He’s worked in defense, fin tech, and media before finding his way to healthcare. At Oscar, he leads a team of engineers focused on growth and the online member experience. Meet John Ong, Technical Lead Manager at Oscar.
How did you first connect with Oscar?
I’m pretty sure it was the subway ads that first piqued my interest. I really wanted to find a young company trying to tackle a big problem. Healthcare is something I’ve been passionate about for a long time, and I liked that Oscar was taking on an industry that had been functioning for decades without a good product. Additionally, the fact that Oscar is committed to building something not just good, but incredible is really exciting.
What were some of your early projects like?
I joined in the summer of 2014, and a lot of my initial projects involved working closely with design and product trying to build simple versions of things that were historically complicated. A big example of this was allowing people to become Oscar members through the website. One part of this was a rebuild of our Quote Mad Lib, where users can quickly get their insurance quote by adding their relevant personal details to a fill-in-the-blank story. We were able to create something that was both more comprehensive, but was faster to complete and more intuitive.
And what about more recently?
A major project we just finished involved rebuilding our Care Router, a search where users can type in some information about how they’re feeling and then we route them to appropriate care options. In this updated iteration, we give people the opportunity to slice and dice the data in new ways that can help to match them to what they’re looking for, in addition to incorporating more contextual information about the user. The project was not only interesting from an engineering perspective, but it was also rewarding to be able to revamp a core part of the product in a way that made it easy to keep building onto.
How would you describe your colleagues?
It’s great to work with people who are ambitious and motivated. Everyone is excited to be here, excited to build stuff, and not afraid to do something if it’s hard. Also, there’s an interest in both tech and product together that you don’t always see. You can sense the bigger long-term vision every day, and how it’s supported by this commitment to doing good work.
And life at the company, overall?
The problem we’re solving is a meaningful one, and as a result, there’s a focus everywhere on building the best product. People here are smart and motivated and not so worried about sticking exclusively to what’s in a job description. This enables all of us to really come together, see what we need to do to solve a problem, and then go right ahead and build it.
