Celebrating our 2024 Core Value Award winners

At Pixo, our list of core values is the compass that guides our daily work, shaping how we collaborate and serve our clients. It’s an annual tradition to spotlight those Pixonauts who embodied our values throughout the year.

As always, our team nominates their peers, and from those nominations, standouts are chosen to represent each of our eight core values. Let’s give a round of applause to our 2024 winners, along with a sneak peek into the glowing praises shared about them during our awards ceremony.

People come first

Winner: Renee (Ré) Sliwa, Operations Manager

Ré completely embodies this value day in and day out at Pixo. She consistently advocates for people; how they feel, how they might be impacted, and what their needs are. She can break down the most complicated topic and not only make it understandable, but enjoyable. She embodies the golden rule of treating others how she would like to be treated and consistently shapes policies around how we want people to feel while working here. Whenever someone is experiencing a milestone in life, Ré is the first to speak up and identify ways we can celebrate with them or offer comfort to them. She doesn’t bat an eye when you ask her the same questions or if she sees any errors in your work. Instead, she takes the time to explain decisions or processes, offers additional resources, and normalizes that we are all, in fact, human.

We’re honest and transparent

Winner: Alex Kuhl, Lead Web Developer

Alex is the definition of honest and transparent. He incorporates this value into his work daily, which is why his peers and our clients enjoy working with him. Candor and good communication don’t come naturally for most and Alex will be the first to tell you he doesn’t relish a difficult conversation, which is why he stood out this year. He is doing the difficult work to make Pixo a better place by discussing important topics and exercising leadership. His approach makes working with him enjoyable and comfortable because he considers what is right and fair for those around him.

We demand quality of ourselves and others

Winner: Landi Najarro, Lead Engineer

Landi’s influence and contributions stand out amongst her team members. She helps create gold standards (urging the team to make actionable plans to tackle pain points like tech debt and cognitive debt – even when we know we may not be able to address them all). She questions our processes to help revive/streamline sprint planning sessions. She approaches new work head first and questions when we need to challenge assumptions to make sure we are building the “right” thing. She does not shy away from sharing with the team to make our working environment more productive and positive.

We’re on our client’s team

Winner: Matt Fotzler, Principal Software Engineer

Matt has provided endless examples of “being on our client’s team” which is why this value award was unanimous. He is constantly asking good questions to confirm that what we’re doing will be good for the client and if there are ways we can make things easier for them. He always considers the client’s true needs and understands how it will impact their larger business. Matt makes sure we are a good partner to our clients and is always looking to do what is best for them and their projects.

We take initiative

Winner: Leah Rainey, Proposal Writer

Leah joined Pixo just a few months ago and has hit the ground running. Her peers have been impressed with her ability to learn Pixo’s business and talk about it in such a way that captures the essence of who we are as a company and how we bring value to potential clients. She has worked hard to put together proposals that have opened doors to many new opportunities and we look forward to what is still to come. We are all very excited to have someone on our team that takes initiative the way Leah does.

We invest

Winner: Danielle Hendricks, Director of Business Development

Danielle cares deeply about what people think of Pixo, so she goes above and beyond to invest time and energy into making sure that we’re sending the right message to the right people. She knows that investment takes time, so it’s okay and expected that some conferences we go to take a couple of years before we see returns on that investment. She saw an opportunity to make our expertise more visible to people at those conferences and she put a team together and made it happen. She even crocheted corn and pencils to give away to potential clients! Danielle is dedicated to investing in the different industries that Pixo is involved in so that we can continue exceeding our client’s expectations.

Diversity makes us stronger

Winner: Isabel Skidmore, Software Engineer

Isabel is someone who champions inclusivity and equity at Pixo, and who encourages us to learn from one another and have hard conversations that help us grow. The multiple colleagues who nominated Isabel shared how they brought energy and thoughtfulness to the DEI committee and stepped up right when the team needed it. This year they have sought out important feedback, asked tough and important questions, and prompted us to think about how our actions impact others. Isabel has also been a key player in organizing events and initiatives that bring us together as a team, creating a more welcoming and inclusive environment for all of Pixo.

We are committed to work/life balance

Winner: Andrew Wobeck, Lead Software Engineer

Andrew has shown equal investment in both areas of his life. He has struck this magical balance of giving both his personal and professional lives the time they deserve and has found a way to make them complement each other instead of being at odds with one another. When it comes to work, he is willing to put in extra hours when and where it makes sense. He has voluntarily gone above and beyond in offering his time and even direct access to himself to the client and the Pixo team. He is the kind of teammate you dream of having because he is always willing to help and offers more than is asked of him, but he is also smart about protecting his personal time. He draws appropriate boundaries about what feels comfortable to him.