My name is Vitaliy Dolbilov — this is why I joined Aha!

Why did I join the Aha! team? Well, it all started with a couple of cavemen, some sticks, and a fire ... just kidding (sort of!). Every important discovery starts with a moment of curiosity and a willingness to experiment. For me, that spark was finding my passion for engineering and learning new skills on my own.

Sometimes, it is best to figure things out as you go. Embracing what you do not know can fuel your growth in unexpected ways.

Engineering was not my plan at first — I went to school for actuarial science. But as I looked for internships, I realized I needed to broaden my technical skill set and decided to teach myself SQL. This immediately ignited my interest in programming. It felt freeing to build what I wanted, and I even used SQL to create my own password manager. So I changed course, attended a coding bootcamp, and searched for software development positions.

My initial developer role was with a sports performance software startup. I learned a lot from a fellow developer in my first six months. But when they left the company, everything was suddenly up to me. I taught myself to develop mobile apps and how to use Ruby on Rails. Would I advise this approach for everyone? Probably not — learning on the job can be tough when you are under pressure. But it was a rewarding experience for me.

I achieved a lot in those years. And as I progressed, I wanted to grow alongside other engineers, so I joined another software company as a full-stack developer. This role was different, but I really enjoyed it. Instead of building from scratch, I focused on refining existing code and collaborating with teammates to improve the product.

My next move was to a much larger engineering team at a major organization. It was fascinating to see how an enterprise company managed the development of complex technical products. The standards were high, and the people were exceptionally capable. I craved more of this. But I also missed working with smaller groups rather than a team of hundreds.

I started searching for that "sweet spot" where I could work with a streamlined, high-performing team on an established, yet innovative product.

This is the mindset that drove me to apply for a role on the Aha! team. I first joined as a senior software engineer, but in the two years since, I have become an engineering team lead for Aha! Roadmaps. My focus is on delivering a high-quality product that truly serves our customers. The work blends engineering excellence with a focus on understanding and meeting customer needs. Of course, there is also collaboration with product management and leadership on what to build and how.

The work is a mix of new feature development and improvements. For example, our prioritization page was completely new when I was assigned to it. But the team has been building Aha! Roadmaps for over a decade, meaning we could rely on robust systems that already exist. I got to be involved early in the process of defining this feature with the product team. We figured out how to deliver a really satisfying user experience, and the prioritization page is now one of our most popular features.

Enhanced features, technical innovation, customer insights, and collaboration — we bring it all together at Aha! to deliver the best products possible.

As a plus, I have worked remotely ever since I became a developer. It is great to know that will not change as long as I am part of the Aha! team. There is no reason why it should — we all trust each other to deliver great work from anywhere.

That is why I joined Aha! — and why you should too.