I spent this past week in Amsterdam with colleagues for a team meetup. We got some great face-to-face time while working through projects. That face time is essential for creating a lasting bond with your team when our main communication is online chat.
Working
Since my team is focused on design and growth within the WordPress.com store, we took some time to do a review and audit of everything we touch. We also got a chance to discuss our goal-oriented roadmap for the next few months.
This is the first meetup with a new team so I was struggling a bit trying to settle in to my new role. It was a great week and really got me excited and motivated about the work I’ll be doing.
Escaping (and breaking in)
Because you can’t just work all the time, we had some activities planned (and unplanned) during the week.
On Thursday we split into two groups and took on some puzzle “escape rooms” hosted by Sherlocked. If you’ve never done one of these, I highly recommend finding one near you.
Both of their experiences were fantastic. They were interesting, challenging, and fun. It was a great way to create a stronger bond through working together to solve the clues. Communication was key, and this translates directly to working remotely.
We also spent some time as a group taking in the views on a brunch cruise through the canals and exploring the city on foot. It’s a beautiful and very walkable city, as long as you keep an eye out for all the bikes. They’re everywhere, and they don’t usually yield to pedestrians.
Getting to know each other
Some of my most memorable time spent with the team was simply hanging out at the apartment. Meals and playing table top games at the end of the night precipitated a lot of engaging conversation. There are things I learned and talked about with my new colleagues that could only have come up in hours-long organic conversations.
Dan Hauk 