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161 Lives Saved (and Counting): Team Heroku Steps Up to Help Feed Malnourished Kids

Yesterday, I took my rusty old bike out of the basement and rode through Golden Gate Park to Ocean Beach and back. The 6+ mile ride may seem short to some, but for me, it was something I never thought I’d be doing just a short time ago. I’m on a roll (literally!) that started at the beginning of May when I joined the “Active Together While Apart” activity challenge. As I wrote about in my earlier blog post, Heroku customer Active for Good is working to fight severe acute malnutrition in children around the world with a unique program…

Climbing Up The Walls: (Not) Remotely Business As Usual

We are living in unprecedented times, and many of us are grappling with a really similar set of complicated and, at times exhausting, emotions. I've been thinking about this a lot since my conversation with Margaret Francis, the SVP of Platform Data Services at Salesforce and former Heroku GM, in our recent podcast for Code[ish]. At Heroku, we have gone from roughly over half of our team being remote, to all of our team being remote. We, along with people all over the world, have suddenly found ourselves working from living rooms, laundry rooms, gardens, garages, sheds, and kitchens. It…

A True Win-Win: How Being More Active Can Help Fight Malnutrition

The other day, I was sitting at my work desk feeling too sedentary, too isolated, and altogether too down about my restricted life during this coronavirus pandemic. Then, an email popped into my inbox from one of my favorite Heroku customers. Active for Good was announcing their latest activity challenge starting on May 1st. Every minute of exercise during the month of May counts towards unlocking lifesaving meals for malnourished kids. If there was ever a reason to get my sorry butt up out of my chair, this was it! Food as prescribed medicine To start with, Active for Good…

Impending Vroom — How Ruckit Will Modernize Construction Right in the Nick of Time

Alex Hendricks turns up the radio in the cabin of his ‘91 Ford LT8501. He’s drowning out the noise of the construction crew 100ft ahead as they make progress on a brand new bridge in Waco, Texas. Alex isn’t here to take in the sight of fresh new infrastructure. He’s in his truck waiting for the go-ahead to deliver a payload of hot mastic asphalt to the bridge crew. Alex has a ticket in his hands that needs a sign-off from the project’s contractor — a signature that proves he made his delivery, and on time. Without it, he doesn’t…

“Do I Qualify?” And Other Questions Imposters Must Ask Themselves

A word of caution from a former AP Computer Science teacher who, with zero real-world programming experience, quit her dependable teaching gig to become a software engineer: Imposter Syndrome is never late to class. When we grow competent in our craft, yet continue to feel unqualified for our role, that feeling is known as "Imposter Syndrome." The syndrome was with me before I started, it’s here with me now, and it will probably be with me for a long time to come. If you’ve experienced it too, then reading that last sentence may leave you feeling pessimistic, grim even —…

Bringing Mindfulness to Work

Meditation, like the foundations of software, is built on top of a binary state: an inhale and an exhale, a breath in and a breath out, a one and a zero. We often believe that to engage in meditation, we need to place ourselves in a room of absolute silence, to dress in comfortable linens, and to be utterly still and alone. But this image could not be further from the truth! To meditate is to foster mindfulness, and presence is an activity that can be performed anywhere, and with others—even at work. Learning how to be mindful amongst others…

Using Research Grants to Foster Innovation

As CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner had a policy that any employee could come to his office and pitch an idea. He believed that breaking down hierarchical barriers allowed innovative ideas to come from anywhere, and it worked. Disney invested in many of those pitches, some of which became the kernels for films like The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas. At Heroku, we know our employees are full of innovative ideas waiting for investment. That’s why any engineer can propose a project through a process we call Research Grants. If the proposal is funded, that engineer gets about two weeks to…

Improving the Lives of People with Diabetes

Today, many people with diabetes are choosing to manage their condition using devices called continuous glucose monitors (CGMs). Not only do they replace the need for most finger prick testing, but they also provide a stream of data round the clock. However, like all data, it’s only as useful as the tools that analyze it. That’s where Sugarmate comes in. Created by serial entrepreneur Josh Juster to help manage his own condition, Sugarmate combines a Heroku back-end with web, mobile, and smartspeaker apps to provide life-changing alerts and analysis for people living with diabetes. Alexa, what’s my blood sugar level?…

Overcoming My Fear of Failure

As part of my MBA at Carnegie Mellon University, I enrolled in a Leadership development certificate program. I was given the opportunity to work with an amazing Leadership Coach, (Laura Maxwell). Laura helped me on my journey of "overcoming my fear of failure". As part of the program, I was able to share my story with the dean, professors, and the leadership development center at CMU. Since this is a rather common experience, I wanted to share my story with all of you as well. This story starts, as many do, in childhood. Growing up in India, there has always…

Equality Through Accessibility

This is the first post in a two-part series about accessibility. Part two shares our design and development process addressing one aspect of accessibility in the Heroku product. Equality as a Salesforce Value We at Salesforce firmly believe that access to information and the ability to contribute to our digital environment should be recognized as basic human rights, not a nice-to-have features. Globally, hundreds of millions of people have physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities, and while in practice accessibility is about designing for users with disabilities, it also benefits everyone. Most of us have experienced conditions that impair our…

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