My First 7 Days at Woovi: Learnings, Surprises, and Open Questions

Starting at a new company is often romanticized: welcome coffees, a nicely packaged onboarding plan, and a slow ramp-up. My first week at Woovi turned out to be quite the opposite: a fast-paced, pragmatic environment where questioning is not only allowed but expected.

First Impressions

On day one, I realized the culture is heavily biased towards fast delivery and technical autonomy. Instead of following step-by-step tutorials, I was encouraged to explore real repositories, understand actual deployment flows, and challenge architectural decisions.

This breaks the common assumption that onboarding must be 100% guided and “hand-holding.” Here, you’re treated as someone who should contribute from day one, not just passively consume information.

The Fear of Not Being Enough

A hidden part of this experience was the fear of not being enough for the role. I came in wondering if I could really match the expectations, whether I would deliver fast enough, and whether I would truly add value.

Very quickly, I realized there was no way to simply "meet expectations" here. Woovi feels more like a high-level engineering school than a typical company. You could be the most senior engineer out there, and you would still get overwhelmed by the codebase. It’s the result of years of creation, iteration, and continuous learning.

This realization actually eased my anxiety. Instead of obsessing over "being enough," I shifted focus to learning fast and contributing incrementally. The expectation is not perfection on day one. The expectation is to keep moving, questioning, improving, and growing as part of the team.

The codebase will push you out of your comfort zone. But in return, it turns you into a better engineer, faster than any comfortable environment ever could.

Technical Challenges

During the week, I dived into the main stack, Node.js, Koa, TypeScript, GraphQL, Relay and integrations with financial systems like Pix and payment gateways. One surprise was how modular yet unopinionated the architecture is: there’s more room for customization, and fewer rigid patterns.

This requires critical thinking: you can’t just “do it like Google.” You have to weigh real trade-offs, performance vs readability, coupling vs delivery speed.

Team Integration

Most interactions happened asynchronously. Far fewer meetings than I expected. This forces you to write better, whether it’s commits, pull requests, or internal docs, and not rely on endless live clarifications.

Interestingly, this exposed a personal flaw: I underestimated how much poor written communication can slow down a project. If you don’t document well, everyone stops to answer your basic questions.

What I Still Question

• Does a loose, self-guided onboarding work for everyone?
• How much does full autonomy from day one increase the risk of mistakes or rework?
• Does async culture, while efficient, alienate those who prefer real-time discussions?

These questions stuck with me all week. I don’t have final answers yet, but I’m watching closely how this affects long-term alignment and productivity.

Key Takeaways

• Writing good documentation is as critical as writing good code.
• Questioning architecture is not just tolerated, it’s actively encouraged.
• Onboarding doesn’t need to be paternalistic to be effective.
• Organizational performance is deeply tied to clear written communication.

My First 2 Days: Building a Centralized Onboarding Flow

During my first two days, I noticed something that might sound paradoxical: everything was documented, yet no one knew exactly how to navigate it.

The documentation was thorough, covering internal APIs, deployment workflows, local setup, and architectural decisions. But each piece was isolated, like having a pile of puzzle pieces with no reference picture.

New engineers often found themselves constantly asking, "In what order should I read these docs?" or "What’s the first thing I should run locally before touching feature X?"

Instead of just consuming the scattered docs and pinging people repeatedly, I decided to start drafting a centralized onboarding flow. The goal was to connect all these pieces into a clear sequence:

1. What to clone first.
2. Which scripts to run and in which order.
3. What services need to be up before running the app.
4. Where to look for environment configuration and secrets.
5. Key architectural diagrams to understand before jumping into PRs.

This initiative not only helped me get up to speed faster but also turned into a reusable asset for future newcomers.

It challenged the assumption that "more docs = better onboarding." In reality, structured narrative beats raw volume every time.

By proactively organizing this flow, I ended up learning the system more deeply and reduced the dependency on constant Slack or chat questions. And perhaps more importantly, I started contributing real value on day two instead of just passively absorbing information.

Special Thanks to the Woovi Engineering Team

One thing that stood out immediately and deserves a special mention is the quality of the people here. It genuinely feels like every developer was handpicked, and after experiencing it firsthand, I now understand why the selection process is so demanding and sometimes lengthy.

Everyone I've interacted with acted with an impressive sense of honor and strength, always pushing to help each other, no matter how busy they were. They deeply remember what it felt like to be new in the company, and they step up to assist with patience, without sarcasm or condescension.

I won’t mention names, but to all of you who joined calls with me during this first week, consider this a public tribute. You turned what could have been a chaotic start into an empowering, fast-learning experience.

This reinforced for me that a strong engineering culture isn't just about code quality or architecture; it's built on people who genuinely want each other to succeed.

Conclusion

My first week at Woovi was less about a “cute onboarding” and more about a pragmatic deep dive. I realized that in a team focused on speed and autonomy, the worst mistake is waiting passively for instructions.

If you’re about to join a fast-moving team, here’s a provocation:

Are you ready to swim without a float? Or are you still sitting on the edge, waiting for the manual?

Your Turn

Have you gone through an ultra-fast or hyper-structured onboarding before? What worked best for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.