people management

How to become a distributed company: a step-by-step guide

I lead a company called TEN7 and up until the spring of 2017, we were all in on the idea that a company needed a physical space to function. In fact, I was so sold on the idea that my wife and I purchased commercial real estate in Downtown Minneapolis in 2011 just so that we were committed to making a physical space work for the company. Fast forward to 2019 and the office space is no more, TEN7 is a fully distributed company, and it's been two years since we decided to take the jump.

45 Minutes to Actionable Strategies that will Improve Customer Experience

Ever feel like you're jumping from one problem to the next putting out fires but never get the bandwidth to implement longer term solutions?  This 45-minute session focuses on the importance of establishing baseline assessments and measuring progress through regular formal audits of your content, architecture, workflow and infrastructure to seize opportunities that will strengthen visitor journeys and increase conversions.

Pivoting in a Project

As a Project Manager, Strategist, Developer, Designer, or Stakeholder, we are all part of the puzzle—and it's crucial to keep sight of the big picture—even when we’re required to pivot from the original plan. Pivots come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be a minor change that’s quickly integrated into the scope or a major departure that alters the entire course of the project.

Beyond babysitting and cat herding : How servant leadership makes for a better project manager

In a recent annual review, my boss acknowledged that the team appreciated my servant leadership on projects. Even though I had heard of this style of leadership, at first I was taken aback and almost offended by the term. I might’ve had a chip on my shoulder from battling stereotypes of females in the workplace and constantly proving myself as more than a notetaker and meeting scheduler. The last thing I wanted to be labeled as was a servant! 

Putting Your Best Foot Forward: A How-to for Navigating the Recruiting Process

Web developers with skills in Drupal, WordPress and modern JavaScript have long been in high demand, leading to tough competition for top talent. For hiring managers at all types of organizations, the prospect of recruiting a new team member can seem daunting at best and downright frustrating at worst. The recruiting process can also be very challenging for developers. How can they best assess culture and fit of an organization through just a job description and a few interviews? What should they keep in mind when searching for a new position to keep up their career progression?

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. 

You are not a candle; don't burn out

This session will cover a topic near and dear to our hearts: How to juggle multiple complex IT projects without losing our balance. We’ll get real about distractions that we cause ourselves through unexamined habits or suboptimal work practices, and we’ll talk about how some basic Agile principles can support better work-life balance. We’ll also tackle how to recognize some systemic issues in a technical work environment, such as technical debt, and make a connection between small choices in our daily work-lives and big problems that snowball over time.

Developers with Super Powers: Becoming Cross-Functional

As projects become larger and more complex, so too do the teams required to make them great. When the requirements seem to grow beyond reach we all need to be superheroes to keep up. Staying siloed into our individual roles is no longer viable. To keep up we all need to develop our own super powers by learning skills outside our role to become cross-functional and succeed both individually and as a team. By learning to be more cross-functional and expanding knowledge into the other disciplines required to build and maintain a site, a developer can: