Celebrating Five Years at Notarize: Hilary Walker

Five years ago, I showed up to a largely empty (aspirational) office in Boston to start as one of the first Product Designers at Notarize. It’s a little wild to think about how much the company and my own life have changed during that time. We’ve done some growing up together! 

I learned about Notarize through the Boston tech grapevine, and specifically that they were bringing product design in house after initially working with an agency. I reached out, came into the office, and got a demo of the early retail experience. I decided pretty immediately that this was the type of product I wanted to work on and started a few weeks later. I was motivated by the fact that we were taking this critical, paper-based transaction and could set the precedent for how it would become a secure, digital process. 

There was a lot of ground to cover, from eSignature and identity verification to video conferencing and notary compliance. The product has evolved so much since I started, and I’ve been lucky enough to work on different aspects of it, having moved from design to product management. 

During that time, I’ve also learned what it means to become a working parent, with two little kids at home, and especially how important it is to have a company and leadership that are supportive of parents. During the early days of the pandemic, I often had my 7 month old sitting on my lap during meetings. I can’t say those days were stress-free, but I always felt supported by my managers and colleagues.

In a lot of ways, Notarize today barely resembles the Notarize I joined 5 years ago. I started working on a small team in our Boston office, where the whole company would gather in one conference room on Fridays for an all-hands meeting. Now, we are remote-first, with hundreds of employees all over the country. But whenever anyone asks me why I’ve stayed as long as I have, the answer is easy for me. This is an incredible group of people, who are fun to work with, engaged, and want to solve hard problems. I have to give a shoutout to my product and engineering team colleagues who are the best of the best. There are too many to mention by name, but I’ve learned so much from all of you and I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished together.