Welcome to the latest installment in our ProdDev Spotlight series, where we introduce you to the talented individuals behind Nextdoor’s product development. Today, we’re sitting down with Sean Chan, Lead, Software Engineering, who’s helping shape the future of neighborhood connections.
What does your typical day look like as a member of the ProdDev team?
My day kicks off with a team standup, where we dive into current progress, celebrate wins, and collaborate to tackle any challenges. From there, my schedule is filled with meetings with key stakeholders—spanning Product, Design, and Data Science—to brainstorm innovative ideas, strategize on upcoming projects, and build alignment across teams. Additionally, I dedicate focused time to individual one-on-one sessions with engineers on my team, where we explore project solutions, resolve complex roadblocks, and discuss personalized growth plans to help them grow in their careers.
What aspect(s) of your role do you find most rewarding, and why?
I love working closely with stakeholders to help shape the right strategy for the team, ensuring we have a clear and impactful path forward. Collaborating with the engineering team to tackle difficult technical challenges is equally fulfilling. There’s nothing like the energy that comes from solving a tough problem together. It’s also incredibly satisfying to create products that are genuinely useful and meaningful for our users. Finally, seeing engineers grow and sharpen their technical mastery over time is one of the most gratifying parts of my role, as it represents both personal and team success.
What skills or qualities do you think are essential for someone in your position?
The most rewarding aspects of my role are clear communication and deep empathy. I enjoy translating complex ideas into clear, actionable messages, fostering effective collaboration and understanding across teams. Equally fulfilling is the opportunity to practice empathy—actively listening and deeply understanding challenges, which enables me to craft thoughtful, impactful solutions that resonate and drive meaningful results.
What’s one thing about your role that might surprise people outside of ProdDev at Nextdoor?
People might be surprised to learn that, whenever I have the chance, I still genuinely enjoy diving into hands-on coding, writing scripts to support my team or running queries to validate ideas and build strong conviction during the early stages of product development. Staying directly involved in technical tasks helps me maintain sharp insights and supports the team effectively.
How does your work directly contribute to Nextdoor’s product development roadmap and/or revenue streams?
My team’s work directly impacts Nextdoor’s key success metrics, including attracting new members, increasing user engagement, and driving growth on our platform.
How do you balance innovation with practical business needs when developing new products?
We maintain a balanced portfolio of projects that strategically blends incremental enhancements with ambitious, innovative initiatives. Projects with incremental impact offer reliable opportunities for success, while more unproven efforts introduce higher risk and potential for significant leaps forward. Regardless of the risk level, our key tenet of our team is to rapidly gather signals and feedback, enabling us to swiftly adapt and refine our approach to consistently meet our business objectives and drive sustained growth.
What was the most challenging problem you’ve helped solve recently?
One of the most challenging problems I tackled recently involved improving our Open Graph images for content shared off-platform. A key goal of the project was to build a foundation for future experiments by accurately measuring impressions and click-through rates (CTR) for this content. After many iterations of trial and error, I developed a solution that enabled us to reliably track these two critical metrics. The strategy that proved most effective in figuring out the solution was diving deep into the technical details, which included reading and experimenting to get a better understanding of how the system worked. This hands-on approach allowed me to uncover a specific point in the process where we would be able to record tracking events effectively.
What emerging technologies are you most excited about incorporating into future products?
It might sound cliché, but I am incredibly bullish on AI—specifically large language models (LLMs). Only in the past few years have productionized LLMs unlocked the ability to analyze vast amounts of data, distill it into clear summaries, and generate actionable insights. I’m especially excited about the innovative ways our team is integrating LLM technology into upcoming products. There’s a lot of exciting work happening behind the scenes, so stay tuned!
How would you describe your team’s culture in three words, and why did you choose those words?
If I had to describe our team’s culture in three words, they would be Trust, Courage, and Agility. Trust is the foundation of our collaboration—we share a strong sense of being in it together, openly providing feedback to improve our products without assigning blame. Courage captures our team’s willingness to make bold decisions and act on them, even when facing a wide range of risks and uncertainties. Agility reflects our ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, whether it’s shifting user behaviors or new design directions. Together, these qualities create a dynamic, resilient environment where innovation thrives and challenges are met with confidence and teamwork.
What Nextdoor values do you see most strongly reflected in your team’s daily work?
“Build for Community” is the value I see most deeply embedded in our team’s daily work. In almost every product discussion, someone inevitably asks, “Is this good for the customer?” or “How will this provide more value?” We constantly challenge ourselves to think about how each feature or improvement will enhance the user experience and strengthen the sense of community on the app. This focus keeps us grounded in our mission and ensures that our decisions are always made with the customer in mind.
What’s your favorite team tradition that helps build camaraderie?
I have two favorites. On a more frequent basis, we have our standup questions, which are often weird, quirky, and always fun. They give us a great opportunity to learn more about each team member on a personal level, sparking conversations and laughs that strengthen our bonds. The second is our quarterly in-person meetups. There’s truly no substitute for face-to-face connection when it comes to building deep, lasting relationships, and these gatherings always leave the team feeling more united and energized.
Interested in joining Sean and the innovative ProdDev team at Nextdoor? Check out our careers page to explore current opportunities and help us build technology that brings neighborhoods together.
This article is part of our ongoing series highlighting the talented individuals across Nextdoor’s ProdDev organization. Stay tuned for more inspiring stories from our team as we continue to explore the people and partnerships that make Nextdoor a unique platform. Follow us on LinkedIn and X to catch future installments featuring more of our team members.
