"A culture where everyone plays to their strenghts"

Martin works at MaaS Global as part of the Development team, primarily on iOS build process and fixing bugs. He thinks that MaaS Global is a great place to work, because he enjoys the freedom to select tasks based on his skills and preferences and because the easy and fluid nature of communication within the team allow them collaborate efficiently while enjoying their work.

Collaborative work culture

Martin says that, “The overriding theme of management at this company is that it’s flexible and it places trust in the different teams to know what they’re doing and get what they’re doing done. We don’t spend a lot of time in meetings.” Because of this he has more time to collaborate with team members and move projects forward. He feels that one of the big successes of the company has been hiring people that created a work environment full of responsible, independent people who enjoy working together.

At MaaS Global, they work in a fairly egalitarian manner, so that, while they have general directives and a lead for each project or task, there is not a strict hierarchy. Martin explains, “People just… figure out what needs to be done together. We have a team lead and then we have some senior developers… but we don’t really stand on a rigid structure. We really work together to figure out what needs to be done.”

Part of the excellent work culture at MaaS Global is the strength of the design team and their free-flowing communication. “It can be difficult in mobile development to have that nice, kind of back-and-forth relationship with design because they’re always going to spec something out and then you’re going to try to implement it and you do your work and it doesn’t quite meet up with what they imagine. But because they are in-house and so genuinely nice to work with, I can just go over there and have a casual conversation. We save a lot of time in the company by having this really approachable work culture. And having such a confidently collaborative process enables us to get work done well and quickly.”

A workplace when you can excel based on your skills

Martin likes that each developer has the freedom to pick up the aspect of a project that best suits their strengths and interests. “We have certain developers who are more interested in doing UI and UX work, some people who are more interested in doing maintenance, and some are more interested in doing the cutting edge development.” He feels it is a self-organizing team where each developer has the trust of management, which gives them a feeling of responsibility and allows them to act independently to do what they see needs to be done.

At MaaS Global, there is also a culture where you can be comfortable asking for your colleagues input when your work involves tasks that aren’t your speciality. “I think one of our strengths is that the group of people that we have here are approachable and it makes them easy to talk to, easy to collaborate with and fun.” Martin feels this work environment is not one where you need to protect your ego. “You don’t look bad for needing help, you look good for being responsible enough to just turn to the person beside you and ask. You save time and you save money. And next week, that person will be asking you for help on something.”

A career in cutting-edge Helsinki

Martin, who is originally from the west coast of Canada, thought that coming to work in Helsinki would be an, “enjoyable adventure”. He thinks Helsinki and MaaS Global are both easy places for foreigners because of the high level of English.

“It’s a nice society. It’s a fair society. It’s a good place to live and honestly, as cities go, it’s great. It’s not too big. It obviously has really good transportation, which is why a company like MaaS comes from somewhere like here.” Martin has experienced in the workplace a nice combination of Finnish qualities, hard work and sincere friendliness. He is very happy he ended up working in such a great place.

Be a part of the MaaS vision

Martin thinks that something the management at MaaS Global does exceptionally well is communicating the vision of the company. “Generally, working in tech, I have never been particularly caught up in what the company I worked with did or what its vision was or where it was going…. But now, it’s good to get up in the morning to come into work and say, ‘I know what I’m doing, and I get why this is useful for people. I understand what kind of improvements this can make in people’s lives today.’ And knowing where we’re going in the future, you can get excited about… what the work that you’re currently doing can mean to people in the future.”

Martin sees MaaS Global as the perfect place for developers who like casual team-oriented workplaces, want to be a part of a clear vision, and work together to solve big problems affecting modern life.

"It feels good to be part of something bigger"

A strong desire to change the world, green values and a global organization were the key elements that drove Veera Aalto’s decision to join Maas Global a year ago – a rapidly growing startup. And the journey has been full of novelty ever since.

“There is always something new and exciting happening at MaaS. Whether it is a launch to a new market, introducing new features or thinking of ways to engage new stakeholders”, says Veera Aalto, communications coordinator at MaaS Global.

A rapidly changing environment is definitely something that Veera appreciates in her work. She describes her role as, “a one-lady communications department”, which includes a lot of different responsibilities, from internal communications to social media and crisis communication. Since MaaS Global is currently a hot topic all over the world, she is contacted, globally, by journalists  on an almost weekly basis. “We are like a new neighbor, about whom people are curious and interested to learn more.” Veera believes that building up a confidential relationship with the press from the start with will bear fruit in the future and that the importance of good media relations can’t be overemphasized.

Since Veera was the first employee in the MaaS Global communication unit, she had had the privilege to establish their communication unit. During the first year, Veera has built a good foundation on which is they can build more and more, with the team she desires to have in the future.  When launching into new markets, the role of communications is extremely important: “We have to take into account both the media and consumers, and also the municipality, decision-makers and partners.” Communication needs to be carefully planned so that it serves each stakeholder in the best possible way. MaaS Global’s goal is to communicate clearly and to be transparent about who they are, what they are doing next and what their plans are in the future.

Values guiding career decisions

Values have always been a high priority on Veera’s list. Before MaaS Global, she worked at Ikea’s communications department where she was taking care of the media relations, social media and internal communications. Her decision to join a fairly new startup a year ago was very value-based and purpose-driven.

“Green values have always been a big part of my life. It is important to me that I can have the same values at  work that I have at home.” She also feels empowered and proud to be a part of MaaS Global’ journey: “It feels great to be part of something bigger. It’s not only that we are building a product. We are building a service that will change the whole world in the future. We are creating new ways of everyday travel and affecting how cities will be designed and built in the future. This truly is the next big disruption for you and me.”

“I can genuinely feel proud to say that I’m involved in changing the world in a cleaner way – Pretty amazing feeling!”

In addition to having a inspiring mission, the company is packed with great colleagues – a good combination of professionalism, result orientation and laughter. As communications coordinator, she is integrated in the MaaS Global marketing team which is responsible for building the brand of the Whim app and preparing the launches in new cities. “My colleagues are awesome. For a small company, there is a huge diversity among the people. We have around 15 different nationalities and even more different personalities and everybody feels at home here, so I feel really entitled to work here.”

Plans for the future are really big and Veera looks forward to the moment when these plans become reality. The aim for next year is to open new markets around the world. For instance, Asia will be extremely interesting market, and there are still many potential cities in Finland where they will expand into in 2019.

Ambition combined with ability to deal with incompleteness

Veera considers MaaS Global as a great place for those who gain strength from creating a new and constantly forward-looking atmosphere. She feels that the most important criteria are  that you share this same mindset, have ambition to drive change in the transportation sector and you can deal with incompleteness. Since there are no ready-made models and practices, and the plans and situations are constantly changing, you must be able to tolerate uncertainties. But this is also one of the absolute best sides to working at MaaS Global, in Veera’s opinion. “When everything is not ready, you can be part of creating a dream company!”

Whether it is a cliché or not, MaaS Global is perfect for those who truly want to keep the customer at the center of everything. They have ambitious plans to reduce emissions and get a wide range of partners in their service, but behind everything is the customer. “Customers are the biggest driver, why we work hard day after day and stretch to the utmost. Because of our customers, we want to get the best partners and we want to contribute towards climate change”, summarizes Veera.

"Quality assurance at Whim aims to erase the technical and real-life bugs"

When building a new application, which brings all means of everyday travel into one app (the Whim app), testing includes everything from finding and fixing bugs to making sure that the taxi you have just ordered actually stops on the right side of the street. Combining of basic software testing with live testing on the streets is what Antonio Diaz, Quality Assurance Manager at MaaS Global, enjoys the most about his work.

Real-life testing eliminates real-life bugs

“Right before launching our service at Birmingham, we were live testing the Whim app in the city. At MaaS, live testing means that we actually travel to the city and use the app to order and pay for our travels like users would once the app was released. We had just ordered the taxi in front of a shop when we saw the taxi arriving and stopping on the other side of the road. This was bad news because there was a high fence between the roads and we would need to cross that fence in order to get to the taxi. We understood that we would lose the taxi, as the user would if s/he was standing in our place waiting for the taxi.”

This fence is a perfect example of a real-life bug that Antonio and his team have to spot and eliminate from the Whim app before releasing it in new cities and countries. This is also the part of his job that thrills Antonio. It is not just sitting at the office and imagining what the user might see as a problem or what they might consider about the app. He and his teammates have the opportunity to actually share what it really feels to use the app as a user, and to solve the problem in the real world.

Quality assurance is well-integrated to the product development process

Quality assurance at MaaS works in close collaboration with the product development and marketing activities. Antonio’s team is integrated with the technical team which means that they work closely together with the developers and designers. Quality Assurance has an important role in testing new features, removing bugs and making sure that the design works for the users. In addition to the technical team, Antonio often discusses with the marketing team or the business developers who are further building launch strategies for new cities or thinking about introducing new means of transportation for the app.

Launch plans are current topics for Antonio’s team, since the Whim app has just been released in two new cities and the road map for next year includes many more. According to Antonio, each city is different: the service providers, regulations and other factors affecting the city infrastructure such as big or temporary construction sites. The app is never ready to be launched as is. You need to make sure it really will work in that city.

Why join Whim?

Antonio enjoys the international, professional and friendly atmosphere at MaaS. He says that, “the company is like half Finnish and half international.” He feels that the diversity increases the amount of knowledge and opinions shared in the company. Antonio describes his colleagues as dynamic, motivated, smart, fun and friendly. “People are self-motivated to drive the business forward and they still have time to help others.”

Antonio recommends MaaS for people who are interested in mobility and technology, and who are impelled to change the field of everyday travel. Antonio himself ended up at MaaS after seeing the job ad in Slush. At first, he thought his profile was not quite what the company was looking for, but after talking to the management he understood that he had lot of skills that the company was interested in. “So if you are interested in working at MaaS, you feel that you share the same values and you know you can bring something new to the table, go ahead and apply. We are growing rapidly, and new positions emerge all the time.”