In a nutshell 🥥 Olya Morozova joined Coconut Software as an intern in May 2018. From the beginning, she was trusted with challenging work, encouraged to ask questions, and treated as a valuable member of the team. Over seven years, opportunities to work across frontend and backend development, real-time communications, performance, accessibility, and design collaboration helped her grow into a Senior Developer and team lead.
Q: You nearly didn’t show up to your initial interview at Coconut. What happened?
A: As part of the internship program, we had a list of companies participating, and I actually didn’t know too much about Coconut at the time. I had my sights on a different company.
My interview at Coconut was on the last day and I actually caught a cold, so I was very sick, and I wanted to cancel. I thought maybe I’ll go—and Romeo (Iula) and Kelsey (Ostlund) just won me over in that interview. I changed my mind about all of the other companies and just wanted to go with Coconut, and luckily they also chose me.
Q: What was it about the interview in particular that got you so excited about working here?
A: It just felt very cozy and welcoming, but also like an exciting place to work. I do remember that Coconut was kind of at the beginning of large changes—they were changing the technologies, the frameworks, and languages that they were switching to.
When I joined I think there were only around 40 employees. And the week I joined was when all the developers were split into teams. Before that, it was just developers, no engineering managers. Our processes were very different. There was so much changing, and we also had a lot of influence over particular processes and how we do work, and there was lots of experimentation, so it was a really exciting environment. I just got a glimpse of that, and I was never disappointed. It was the best time—my first months of internship, and after that of course, too.
Q: You joined Coconut as an intern and are now a Senior Developer. What helped you grow along the way?
A: From the beginning, I was trusted with challenging work, encouraged to ask questions, and treated as a valuable member of the team. I also benefited from strong mentorship from my team leads and managers, who helped me build good engineering habits and grow my confidence. Over time, I had the opportunity to work across frontend and backend development, real-time communications, performance, accessibility, and design collaboration. Projects like Coconut Connect gave me ownership, customer-facing experience, and architectural responsibility, which helped me grow into senior and lead roles. Just as important was having a supportive, flexible, and collaborative culture where I felt comfortable being myself and doing my best work.
Q: What’s one piece of work you’re especially proud of here?
A: For me, it’s Coconut Connect. It’s our in-house video platform, similar to Google Meet but with a few features specific to banking and financial customers. For that project, I kind of saw it from the very beginning when it was starting as more of a prototype, and we did a lot of rapid development to its eventual maturity. I did a lot of work to take it to that maturity as well, introducing some architectural abstractions to make it more extensible, to allow us to choose different video technology vendors and kind of just swap them at will. I also learned a lot about front-end development and started liking CSS, which for me was a little bit more intimidating before.
Connect was quite different from other products at Coconut because it was very customer-facing and we had to make it accessible and really pay attention to usability, to make it work for many many different users on many different devices, often mobile devices with poor networks. And we still had to make all of this real-time video and real-time multiplayer interactions work for them, and make the experience delightful and intuitive. There was a lot of collaboration with designers and the product team, and all of the devs were really involved in that as well. We felt like we had a lot of ownership over it. Connect was also an important part of my career progression. It gave me the opportunity to take on more architectural responsibility, work closely with customers and cross-functional partners, and grow into senior and team lead responsibilities. I also became a senior and a team lead at the time of working on this project. So I see it as a big part of my career progression as well.
Q: What kind of problems do you love solving?
A: Definitely refactoring. I really like well-designed and clean code—taking a codebase and making it well organized, easily maintainable, easily understandable, and pretty. I am pedantic about code styles. And I think another one is working on performance. Tinkering with projects like SQL, profiling the code for performance—these moments are a lot of fun for me.
Q: What kind of support did you receive from your managers over the years?
A: I have always felt trusted to do my work, supported by flexible working hours, and able to be completely open and honest with my managers. That openness, along with the friendly and supportive atmosphere they created, helped me build confidence and mental fortitude.
I also received a lot of practical support in how I work. My current manager, Marli, helped me refine processes around technical planning, scoping, and prioritizing work—and she brings a level of clarity, structure, and organization to the work environment that makes it so much easier to stay focused and deliver meaningful results. The actionable feedback I’ve received over the years has also helped me understand where I’m doing well and where I can keep improving.
And all of my managers have brought positive energy and a lot of fun to the teams I’ve been on, which made the work environment genuinely enjoyable and collaborative.
Q: Why do you choose to stay at Coconut?
A: Honestly, it comes down to three things: the interesting work, flexibility, and great people. The flexibility to work our way and have flexible Cabana Days make a real difference, and I appreciate the trust the company places in employees to do their best. I also value how well-organized remote work is — with the option to go into the office when you want it. Even working remotely, I never feel isolated, and there are always opportunities to collaborate.
But most importantly, I really enjoy working with the people here. The development team has fun together, and the informal atmosphere makes Coconut feel like home.
Q: Was there a moment when you felt, “This is why I work here”?
A: I don’t think I have that one moment. I feel like that moment probably was in my interview, and it was just confirmed. That feeling was confirmed every day at Coconut. But a big thing for me was finding confidence in my abilities and my knowledge, because this is my first work in the industry. Growing up in Ukraine, there’s a lot of sexist attitudes toward women in tech. As a teenager, I kind of internalized a lot of those thoughts, like, “I’m not good enough, a woman in tech could just be a teacher.” And I did very well at school. But I think it’s after joining Coconut that I started really coming out of that thought process and finding confidence, and realizing that those thoughts, those opinions, they don’t matter. Having a company that’s so openly supportive and treats people as they should— where gender doesn’t matter in the work at all—I really love it.
Q: What comes next for you?
A: I see myself working at Coconut for many years to come. I really enjoy my current role as a Senior Developer and the many exciting challenges it brings. Looking ahead, I’d like to continue growing technically, taking on new challenges, and contributing to the success of the team—while also supporting and mentoring others along the way.
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Olya Morozova is a Senior Developer at Coconut Software. She has been part of the team since 2018.
About Coconut Software
Coconut Software bridges the gap between complex branch operations and high-value customer engagements with a suite of Intelligent Branch Solutions. Its unified platform combines appointment scheduling, in-branch queuing, and video banking to help financial institutions streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and empower staff to focus on meaningful, advisory-focused work. Trusted by leading banks and credit unions across North America—including RBC, Mountain America Credit Union (MACU), and M&T Bank — Coconut Software helps institutions optimize workforce planning, manage branch traffic, and achieve revenue goals. Learn more at www.coconutsoftware.com.
Media Contact: media@coconutsoftware.com