What It’s Like to Work at Zocdoc: Mission-Driven Culture, Career Growth and Patient Impact

 

How Zocdoc Employees Embrace the Mission and Company Culture

Healthcare is all about putting patients first — in theory. 

“Too often, it doesn’t feel that way,” Khushbu Patel, a manager of financial planning and analysis at Zocdoc, said. That’s something Patel and her teammates at the healthcare access infrastructure company that connects patients to great care.

“Zocdoc’s mission is to give power to the patient,” Patel said. “As both a patient and a caregiver for my parents, I know how overwhelming healthcare can be — long waits, confusing processes and very little control.” 

For Patel, helping patients regain a sense of control, especially during what’s likely an already stressful time, is why she feels connected to her work on the finance team. 

And she isn’t alone in that sense of purpose — not by a longshot. 

With nearly two decades of experience unifying healthcare’s fragmentation, Zocdoc is uniquely positioned to power access across insurance plans, EHRs and PMS systems, specialties, visit types, and provider organizations of every size. By fixing healthcare at the start, Zocdoc empowers patients to get the care they need, when they need it, while delivering scaled patient growth providers can count on.

For Zocdoc engineers like Andy Depenbusch, building good products is a byproduct of having a mission-driven company culture.

“The more the engineers I work with understand the value and impact of their work and what our users are feeling, the better the products we will build,” the software engineering manager said. 

According to Depenbusch, employees feel connected to the team culture and the mission because they know that every project they work on makes a big difference in people’s lives. 

“Everyone plays a role in building the culture and contributing to the mission,” Depenbusch said. “Everything we do should ultimately bubble up to the company’s mission, so each person’s actions matter.” 

Depenbusch sees the culture of Zocdoc come alive through three main areas. 

First, teammates need a sense of purpose in their work — that what they are building truly matters. Second, the team needs camaraderie in order to “gel well” and lift one another up.

“Third, on an individual level, people should feel valued and important, getting the feedback and recognition they are looking for and understanding how their work contributes to the mission and the bigger picture,” Depenbusch said. 

Below, Zocdoc managers explain how they put mission into action, inspiring employees to do the best work of their careers while having fun in the process. 

 

How Zocdoc Managers Support Career Growth and Radical Candor

At Zocdoc, managers are empowered to think deeply about the people who report to them, Depenbusch said, considering where they are in their careers, what opportunities currently exist for them, and what their futures could look like. 

“Managers keep an eye on what’s next for each person and what they need to focus on to grow,” Depenbusch said. 

Depenbusch would know. He experienced this himself, starting as a software engineer and eventually stepping into an engineering manager role. 

“At each step I’ve had managers who were looking out for the next step and helping me understand what to work on,” Depenbusch said. “I don’t think that experience is limited to me; I think it’s something Zocdoc does uniquely well.” 

Shakira Grant, recruiting manager at Zocdoc, agrees. As a manager that hires managers, Grant puts a lot of time and attention into the transparent and empowering team culture that she nurtures. 

“As a manager, I strive for a team culture where we take what we do very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously in the process,” Grant said. “That balance lets us show up with determination and ferocity for the work, while still being able to show up authentically as ourselves.” 

To that end, Grant encourages her teammates to always be themselves. That authenticity allows new hires to immediately feel at home and start co-creating the team culture as soon as they join, she said. 

“People here genuinely care about one another and there is a strong culture of investing in each other’s growth and development,” Grant said. “When we hire someone, we think not only about how they will succeed in the role we are hiring for, but also about the long‑term growth and journey they can have here.”

That long-term growth is only possible through what Grant describes as “radical candor,” or, “caring personally while challenging directly,” she said.

“I want a culture where people grow quickly and safely and radical candor makes that possible,” Grant said. By having open and honest conversations about the challenges they face, Grant and her teammates develop real trust, which in turn leads to better teamwork and collective progress as a business.

Depenbusch echoed Grant’s sentiment about radical candor and its impact on not just company culture but the mission at large. 

“When individuals grow, they form stronger teams and make stronger decisions about what we build, which leads to better products and, ultimately, helps people get the care they need, even if that impact is a couple of steps down the line,” Depenbusch said.

 

How Zocdoc’s Mission Shapes Product Development and User Experience

Zocdoc’s mission — to give power to the patients — influences every aspect of the company, Patel said, down to the smallest product update. And it’s that interconnectedness between mission, culture, and product that makes her want to stay for the long haul.

“One of the very best parts of Zocdoc is the sense of connection — to our mission, to our cross-functional partners and to each other,” Patel said. “That feeling of connection is ultimately what makes Zocdoc such a great place for me to grow my career and it’s a big reason why I’m excited to keep helping give power to the patient here.” 

The process of accessing care can be overly complicated and stressful. According to Grant, Zocdoc’s goal is to make that experience as simple, transparent and quick as possible.

“We aim to be the connective tissue of healthcare by making it dramatically easier and faster to get a doctor’s appointment,” Grant said. For professionals looking for purpose-driven work, Zocdoc might just be the place to find that meaning, she said.

 

 

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