Team meetup 2013

The Foundry team white water rafting on the Payette river.

Last week the team met up here in Boise, Idaho. We all work remotely, so it’s really nice to bring everyone together for some “real life” time. Scott had the longest trip by far, coming all the way from Sydney, Australia! We had lots of fun, and even got to do some white water rafting (that’s the four of us in front).

We also had the chance to get some great work done. We re-designed our theme product pages (see Snap for an example), giving them more personality and making it easier to show off the unique features of each theme in the collection. We’re planning to roll out this new design across the rest of our theme product pages soon. We also re-designed our theme tutorial pages, making them bigger, cleaner, and easier to use.

From a work standpoint, we were all taken aback at how refreshing it was to collaborate together in the same room for a week. Even with all the tools available to make remote work easier, there is really no substitute for being together in person, especially when you’re focusing on big picture internal projects. It really allowed the team to move through ideas at a rapid pace. Scott and I were able to talk through and iterate on design concepts in real time while looking at the same screen. This was hugely beneficial, and we all agreed to do some experimenting to try to replicate those types of conditions in our normal remote work environment.

All and all, the meetup was a huge success. We got some fantastic work done, but the best part was spending time together and really getting to know each other better. I’m looking forward to the next one!