Ekta Anand (second from right) listens as her colleague explains some of the ways they’ve improved the communication within the Pharmacy section of the Walgreens app.
Ekta Anand’s job as a senior product manager at Walgreens Boots Alliance is personal. Her grandfather was a pharmacist, and one of her current tasks is to help ensure the pharmacy experience in the Walgreens app is easy for patients to use.
“My purpose is to make pharmacies better,” she says with a smile.
Anand and her colleagues highlighted their latest improvements to the Walgreens app at Demo Day on June 6, an event where hundreds of Digital Product, Design and Engineering team members gathered to showcase the projects they’ve been working on. While about 350 team members joined the event virtually, more than 150 attended in person at Walgreens’ Old Post Office location in downtown Chicago.
Anand became emotional talking about seeing co-workers in person for the first time in so long, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s just so exciting to finally connect in person. I’m so grateful for that,” she says.
Demo Day was organized by Wesley Keyser, director of Digital Product Management, as part of a larger week of events that the Digital Product, Design and Engineering team hold quarterly.
“Demo Day kicks off our week, giving the team an opportunity to celebrate their work, share that work with people across the organization, and collaborate and build relationships with their peers,” Keyser says. “It’s all part of our new agile ways of working, focusing on delivering customer, patient and team member outcomes, not delivering outputs.”
More than 70 individual presentations were scheduled throughout the day so team members could scope out the different projects that their colleagues were working on. So you could attend a Performance Engineering presentation in the morning, and watch a Digital Commerce session in the afternoon. For example, the shopping team within Digital Commerce showcased the Walgreens Vitamin and Supplement Selector Tool. The team presenting this tool said it was developed after research showed a significant number of consumers are overwhelmed by vitamin product options. So this simple vitamin “quiz” was designed to help Walgreens shoppers find the best vitamins for their needs.
A screenshot from the Walgreens Vitamin and Selector Tool. The tool is accessible on Walgreens.com and the Walgreens app.
“It was remarkable to see teams come together to openly share and celebrate their work,” says Todd Nemoir, vice president of Customer Digital Products & Platforms. “I continue to be amazed and excited about the outcomes these new features will drive for our customers, patients and team members.”
Anand and her colleagues highlighted their latest improvements to the Walgreens app at Demo Day on June 6, an event where hundreds of Digital Product, Design and Engineering team members gathered to showcase the projects they’ve been working on. While about 350 team members joined the event virtually, more than 150 attended in person at Walgreens’ Old Post Office location in downtown Chicago.
Anand became emotional talking about seeing co-workers in person for the first time in so long, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s just so exciting to finally connect in person. I’m so grateful for that,” she says.
Digital Product, Design and Engineering team members gather at one of dozens of sessions held during Demo Day.
Demo Day was organized by Wesley Keyser, director of Digital Product Management, as part of a larger week of events that the Digital Product, Design and Engineering team hold quarterly.
“Demo Day kicks off our week, giving the team an opportunity to celebrate their work, share that work with people across the organization, and collaborate and build relationships with their peers,” Keyser says. “It’s all part of our new agile ways of working, focusing on delivering customer, patient and team member outcomes, not delivering outputs.”
More than 70 individual presentations were scheduled throughout the day so team members could scope out the different projects that their colleagues were working on. So you could attend a Performance Engineering presentation in the morning, and watch a Digital Commerce session in the afternoon. For example, the shopping team within Digital Commerce showcased the Walgreens Vitamin and Supplement Selector Tool. The team presenting this tool said it was developed after research showed a significant number of consumers are overwhelmed by vitamin product options. So this simple vitamin “quiz” was designed to help Walgreens shoppers find the best vitamins for their needs.
A screenshot from the Walgreens Vitamin and Selector Tool. The tool is accessible on Walgreens.com and the Walgreens app.“It was remarkable to see teams come together to openly share and celebrate their work,” says Todd Nemoir, vice president of Customer Digital Products & Platforms. “I continue to be amazed and excited about the outcomes these new features will drive for our customers, patients and team members.”
For Anand, learning about her colleagues’ projects was only one part of what made the day so special. As a founder of the “Belonging Committee,” an informal group that helps build culture and maintain employee engagement, Anand knows that enjoying the people you work with is just as important as the work itself.
“In Hindi, my name Ekta means ‘unity,’ and I love bringing people together,” Anand says. “When you love the people you work with, doing your job is fun.”
Anand is ready to bring even more people together, as Walgreens searches top talent to fill more than 300 tech-related roles. Visit jobs.walgreens.com to apply today.