For remote teams, there’s always pressure to make our rare, in-person time valuable. Spending an hour of a 2-day onsite on a silly game might seem like a waste, but I’ve found that a little competition and abstract problem solving is a great way to help people connect. Every year, I plan some kind of unique, team building game for Sprout Social’s meetups. I kept that streak alive at last week’s onsite and also tried something different: a hands-on empathy exercise that put our Publishing and Mobile teams through a simulated day in the life of the social media managers we build for.
Making a Fidget Toy From a Logo
As the holidays were approaching in December, I wanted to send a small token of gratitude to the product designers on my team at Sprout Social. My go-to holiday gift for teammates in the past has been a page-a-day desk calendar, but I decided to be a little more creative this year.
Challenge Coins & Cheesy Trophies
For me, the wheels started turning when we set the dates for our product zone’s Chicago HQ onsite and decided to make a hackathon the focus of our 2 days together. I wanted to make this meetup a memorable one and create some kind of tangible reminder of the occasion. I also knew that our hackathon teams would work hard on their self-selected projects and that everyone who participated would deserve a fun reward.
Design Team Blogroll
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about writing and how beneficial it is (especially for designers) to connect and share with our broader communities of practice through storytelling. It can be scary to put content out into the world, even more so when you’re representing a team. Sharing our processes, experiments, failures, and aha moments though is the best way for all of us to learn. Blogging regularly as a team has the added benefit of creating a window into the culture of our organizations, providing a glimpse of what working there is like.
Mid-Century Masonry Faux Shutter Accents
Of all the historic residential styles that can be found around Central Florida, the modest mid-century ranch homes are some of my favorites. There are many gems in the 1950s Orlando neighborhood where I live and one of the details I notice most often is the diversity of shutter designs. Some houses have them, some don’t. Some are your run-of-the-mill fake wood shutters, and some are absolute “Shudder Sunday” train wrecks…