being human

Storytelling for Authentic Connection

Have you ever listened to a truly mesmerizing storyteller? Ever wondered how they effortlessly draw you in and leave you invested in the outcome? Lily Berman did too, and outside of building her Drupal account and project management chops, began studying the storytellers who captivated her. Since then, she has won storytelling competitions and been featured on the internationally-renowned The Moth podcast.

Translating Drupal into English… with Props!

When Lily first started working near Drupal (account and project management in a Drupal agency), she came from working near French (marketing and fundraising for a French cultural center). She immediately approached Drupal as a new language, and used this perspective to learn and then to teach. She saw how clients and non-technical colleagues can easily be left out of the conversation by pervasive jargon… fields, views, and modules, oh my! Most of the time, the team does not realize they are doing this, nor how to quickly and easily bring everyone into the discussion. 

Duh. How Did I Miss That?

My life as a Drupal developer was forever changed when I learned to use X-Debug with PHP Storm. Suddenly the mystery of all those variables and functions was accessible and I had a way to figure out, "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING!!!", and depend less on Stack Exchange solutions and more on writing my own solutions. The real revelation wasn't that I could debug PHP code, but that I could think about solving the mystery of why something wasn't working in a new way.

Adding a Documentation Content type will change the way you use Drupal

Just as the design process should seek to create something perfect and useful for the users and the client, so should the documentation. Documentation can be the first set of deliverables within an agency process to become outdated, stale, or redundant—mainly because they are dismissed as unimportant or left to a lackluster team to plod through begrudgingly. This doesn't need to be the case if we throw out what we think documentation means and seek to find more meaningful ways to integrate the process of documentation.

Dealing with Mental Illness: Or, How I Learned to Hate Myself Less

I’m JD and I have mental illness. I’m also not alone. Every year, roughly 20% of the US adult population deals with some form of mental illness, however that number is MUCH higher in the tech community.

Staying Passionate When the Days Continue to be Long

Passion. It’s what drives us and excites us. It’s the thing that makes us strive to be better, and work harder day after day. It’s the energy that makes a project exciting and energizes the team to deliver something never seen before. It connects people, and makes them more than just co-workers, but more like family. What happens though when that passion begins to dwindle? The days become longer, the project gets hard and burnout begins to set in. How do we push to deliver what we set out to do? How we do keep focused? How do we keep that passion?

How to Work Remotely and Foster a Happy, Balanced Life

Virtual. Remote. Distributed. Pick your label. This style of organization is becoming more popular and in-demand among many Drupal shops. While many folks have gone remote, some people find the experience quite isolating and disconnected. Does remote work make people happier? Does it make them more productive? The answer is not really. It is not the act of working from home that creates employee happiness; it is creating a culture that fosters remote practices to develop meaning, collaboration, and happiness.