Aaron MacDonald is a senior mechanical engineer at MistyWest, well known on the team for his Squamish lifestyle that includes mountain biking, skiing, rock climbing, and camping adventures with his family. He also likes working on vehicles, like installing a suspension lift kit on his truck for a fun weekend project. While he’s been working …
Meet a Westie: Aaron MacDonald, Mechanical Engineer Read More »
Kevin Lockwood–better known as Locky to help distinguish himself in a sea of Kevin-identifying Westies–is a Senior Firmware Engineer, our head wireless product designer and most recently, MistyWest’s CTO. His days are often divided between coffee(s), scrum meetings, 1:1’s with members of our Tech team, and attending critical sales calls with the Hustle team. A …
Meet a Westie: Kevin Lockwood, Firmware Engineer and Chief Technology Officer Read More »
It’s been a long pandemic. Industry-wide statistics indicate team morale and engagement are at all-time lows across most sectors and verticals. And it’s no surprise, with the transition to a fully remote workforce, the loss of brick-and-mortar cultures and general burnout & exhaustion across all company levels–most teams are not getting what they need to …
Sweet Retreats: Why Teambuilding Events Are Needed Now, More Than Ever Read More »
At a recent full-day of leadership training with the entire team, when Kristina Pearkes described herself as a competitive person by nature there was a collective chuckle across the room. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Kristina can easily be considered the reigning champion MistyWest’s weekly Agario matches, continuously making everyone tremble as the massive …
Meet a Westie: Kristina Pearkes, Firmware Engineer & Tech Lead Read More »
Sure, MistyWest might have 3 Kevins on the team, but while they share names, they each bring their own unique backgrounds and disciplines to work. Kevin Baillie (or Kevin B, as he’s known around the office) is a Mechatronics Engineer by trade and a Tech Lead at MistyWest. Like many Westies, the company’s mission of …
Meet a Westie: Kevin Baillie, Mechatronics Engineer Read More »
Madison is a bit of an enigma. A Westie OG formerly hailing from Vancouver Island, Madison’s been with MistyWest since the early days. Back when we were just a team of 12, she played a key role in managing payroll and expenses, invoicing clients, doing graphic design work, and helping establish core touchstones for the …
Meet A Westie: Madison Reid, Content Creator & Community Manager Read More »
Since the start of the pandemic, MistyWest has hired 3 full-time employees who’ve had to adapt to a mostly-remote work environment and limited social interactions with the team, with no annual retreat or holiday dance party at the office. But Eric Ell, who joined the team in Feb 2021 as our new Senior Business Developer, …
Meet a Westie: Eric Ell, Senior Business Developer Read More »
Josh is a very special Westie. Like most of us, he wears a few different hats, and originally joined the team as an Engagement Manager (MistyWest’s version of account reps) back in the fall of 2018. Coming from an Engineering Physics background in Ottawa, he specialized in power displays and later in applications for consumer …
Meet a Westie: Josh D’Souza, Hybrid Project & Engagement Manager Read More »
Dan is a multi-talented business developer with a hand in quite a few pies at MistyWest! A dual Canadian/US citizen, Dan originally hails from Portland, Oregon, and landed in Vancouver as a UBC Engineering student in 2010. While at UBC, Dan founded the UBC Lacrosse team and helped build it into an officially recognized sports …
Originally hailing from Kelowna, BC, Maria joins us as a 4th-year coop student from UBC Engineering, where she specializes in Engineering Physics. Her love of engineering initially emerged while studying biological research and micro-fluids in high school, but gradually evolved an aptitude for things slightly techy-er. She’s performed embedded systems testing and UI programming on …
How do you balance the complex social and environmental needs of a new hire during a time as uncertain and prone to alienation as COVID-19? What happens when that time you should be attempting to integrate, include and enculturate a new hire is simultaneously one where you’re being instructed (or forced) to isolate, distance and …
In Part One of this blog series we talked a bit about the foundations of Holacracy as an organizational structure and how we deal with and utilize tensions as a thermometer of sorts. Innovative environments are steeped in conflict, and the successful ones learn how to leverage conflict to drive teams to deeper understandings of …
In January 2019, MistyWest embarked on a quest to reimagine the way we structure our company, our teams and individual roles within the organization. We did this with the help of a new model of organizational management called Holacracy, and the patient training of mastermind Karim Bishay of Living Orgs (who we highly recommend, by …
SXSW is a festival that is truly centered at the intersection of technology and culture. Although MistyWest is primarily a technology company, we believe music is a key part of a shared global culture that we all participate in, regardless of industry. In the lead up to SXSW Interactive, we look forward to checking out …
Have you ever had an interaction with a piece of technology- be it hardware, software or even a basic household tool, and been struck by the ease or simplicity with which it helped you accomplish your goal? Every day we interact with good design and in most cases we’re not even aware because the experience …
This is the first time a team from MistyWest will be attending the annual South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX. Every year thousands of technology companies, start-ups, speakers and superfans converge in the southern Texas town to pitch products, share ideas and network. We’re so excited to be sending down four Westies to …
