A few years back we accidentally started a company. We had a client who wanted an app built. So Nana, our soon to be CEO, rapidly got together a few friends (and family) to design and develop it. Before the project was over, people started hitting us up for projects. We decided that we liked working together. And a couple of years later, we’re still here.
🧘🏿♂️ Staying Limber
Being flexible is a core tenet of our team. Sunette, our project manager, lives in South Africa and works three days a week. (The only bad part about it is when she complains that it’s cold when it’s 16°C there and -3°C in our office.) Any of us can work from home or remotely whenever we want.
We feel that remote work is going to be a huge shift in working lives and to be honest, I still find it hard to believe that most businesses still operate with a bums-on-seats mindset i.e. “If I can’t see you must not be working.” Madness.
Unfortunately, for us in London, we know the Daily Commute™️very well. So we’ve tried to develop a way so none of us has to travel during rush hour — or take the Central Line EVER. We have a morning huddle to keep the team updated about progress, plans and problems to allow the team to focus on outcomes and goals. And you don’t need to be in the office to do it, and in fact, doing it on the move tends to make them even briefer.
We also try to have short video calls to keep us off emails and slack and mitigate misunderstand as text is wont to do (see: all of Twitter). For its 2018 Maker’s festival, Product Hunt had a section on remote work and they’re usually pretty on the money about trends in tech.
👩🏾🔬 Surviving the storms
We’ve done a lot in our two years. But the sheer nature of what we do means that things move fast. Really fast. Each project is a whirlwind of learning, testing, making, launching (or not launching!), and before one tornado dies down we’re already caught up in a typhoon or two.
We’re trying to implement and iterate on systems to make repeatable processes more efficient, but we’re always doing something new which is one of the reasons I love what I do. I’ve developed, learned, and grown more than in any other period of my life and I’m able to pass that knowledge onto all the people we work with, school children and talks at events.
But what’s also happened is that we haven’t taken the time to take stock and celebrate the fact we just survived a monsoon (see?).
So, one thing I’m going to try to do is to figure out how to celebrate. And this isn’t agency beers on a Friday, or a mariachi band playing whenever we close a project off — though I’m definitely going throw that idea into the pot. I’m actually talking about something more meaningful and constructive. Something that allows us to bask in the balmy breezes.
🏆 How Do You Celebrate Wins?
Do you have any advice on how we could better celebrate wins? Many of our clients are under NDA which makes gratuitous social media posts tricky. Anyway, I’m more concerned with how us as a team can experience a greater sense of success and satisfaction.
We really should love to develop this part of our game. After all, if we’re not enjoying the good times, then why are we doing this?
👩🏽🏫 Things we’ve learned
🧘🏿♂️Figure out a way that keeps your team mobile, flexible and working effectively.
👩🏾🔬 Keep trying and testing new things. Some things will fail. Some will work. Rinse and repeat.
🏆Celebrate your wins because there’ll always be new…challenges/tornadoes/typhoons.
I’m Dan Parry. I help people build apps that make money and help new businesses grow with Metier Digital. If you like this, make it clap like Sean Paul. 👏🏽
And if you’d like to talk some more, hit me up at dan@metierdigital.com.
