Let’s keep with last year’s tradition and remember the best moments in our company throughout 2022! The previous year was very intense – inspiring trainings, new challenging projects, and improvements to our internal processes are just a few examples. A lot has happened! So let’s summarize the most important events of the past year. We hope that 2023 will bring further positive changes and development opportunities!
We were awarded and recognized as Gazele Biznesu!
We’re excited to announce that we were awarded the “Gazele Biznesu” title for 2022. What are the criteria to achieve this prestigious title? Well, recognition is granted to the most dynamically developing small and medium-sized enterprises characterized by transparency, credibility, and trustworthiness.
Gazelle Biznesu is Poland’s oldest and most popular ranking of small and medium-sized enterprises, regularly prepared by Puls Biznesu. It initially appeared in 2000 and has been prepared continuously since then. Ranking among the most outstanding companies is a great honor and the hallmark that we maintain a solid financial condition (to receive the title, a company must record revenue growth and transparently provide their financial condition). We are also pleased that our growth is visible and dynamic enough to receive awards. Kudos to the whole team!
Defining core company values
Over time, we developed significantly – our team has grown, new processes have been introduced, and new roles have been created. Defining how we work with others and the values that drive our behavior is key to fruitful and effective cooperation with clients and colleagues. At Studio Software, we have followed specific rules in daily work from the beginning, but they weren’t formalized. This led us to think about cooperation with an external expert who will help us define our core values and guide the process. Having a set of principles help us create expectations between one another, and our clients know what kind of attitude they can expect from us.
To achieve our goal, we participated in a workshop by Małgorzata Wardaszka-Deręgowskiej, who has been building valuable brands and coherent, strategic communication for growing companies for years. Joint brainstorming and practice exercises allowed us to analyze in detail the way we work and our daily approach.
We did it! We came up with a list of values that define us as a business partner and an employer. These are not just empty slogans – we provide real-life examples that confirm we follow these principles in our everyday work. We focus on putting those values into practice and nurturing them within the team.
To learn more about our values, visit our webpage, and get to know the details. I’ll present them in a nutshell below:
- We function on good relationships. We work for the trust of our customers. We focus on sincere communication and partnership, making it easier for us to build long-term cooperation.
- We share one goal. We believe that the success of the project is our joint responsibility. We treat each other on an equal footing and openly set boundaries.
- We care about self-development. We strive to be a substantive partner for our clients. We give the space to expand our knowledge to offer the highest quality of service.
- We focus on sincere communication. We do not avoid difficult topics. We quickly signal them and strive to find effective solutions for each difficulty.
- We select solutions flexibly as a business is not a greenhouse. In a project, as in life, we face different situations, so we listen to the needs and choose the right tools.
- We keep our fingers on the pulse. As a business and technology partner, we strive to offer comprehensive support. Each task is completed thoroughly from A to Z.
- We take care of mutual commitment. This allows us to effectively achieve our goals, successfully implement projects, and build products tailored to clients’ needs.
New projects and partnerships
Last year was also filled with some inspiring business partnerships and projects. We are delighted to start cooperation with WSiP, an iconic Polish educational publishing house founded in 1945. Our scope of work included building a web app to capture, store, and process survey data from teachers collected by education consultants and telecenter staff. To start the development process effectively, we started cooperation with complex product workshops to analyze the project idea, target group, and define key processes in the application. It helped us understand the client’s vision and prepare for development.
We also partnered with Wago – a world-renowned manufacturer of innovative electrical wiring connection components and comprehensive industrial and building automation solutions. Like WSiP, we started our process with product workshops, which helped us transform business requirements into technical ones and simplified the clients’ vision. The next step was to create a social application for electricians and electrical wholesalers, enabling sharing of the effects of work in the internal network of specialists.
We also had the opportunity to create a mobile application with IoT for the Germany-based company Vemcon, which develops modern machine control systems and simplifies processes in handling construction projects. Our clients included the American TMBR project (we are creating an application for comprehensive management of timber trade in the USA) and Workwise.
Growing to 50 people and keep growing further
Our team is constantly growing; in 2022 our team has grown to 50 people! We have recorded approximately 37.5% growth, and we don’t want to stop there, so a new hiring plan is on the table.
New projects mean further opportunities to join us. Check out our career subpage, where we publish all our current job offers 🙂
Taking our internal processes to the next level
The year 2022 was hectic when it came to our internal processes. Company growth determines many organizational changes and challenges, including organizing all the processes and defining new standards to work effectively. At Studio Software, we value offering many opportunities for developing our team, and we come up with ideas on how to improve the organization and its culture.
The changes that we introduced are presented in the examples below.
Creating new role – project lead
Considering the complexity and character of some of our projects, we decided to introduce a new role responsible for process coordination. Our so-called project lead is also responsible for creating and following the quality standards of developing software products and widely supporting all team members in their growth and development.
For now, we can see the first results – we improved communication with our clients, and teamwork became more efficient. The new roles were assigned to the most experienced developers, who can share their knowledge and gain essential skills to lead others.
New role descriptions
In 2022, we developed our semi-annual evaluation process – appraisals. We changed both the meeting model and the materials used for employee evaluation. In the case of developers, we focused on the technical assessment and a precise soft skills assessment (corresponding to the nature of the role and main responsibilities).
The new form of appraisal brings the intended results – the conversations are very deep, fruitful, and focus on the person’s needs, skills, and opportunities to expand knowledge.
Complex HR audit
We believe that the best way to change and develop the organization is to listen to the team’s feedback and act accordingly. The work comfort and the possibility to share an opinion about the company and its processes seem to be the key to building an attractive workplace and a highly-effective software development company.
Therefore with external help provided by Martyna Lempert, we examined the team’s opinion on our onboarding process and other company-wide aspects: benefits, remuneration, project satisfaction, internal processes, and communication. We presented all the results at a company meeting and focused on improvements. Finally, we created a list of ideas on what changes should be made and implemented them incrementally.
2022 – integration time!
Although 2022 was very busy and full of news, we didn’t miss the opportunity to spend time together and have fun! Working remotely and hiring new people from different cities can make it challenging to nurture relationships. Still, we know how to integrate and spend time together. We organized several events, including a company retreat in Boszkowo – what a great time we had! Sunny holiday vibes, outdoor games, and long parties are some of the unforgettable moments we can recall. During 2022, we also held a company meeting in a cozy restaurant in Wrocław named Zielony Rower.
It’s also worth mentioning other exciting initiatives we held. We know how important it is to tighten relationships between people working in one team. To make it happen, we organized Summer Meets – each team could choose any attraction and meet after work.
We also stuck to one of our traditions. We organized Jubilee, where we appreciate employees who reached the 3- or 5-year mark with the company. This year we celebrated the 5th anniversary with three people and the third year of cooperation with seven. This unique event is always an excellent opportunity to meet, have fun together, and appreciate our employees. Among other attractions that diversified our time in 2022 was a two-time bike challenge and betting on the results at the World Cup.
Inspiring trainings
As you may remember from the previous year, we’ve always been hungry for knowledge and actively participated in many trainings to enhance soft and technical skills. We took part in training cycles covering the AWS topic: “AWS Web Services – creating, implementation, and coordination of distributed systems” led by an external expert, Wojciech Szczepucha. The workshops were dedicated to all specialists in system administration and networks, configuring environments for applications.
Another news is that we have reborn our internal training organized by the team. One of the latest topics covered Frontend tests – ways and practical knowledge of preventing errors while writing code. In addition, we also do not forget about the development of soft skills – our team was trained in communication in IT projects, where the main areas discussed were the following aspects:
- building a relationship with the client,
- business presentations,
- participation in business meetings – from the participant’s and leader’s side,
- expression and pronunciation correctness, learning new vocabulary in English,
- communication styles and adapting them to different types of targets.
The host, Piotr Jankiewicz, comprehensively discussed every area and proposed engaging exercises that helped us see the problem in practice.
Last year we also trained in teamwork in projects and the role of feedback, during which we worked on cooperation and communication tools in the team under Ewa Załupska, a lecturer, advisor, and trainer.
We share our knowledge – get the value materials!
In 2022 we also focused on creating knowledge-rich materials, including ebooks and the checklist about our product workshops. Our checklist answers the question when you need product workshops. It’s a short, just a few pages long material containing valuable knowledge. Easy-to-read, easy-to-use – you can download it directly from here:
Recently we also published a brand new ebook widely describing all the techniques we use during product workshops and the business benefits behind them. If you’re interested in building an app and need to start the development process effectively – we have something for you. Check it out below.
Moreover, we don’t stop improving our website, building new subpages, and crafting it to our clients’ needs. We’ve updated the services pages and created a new page about our development process. Check out how we work 🙂
As you can see, the previous year was a very inspiring chapter; we decided to implement significant changes and developed in many different ways. We can’t wait for the challenges in 2023. We’re ready to continue our growth in building the perfect workplace and company that delivers high-quality products tailored to our partners’ needs.
