How We Work at GoodNotes
One of the best ways to describe what working at GoodNotes feels like is by sharing a brief overview about our engineering process and how we structure our work. We believe that learning about how work is done is a great insight into a company’s culture, management and its people.
We hope this will be a great way for you to learn more about us and how we do what we do.
Work is structured into six-week-cycles
Our work is structured into cycles, each lasting six weeks. Why six? Well, we believe six weeks is enough time for us to ship and build something that is significant, but not too long that we are dragging our work. Each six-week cycle is also broken down into shorter two-week sprints which helps us work even smarter, with more iterations and opportunities to make sure that we are moving in the right direction.
Buffer week
We devote two weeks in between each cycle to reflect on our work. We take this time to delve into what went well, what didn’t and how we can improve. This is also the time we take to plan our work for the next cycle.
Demo Day and Work Retrospective
Demo Day also happens during buffer week. During Demo Day, everyone can showcase what they have been working on. We’ll usually have a team lunch, and each team member spends about five minutes presenting what they’ve been working on and what they have accomplished during the cycle.
The presentations are followed by a Q&A session and a cycle retrospective. During retrospectives we all sit in a circle to talk about what we did well, what we didn’t and what we could have done differently. We also take the time to thank others so we make sure every member of GoodNotes is being appreciated.
Our team members who work remotely participate as well, and retrospectives provide a safe place for everyone to share their opinions and give constructive feedback. They have a real impact on our work quality and team culture.
How and when do we decide what to work on next?
One of the ways we decide what we need to focus on next is by taking into account user feedback. We are very lucky in that we have a strong community of users who give us lots of feedback.
For example, UserVoice is GoodNote’s feedback tool where users can propose new features, suggestions or any ideas they believe will help them and in turn help us improve our product. Our customers also contact us through email, Twitter and Instagram.
The decisions on what to work on next happen during the brainstorming sessions we have during buffer week. We take this time to discuss what’s currently important and what we should focus on for the next cycle. For example, if there is a particular issue that has been affecting our users, then we will address that during the coming six weeks.
Daily stand-up
Every morning each team gets together to give an overview of what they worked on the previous day and let each other know what they are going to be tackling that day. This is also the time to share about any obstacles that might make daily tasks hard to achieve.
We find that the mere ten minutes it takes for the standout really helps every person in that team be aligned with the daily goals and to offer help if appropriate.
1:1 Breakfast meetings with Steven
One of the opportunities employees value the most at GoodNotes is the chance to have regular scheduled 1:1 breakfast meetings with our founder Steven. It is perhaps a luxury that is possible given the size of our team at the moment and may change in the near future as our company grows. For now, we love having this face time with our founder. It’s your time to ask him any questions you’d like and to openly share any views and opinions on anything.
Performance Review Report
As we’ve mentioned in our previous post, we foster a culture of openness and continuous self-improvement. This is evidenced especially in our performance reviews which are completed after two cycles.
At the performance review, everyone writes down what they believe they’ve done well, what they can improve on and what kind of support they’d like from the company. We have a monthly learning budget dedicated for this purpose and is our way of allocating part of our resources to the self-improvement of our team members.
An interesting fact about our performance reviews is that they are public to everyone. One of the most important reasons behind this decision is because it allows for each person to read about what quality means to everyone else. And quality takes on different meanings for every person and varies depending on the role you play here at GoodNotes.
We also strive for quality as a team. When our team members feel that they all belong to a team of high performers who are creating top quality work, it leads to higher productivity across the board.
And quality comes from our belief in the importance of craftsmanship when it comes to our approach to how we build our products. All of us at GoodNotes take pride in our work. We believe in being detail-oriented, and are committed to creating a better product for all our customers.
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This sums up the basics of the way we do things at GoodNotes and is not by any means meant to be an exhaustive overview of our work structure. We hope this offers a sneak peak to our current work process and gives you a better idea of who we are.
Want to be part of this elite team and make something people love? Check out our openings here!
