‘At Mitek, What Changed? I Did’

At the time when the pandemic hit, Max Carnecchia, CEO of Mitek, had never worked remotely a day in his life. He tells PYMNTS how he was forced to learn to work efficiently in an entirely new way — and how the experience has helped him and his team better serve their clients during an unprecedented and stressful time.

The following is an excerpt from What Did You Change?, contributed by Max Carnecchia, CEO of Mitek. 

Looking back at the early days of the pandemic, I have to say that the biggest change at Mitek was, well, me.

Even as a serial CEO of a technology company, with a career in tech, I had never worked remotely. Not once. That’s almost unheard of, but it was a decision I made early on, knowing that without boundaries, work will consume all our attention, all our time. That’s not good for us as individuals and not good for our companies.

So when our entire workforce re-deployed to their homes to work remotely, I went through what millions of people in other industries around the world experienced — I had to quickly pull together the system I needed to work efficiently offsite, and learn to work efficiently in a whole new way.

When the pandemic hit, I had two priorities: delivering for our customers at the pace and in the way they needed us to be there for them — and caring for our employees, making sure we were supporting their health and well-being in such a stressful time.

Luckily, five years ago, Mitek had put together a business continuity plan that we had not yet needed to field test. It’s a credit to that forward-thinking move and to our entire team that we didn’t miss a beat.

Almost overnight, much of the global economy moved online — everything from commerce to financial services, healthcare, education and more. While we watched some in our industry have to shut down to re-tool, we rapidly ramped up to meet our customers’ requirements.

We adopted an “innovation at a distance” approach to problem-solving. We formed “swat teams” and leveraged technology and people’s creative spirits. We felt a particular sense of responsibility, because in many ways, our services and products are a critical infrastructure in this pandemic world of online commerce.

Our identity verification system allows businesses and financial institutions to verify the identity of those who want to open new accounts or use their services.

So, when Instacart announced plans to onboard thousands of new grocery shoppers to meet the surge in demand for home delivery of groceries, we helped them verify the identities of their new shoppers, getting them

into the system as safely and rapidly as possible. We helped banks expand their ability to accept mobile deposits, making it possible for their customers to handle vital financial transactions when bank branches were closed.

Throughout this trying time, the true stars at our company have been our employees. They have gone the extra mile to deliver for our customers. Thanks to them, we have continued hiring and onboarding new team members to meet our own surge in demand for their expertise.

As for me, they have set a high bar. If they can work so efficiently and productively from wherever they are, in ways that are mindful of their family’s well-being, I have learned that I can, too.