Nava’s 2016 in review: A whirlwind year of growth
The past year was a rollercoaster at Nava, and as we return from our winter break, we wanted to take a quick look back at all that’s happened. 2016 was a year of growth. We’ve grown from borrowed desks to bicoastal offices, from a team of ten to almost thirty talented folks. We’ve grown from working on one large project to working on three complex projects that have a huge impact in helping improve how our government serves people. Looking back on the tremendous growth this past year makes us even more excited for the new adventures and challenges that await our team in 2017.
From borrowed desks to beautiful offices
Not much more than one year ago, our San Francisco office was just a few borrowed desks at Code for America, and the D.C. office was a single room in a coworking space.
Then, in 2016 the San Francisco team moved into 95 Federal St. As of the end of 2016, we’ve already outgrown this space and are looking to move again very soon!
The D.C. team also moved to a beautiful new space on 14th and U St. We built out the lofted space, where we now have plenty of seating, soundproof phone booth rooms, light-filled conference rooms, and lots of office snacks.
Engaging with the community
We were also thrilled to be able to participate in many speaking engagements and community events in 2016, all with the focus of spreading our mission to radically reimagine government services through technology and design. Our CEO Rohan Bhobe spoke at TechSummit Puerto Rico and recorded a podcast for the Public Spend Forum, and designers Shelly Ni and Sha Hwang spoke at the Code for America Summit. We also supported the Grace Hopper Academy and TechUp Innovation + Inclusion Summit in D.C. along with providing spaces to Women Who Code D.C. and Hear Me Code for their classes and tech talks.
We also hosted events and celebrations of our own, from our officewarming party in D.C. to a packed happy hour during the Code for America summit.
We hope to engage even more with our community in the coming year, and continue to share our work and mission with the world.
Work, work, work, work, work 🚀
Our work covered a breadth and depth of topics in 2016.
- We continued to anchor our work in user-centered design. Our designers conducted illuminating field research with folks on Medicaid and Medicare that has informed our work, and we also did user research with call center representatives who are on the front lines supporting millions of Americans who apply for coverage through HealthCare.gov. In 2017 we’re continuing our work to improve the HealthCare.gov experience through user-centered design and development.
- We became the first public benefit corporation to become a prime contractor, working directly with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to architect the new Merit-based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS) and support Medicare’s historic transition from a $600 billion fee-for-service program to a quality-based model.
- Last but certainly not least, we’re tackling important work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to reimagine the Veterans appeals process. Veterans currently wait an average of five years to receive a resolution to their appeal. The process is complex, and untangling major pain points will have a huge impact on Veterans’ lives.
And some awards, too!
This year we celebrated many of our teammates who were honored with individual awards! Senior DevOps engineer Brendan Neutra won a FCW Rising Star award and co-founder Loren Yu won a Federal 100 award.
Onward to 2017
All in all it’s been a pretty crazy year. We’ve made some incredible memories of work and play in 2016. We’re looking forward to all the new adventures we’ll have together as a team this coming year.
Cheers, y’all!
Nava is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Washington, DC with offices in San Francisco and New York. Nava is actively hiring across engineering, design, and product to pursue its mission of radically improving the way government serves people.
