a Redis Cluster, which allows us to continue adding storage in a more transparent manner. I’m proud to be a part of Houzz’s growth. You can read more about the migration to Redis Cluster at this link.

What is something that has surprised you about working for Houzz? I’ve worked on a number of large-scale tech company campuses, so when I started working at Houzz, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed working in downtown Palo Alto. It was an unexpected feeling of freedom and I love to pop outside for a cup of tea or walk down University Avenue in the friendly crowds.

Is there anything that you’ve learned that you’d like to impart on others? Always keep learning! Stay open minded and keep an eye out for new technologies on the horizon.

The Houzz team of designers has grown quickly over the past few years to more than 25 designers across product, branding, and marketing. This growth has supported Houzz’s expansion both to new markets (we’ve launched dedicated platforms for 14 countries) and to new offerings, such as our home products marketplace, the Houzz Shop.

For our team to best support the company through rapid growth, we needed to put new processes in place. We understand the value of having a good design process, which both promotes design thinking and helps move ideas from concept to completion. But we also understand that too much process can lead to doing things in the same way, which hinders creativity. So how could we develop a process that promotes creativity as well?

We ultimately decided to create different processes for different types of projects, which we defined as people-driven, technology-driven and data-driven. Taking this flexible approach allows us to adapt to the specific needs of each project, ensure the best results for our community and be creative.

Here’s how each approach works:

People-driven People-driven projects are inspired by our community. As frequent users of our platform, our community of homeowners, design enthusiasts and home professionals regularly provides some of the best ideas to enhance our platform. In this process, we first listen to the community and then use research to further understand their needs, wishes and pain points. From there, we take an iterative design process that shapes our ultimate solution.

For example, we heard that people wanted to be able to mark what they like on the photos that they browse, save and share on Houzz, to better communicate their home design ideas. We conducted research to understand how our community would want to interact with the more than 15 million retina-quality photos on Houzz -- other than saving them and adding notes -- and what features would be intuitive and simple to use. The result was our Sketch tool, which enables people to add measurements, notes, stickers, products from the Houzz Shop and more to bring design ideas to life. The tool helps people communicate and collaborate more effectively on their home projects.

To expand on the research involved with this process, we first used it to understand whether or not people would want to use this tool, and then to learn how they would use it. We shared our designs and early implementations with users to find out what was working and what wasn’t. Questions we asked included, “How much pressure needs to be placed on the screen to get the stroke weight they want?”, “How easy is it to find the product users want to add to the sketch?”, and “Which gestures should we use for scaling and resizing elements?” This type of feedback is important to gather during the design process, so that the resulting feature will best meet people’s needs. We continue to collect feedback and data on how the tool is being used as we work on its next iterations.

Technology-driven New or better technology also drives the design process. In this instance, our design and engineering teams work in parallel, collaborating and iterating on a variety of approaches to define product details together.

The technology-driven process was important in the development of the View in my Room 3D tool, which lets people see more than 500,000 products from the Houzz Shop in 3D in their homes before they buy. We started by defining the entry points and main flows of the user experience. The engineers then briefed us on the technology and we worked closely together from there to determine core function operations and the appearance of 3D objects within the room. We couldn’t move forward with the design process without trying the real-life implementations, and the developers couldn’t move forward without the design specs and flows. We created many different designs, tried them out, and made changes as needed, before we landed on the final design. This collaborative process helped us gather important ideas from both teams along the way to deliver an innovative product which has been used by more than one million people since we released it earlier this year.

Data-driven We use a data-driven process when working on optimizing existing experiences and start by evaluating current product performance data provided by the analytics team. The data identify potential pain points for our community and provides a baseline from which to improve. We create, implement and test a variety of hypotheses to identify the highest performing approach. This way, we’re able to turn good products into great ones by trying different ideas with quick iterations to create the best experience for our community.

The data-driven process was critical in a recent change we made to our Visual Match tool, which uses visual recognition to make it easy for people to discover and buy on Houzz the types of products and materials that inspire them in photos. From the beginning, we’ve used tags to highlight products available for purchase on the Houzz Shop. The tags were big and green -- to represent our brand color -- and had become our trademark. Over time, we felt the design had become outdated and detracted from the browsing experience, so we decided to make a change.

The biggest concern we had during the redesign was that engagement might decrease if we made the tags less noticeable. Testing multiple designs uncovered that a more subtle white version performed better than the big green tags by 30 percent. The data provided insights into how our community uses and reacts to design changes and helped us to move forward with the best possible option.

Being flexible in our design approach allows our team to be nimble in solving challenges without compromising creativity. It helps us to gather ideas and feedback from our community and team members and verify our hypotheses with data and research. It also allows us to set the right pace for each project, and most importantly, it fosters innovation.

As a research engineer, Yunsong helps augment search and personalized recommendation experiences for the Houzz community. Outside of work, Yunsong enjoys spending time with his family, and looks forward to sharing his love of the outdoors with his young son.

Why did you decide to become a research engineer? I’ve always been driven by the desire to find and solve difficult challenges, a common trait among research engineers. I studied computer science in school, which led to a PhD in artificial intelligence, and a series of papers and patents on intelligent systems. I’m thrilled to bring intelligent techniques to life.

What brought you to Houzz? A number of my friends were working at Houzz, two of whom I’ve known since we attended the University of Science and Technology of China together. The team was looking for someone with my unique search experience, and I was intrigued by the positive environment that I’d heard about from my friends.

How would you describe what you do at Houzz? My role is focused on search quality. I see myself as a translator helping Houzz to better understand what the customer really wants. Whether a user is looking for a home pro in a specific location or using a lesser known synonym to describe a product they want to purchase for their home, my work integrates the Houzz search platform deep into the home remodeling domain and helps to provide users with the best possible results.

What are some of the challenges to improving search? People generally search with something already in their mind. The inherent challenge for search is to understand the query semantic and the real user intention behind what they typed. The search algorithm must recognize a variety of words, their relations, and what they mean under a specific context. For example, a chair can be contextually described as a seat, stool or bench. The color “red” can describe cabinet color, backsplash color or floor color. Technology must be a bridge between customer understanding and company terminology and resolve ambiguities in each specific situation. That’s why it’s so important to develop a robust catalogue of concepts to give each query meaning.

Do you interact with other teams at Houzz? Yes, my research informs the development of the Houzz infrastructure, so I work closely with that team to build a comprehensive catalogue of query terminology that bridges user intent and remodeling domain concepts. We work together to make our machine learning systems more intelligent. I also work closely with the international and industry solutions teams.