At the beginning of each year, we like to take some time for reflection and planning. We look back on the past twelve months, go over the highlights, and tally up the numbers. Then we reflect on the lessons we learned.
When that’s done, we sit down as a team and take a good hard look at where we want to be a year from now.
The goals we set are shared with the team in Trello, along with a personal letter from James that we call the “State of the Phunion.” He also schedules one-on-one standups with each Phuser, which gives each person a chance to discuss and weigh in on the plan.
These chats and the goal setting exercise help us all get energized for the year to come. Whatever your passion, we hope sharing our thoughts on last year and goals for this year will inspire you to do the same.
2014 Highlights
So what did we do in 2014 that we’re proud of?
- Gave a talk at SXSW Interactive about culture in remote teams. You can find the video here, and the presentation slides here.
- Organized Space Apps Toronto for the second year in a row! Across the adult and youth events, 200 people attended, fourteen projects were created, and those projects garnered five local awards.
- Moved from Basecamp to Trello for project management.
- Moved from HipChat to Slack for team chat.
- Implemented Quarterly “State of the Phunion” updates, in addition to the yearly address mentioned earlier, to keep us accountable to our goals.
- Rebranded the company, redesigned the logo, and deepened the meaning of our brand by identifying our core values of authenticity, collaboration, and transparency. More on that when we talk about the rebrand in a blog post later this month!
- Successfully planned and executed our first company retreat, otherwise known as “Project Minga” (Minga is the Swahili term for “rally for the good.”)
- Ended the year with thirteen Phusers, four more than we started the year with!
2014 Takeaways
In retrospect, 2014 was all about creating a solid foundation for our company.
Apart from the highlights, there were also low points. Weaknesses in our process became apparent as we butted heads with the tools we used, and sometimes struggled to communicate effectively among ourselves. We had cash flow problems in the spring due to inadequate forecasting both for resources and finances.
Each challenge we faced saw us grow as a team. Instead of giving in, the team rallied together to shore up our weaknesses and strengthen our foundation.
Truth be told, we thought we would grow more in 2014 than we did. But we’re glad things didn’t turn out that way. We grew exactly how much we needed to, and today we’re more prepared than ever to handle any future obstacles that get thrown in our path.
2015 Goals
We have an internal team Trello board where the first column is full of cards that represent our goals for the year. We update these cards regularly so everyone knows how we’re tracking against our goals. The tactile experience is great for motivating us, and keeping it in Trello encourages complete transparency.
Here’s what we have planned in 2015:
- Increase revenue by 30% (consistent with our yearly growth over the past three years).
- Print a new batch of marketing material (business cards, t-shirts, stickers, etc.) to match our new branding
- Raise base salaries across the entire team
- Offer Phusers the ability to choose to work 40 hour weeks (as opposed to our normal 30 hour work week).
- Plan and execute the second annual Phuse retreat. (This year it’s in Toronto!)
- Meet several milestones for a big (classified!) internal project.
- Have 15 Phusers on the team.
Our goals last year were too lofty, so we’re being more conservative in 2015. We want to have a sustainable, lasting business, and give ourselves the room to strengthen the foundations even more.
We love the accountability that yearly and quarterly State of the Phunion messages and standups bring to the team. If we had to single one out, that was the change that took the least amount of effort and made the biggest impact on our outlook.
Did you do a retrospective on 2014 for your team? What are your goals for the new year? Share with us in the comments or on your own blog!
