Now more than two months in, here’s what the internship has been like. I hope that it’ll help paint a picture of what a 3-month internship could mean for you.

What is Airtame

Airtame is the name of the company itself, as well as the name of the device they produce. The device is used for wireless presentations and digital signage within businesses and educational environments (Airtame’s customer base).

The role of customer success

In order for users to make the most of their screens with Airtame, the Customer Success team offers support via live chat, email, and phone calls.

Other than support, the team focuses a lot on finding new creative ways to improve every stage of the customer journey. The goal is to make sure that people know about Airtame’s different streaming and signage features, and that they’re comfortable using them.

What you get to work on

The first day was a lot about getting to know my teammates and talking a lot with my main supervisor.

You’re also presented with both Airtame devices, models 1 and 2. A very important step to feeling confident is to familiarize yourself with the different configurations and features of Airtame. Asking lots of questions is encouraged!

By the end of the first week, I’d become familiar with the following tools:

• Intercom is used by CS for live chat, answering emails/ongoing support cases, managing any pop-ups and storing help center articles. It’s the main tool used to talk to customers and curious leads. By the end of the first week, I’d got the hang of how to use Intercom (e.g. “macros” or “saved replies”, “tagging” colleagues, writing notes, attaching documentation, etc.).
• Shopify is used by the CS and logistics teams to keep track of orders placed on Airtame’s website. You may need to check the status of a shipment and change info such as the receiver’s address in case anything was input incorrectly.
• Aircall is a desktop and mobile app used for talking to customers and leads over a call. Customers and leads can call Airtame’s support line to talk about anything from “what can Airtame do” to “there’s an Ethernet issue”.
• Pipedrive is mainly used by Airtame’s account managers but is also a platform that CS teammates can check. It has info about customers but also resellers, which account manager is in touch with whom, how many devices they’re using, etc. This is great for finding out more about a customer who may have bought from a reseller rather than from our website.

The above tools “talk” to each other, so that relevant information from one tool is sent to another.

On any given day a colleague would maybe ask me to jump in on a phone call, helping to cover chat, etc. Otherwise, the program was mostly up to me.  It’s definitely nice that you get to manage your time so that each day is varied.

Project-oriented

In addition to assisting with support, I was involved in a customer appreciation project. I researched what should be in a tentative customer appreciation package (e.g. coffee mugs, Airtame posters, etc.). This also involved contacting suppliers regarding bulk pricing and figured out what shipping would cost us.

Another project was reviewing Airtame’s help center articles to make sure they were understandable, no links were broken, etc. Additional tasks that came up during the internship included helping with office inventory organization before Airtame moved locations, coming up with creative ways to get more customer testimonials, and of course, getting the chance to write this article!

Teams within Airtame have started to collaborate on more project-based work that involves people from different backgrounds in order to come up with a wider variety of solutions to projects such as “how do we get more customers educated and using an Airtame Cloud”.

Gaining tech expertise

I’ve definitely learned a lot about how wireless screen sharing works. In this period of two months, I’ve probably gained more technical knowledge of AV systems than I had in my first 22 years!

I can now give you the rundown of Airtame’s hardware, software (app) and cloud management platform. I now understand and can explain how devices are able to wirelessly “discover” and communicate with each other, the significance of different WiFi frequencies, the benefits of Ethernet, and the role that physical installation and network setups play. This was all new to me when I first started out, and I know it’ll definitely help in any future tech-related job.

Talking to customers like people

I’ve also received regular feedback on how to phrase messages in a way that shows empathy. Everyone on the CS team avoids sounding “robotic” at all costs. It takes effort, especially if a customer feels that the product doesn’t have something they expected (e.g. 4K support). But at the end of the day, customers are happy to know that there is a polite and “real” person who’s happy to help.

Final thoughts

A key takeaway in this process is that communication within a company isn’t always perfect. The more a company like Airtame grows, the more effort has to be spent on alignment. That means more meetings and more time before an idea materializes into an established company activity.

Fortunately, a big part of the Airtame solution is encouraging customers to have better, more effective meetings, so this extra focus on them as Airtame, as a company, grows means that we get to practice what we preach.

In the end, I can wholeheartedly recommend this internship, as it offers a chance to leave the theoretical world of the classroom and apply yourself in a hands-on way. The internship can also count in terms of academic credits (as was my case), so there’s an extra bonus there. The atmosphere at Airtame, accompanied by a variety of challenging and creative tasks, have made time fly by!

Being exposed to so many different facets of the customer journey at Airtame, I feel that the steep learning curve has kept me busy, curious and prepped for the wider work environment.

Want to work for Airtame? Check out our careers page. We’re hiring!

The post Two months in the life of a Customer Success intern appeared first on Airtame.

It’s been a marvelous 2018 for Airtame’s people team! It started with bringing in two strong players. Mark Gray took a leadership role in People team aiming to scale People Operations through the company’s growth. Ana Visan, the most organized person and the best problem solver joined us as an office manager.

Together we have achieved incredible results that helped the whole Airtame company step it up this year.

Here are some of the key 2018 outcomes:

• Doubled the size of the team from 40 to 88.
• Narrowed the gender gap 25% of the company is representing our Women in Tech community (while it was only 15% in 2017).
• Kept a high score of employee engagement (a rating of 9.3/10 – as generated from the service provided by our friends at  Peakon).
• Implemented two HR systems, Bamboo and Greenhouse, that help us with employee management and maintenance, and recruitment processes, respectively.
• Successful handling of new and utterly confounding GDPR concerns.
• Implemented sick and vacation policies.
• Moved to a new temporary but fantastic HQ in central Copenhagen.

Beyond the headlines, I discovered some things this year that will help me to make better choices as a People person in 2019.

How to learn from our differences

We grew substantially in 2018 – with 48 new employees joining our now 88-strong team. This amounts to 28 different nationalities.

But it’s so much more than a number. For me, this growth has made me realize that I was amazed at how people with different backgrounds and experience can change my way of thinking, work approach and the overall magnitude of our projects.

I didn’t change my perception of the diversity completely but I grasped it on the deeper level. We learn and improve from our differences, and that’s something we want to focus on in 2019.

Scaling the business while saving the culture

There was a big revelation in autumn this year when our CEO and co-founder Brian stood up in an all-hands team meeting and highlighted that “We are no longer a startup. We are a company now.”

There a lot of cases when startups just fail. We have found a way of succeeding. However, we stay humble and try to make sure we don’t go from a DIY startup spirit to a suit and tie enterprise overnight. That’s a team effort, but the People team are accountable for carrying the torch for our company culture.

The hardest part about scaling a company is not losing track of the things that made you great in the first place.

Airtame today is different from Airtame 1 year ago, but we still have this charming mix of an enjoyable, energetic and balanced environment; where people can try new things, have fun and learn from each other, all while building an awesome product.

The big challenge for 2019, is looking at how we define that culture – built from our startup days – within the new “company” status we have earned.

The importance of a smart workflow

As we have grown this year, we started feeling the urge to build new People processes and optimize the old ones.

One of the biggest issues we had to solve was a decentralized recruitment process that requested a lot of time and resources from team leads.

First, we identified four key interview steps:

• Initial interview with a recruiter.
• A task that helps us see how a candidate thinks and rationalizes their work.
• Interview with a hiring team member.
• Final, cultural fit interview with potential teammates.

We conducted thorough research about possible tools to help create a harmonious hiring experience and decided to go with Greenhouse. The platform helps us optimize the entire process – from job ads to applications, screenings, and interview scheduling – plus provided insightful recruitment data thereafter.

We also had to establish an internal framework that would let us to optimize the onboarding/offboarding processes and organize HR workflow. We value the role of modern technologies in everyday life, and thus decided to take the Human Resouces Information Service (HRIS) called Bamboo out for a spin.

Bamboo helps us automate the most of internal processes – such as logging sick and holiday days, presenting onboarding procedures and outlining team structure – all while boosting our productivity.

We’ll continue to uncover the benefits of the HRIS in 2019, starting with the way we conduct 1:1s, set team goals and establish performance reviews.

What about 2019?

It has been a busy year, full of challenges and wins. But there is the incredible number of fascinating projects that we will be working on, and a variety of obstacles that we will need to overcome in 2019.

Here are some upcoming projects of People team:

• Roll out of performance management program.
• Implement a career development plan.
• Develop a training program.
• Unify the style of interviews.
• Move to our official new HQ in the most beautiful spot in central Copenhagen.

And now it’s the time to rest up with friends and loved ones over the holiday season. Stay tuned. 2019 is expected to be a bold and exciting year for the Airtame team!

The post 2018: Reflections from the Airtame People team appeared first on Airtame.

And the good news – we’re hiring! Right now, we are looking for an NY-based Technical Support Representative to join our expanding, global team. Here are some of the reasons why you should apply to join us.

You’ll be helping people make the most of a great product

Airtame is a device for streaming content wirelessly. Airtame is used as a wireless presentation – and digital signage – solution in businesses and educational settings all around the world. Since getting started, we have sent out more than 100,000 Airtames.

In order for users to make the most of their screens with Airtame, we offer ongoing support via live chat, email, and phone calls.  We help train people in how to get set up and use Airtame the right way, and we assist if any issues come up. In addition, we focus on finding new creative ways to improve every stage of the customer journey – from initial awareness through to collecting feedback and upselling.

You will develop a variety of professional skills

Supporting people on a daily basis, and thinking long-term about how to help them excel in collaborative environments, is at the heart of what we do.

In helping to establish relationships with a wide variety of partners using Airtame – from startups to large enterprises and educational institutions – you’ll learn about the needs and the struggles of people who want to wirelessly use screens in presentation settings (such as meetings and classrooms). Here are the skills that you need, and that you’ll be building on, in a career at Airtame:

• Patience, attentiveness, clear communication, and time management: these will be key to engaging with customers on a day-to-day basis (both in written conversation and over the phone) in a way that is polite, clear, and efficient.
• Product/technical knowledge: understanding and being able to explain how screen mirroring works, how devices are able to wirelessly communicate, and the role that the physical and network setups play.
• Cross-team collaboration: working with colleagues on the Product, Sales, Marketing, and Engineering teams. This multi-level involvement means that you’ll gain a holistic appreciation of the Airtame product, services, and communication strategy.

There are no limitations to growth, and you can decide what areas you’d like to specialize in going forward as a member of the Airtame family.

The Customer Success team covers many different aspects of our customers’ experiences, meaning that there are opportunities for you to grow in the fields of:

• Support
• Technical support (physical hardware, software, and cloud)
• Automation (using software for planning and organizing marketing communications)
• Testing and implementing new projects
• Tracking and analyzing data

Find out more about our approach and the difference between customer success and customer support here.

You will be working in an environment that’s the right combination of friendly and professional

Airtame has two locations – one (our HQ) in the vibrant area of Christianshavn, in Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen, and another in the swanky WeWork office in South Williamsburg in New York City. Both workplaces present a lot of diversity not only in their surroundings but also in people that you’ll be working with.

We come from a variety of backgrounds and continuously collaborate across countries and cultures – both between our US and Denmark-based teams and with our partners and customers around the world. You’ll even get the opportunity to do some traveling for team building trips.

Joining us will mean taking on a steep learning curve and working alongside many different departments and clients. We hire ambitious talent whose enthusiasm is matched with challenging but gratifying work. On our CS team, we have an average response time of under 3 minutes when getting back to customers and an average satisfaction (CSAT) score of 90%. We hold each other up to high standards while being open and supportive.

With everyone from our developers to our CEO sitting in to talk to customers and leads, everyone gets to know about the people we interact with and how they understand our product. In turn, the CS team has a great opportunity to learn from the other departments within our flat working space, from marketing to hardware, sales and development.

You will have flexibility in how you fulfill your responsibilities

While you will consistently catch up with colleagues and our team lead, you won’t be micromanaged. We all trust in each others’ abilities and know that if there is any uncertainty we can always handle a case together.

Depending on which tasks you have, it may make sense to take a morning or day to work from home. Our office spaces are quite open, which makes it much easier to ask questions back and forth throughout the day. When expertise needs to be quickly shared, working in close proximity makes a lot of sense. Sometimes though you may want to get some things done in isolation.

While we do have quiet spaces around the office for that, you can also opt for working remotely.

You will work with people who are generally happy and positive

Some work days will inevitably be more challenging than others. That can be said about pretty much any job. The differentiator though is that at Airtame you’ll be part of a team where people do not let circumstances stress them out – or rather, people who don’t let a stressful situation completely take over their mood and the atmosphere in the office.

Here, you can be busy without being frantic. It helps a lot when that’s the shared attitude. Exercising a calm demeanor, even when assisting someone who’s feeling frantic, is a great disposition to master.

You will work for a company that cares about its employees as much as its customers

Airtame strives to be customer-focused, and the Customer Success team serves a core role in making this a reality. It’s nice to know that, while you’ll be helping many people on a daily basis, you’ll be contributing to a company that takes care of its people. From offering a competitive salary and parental leave to a daily catered lunch, fun events, a yearly workathon, quarterly hackathons and treats on your birthday, you will feel well looked after.

Jimmy has been on the CS team for over two years now, handling the marketing and automation side of the job. Here’s his take:

“Being part of the Customer Success team has been a very gratifying experience for me. I can see the direct impact of my actions on a daily basis. Combine that with a couple more very important aspects. One, the flexibility I’m given to act in my own creative ways. Two, effectively being able to branch out to almost any other team in the company.

All this along with all the fun we have in the process makes for an amazing opportunity for my professional development.”

How to apply

We are looking for a Technical Support Representative to join our Customer Success Team in New York – find out about the position (and how to apply) here.

Airtame is an equal opportunities employer. You can also visit this link to find out about other open positions at Airtame. We hope you’ll join us in making a wireless world possible.

The post Why you should join Airtame’s Customer Success team appeared first on Airtame.

Product

Airtame is a wireless streaming device which helps people work better. It’s powered by embedded Linux on custom-built hardware, with a diverse software stack ranging from our carefully-tuned firmware and high-performance C++ streaming engine, to our cross-platform Electron/React desktop application and Golang Cloud platform.

Technology

How do you make video streaming with high quality and low latency work in poor network environments? How do you integrate four different operating systems? How do you scale cloud backend to support tens of thousands of concurrently connected devices? These are just some of the many difficult challenges we face every day, and we work hard together to solve them. It’s an exciting opportunity to work alongside software, hardware and firmware deliverables with tasks that aren’t repetitive.

We have experts across the entire spectrum of technology. It gives everyone the chance to learn what they don’t know and challenge their own way of thinking. More than that, it’s a unique spread of technical knowledge, something we put it to good use every day working with the complexity of the product. Team structures are fairly flexible, and we’ve had several people start working in a specific range of activity, then gradually move to other areas of problem-solving.

Our talented engineers work with different tools, languages and types of infrastructure, and they are driven towards producing high-quality, maintainable code and software. Frequent code reviews, linting, and pairing are all integral components of our engineering culture. Significant ownership and responsibility over projects is key to our organization. Every developer is able to have a an impact on the direction of the product, and the company as a whole.

Our engineering teams

Streaming team:

In charge of the high-performance streaming pipeline, written in C and C++. And our cross-platform Application, made in Electron and JS.

Cloud team:

Working on the cloud-based administration portal for the Airtames and our upcoming internal digital signage platform called Homescreen. The tech stack here is Golang, React, AWS.

Firmware team:

Leading the efforts on the OS running on the Airtame. They cover everything from the bootloader, Linux kernel, to networking and graphics.

Infrastructure team:

Making sure our internal and external services are up and running. They do Docker, AWS, Ansible, Puppet and Jenkins.

QA team:

Ensuring the quality of our releases. They focus on both automated and manual testing. The tech stack is Python, JS and Jenkins primarily.

Community

In the past, people have relocated to work with Airtame’s Engineering team, and we pride ourselves for our sense of community.

Work is a nice mix of laidback and laser-focused. We know when to work hard, but we make sure to have fun along the way as well. Once per quarter, we host internal hackathons to get the creative juices flowing. No idea is too big, wild or crazy, and some of them might even be implemented afterwards. We value a relaxed environment where socializing is encouraged, but never mandatory. Sometimes, we even pack our toothbrush and go off-location. Here’s the Airtame team at the last offsite event, Workathon 2017 in Corfu, Greece.

Flexible work hours make all the difference to balancing work/life. That’s why 20% of an engineer’s working hours can be used to work on anything they want. It fosters creativity and independence, and we know for a fact that hobbies can lead to solid ideas of implementation.

We’re remote-friendly, something that has been put to good use by several engineers in the past. Airtame is made up of many different nationalities and clever minds, and no one should feel weighed down by the fact that they’re far from home.

Check out this Favro board we made about the Airtame culture.

What does the team say?

“Airtame is a great place for engineers who thrive on learning. I really enjoy our team breakfasts and roundtable discussions, where I can level up my knowledge in areas ranging from hardware design and kernel development to browser APIs and frontend frameworks, plus lots more in between. With 20% time, quarterly hackathons and flexibility to move between projects, I’m constantly developing my skill set, which helps keep my work fresh and engaging.”

Andrew Keating, Lead Software Engineer

Join the team!

See the full list of job openings here. To learn more about what others think of us, take a look at our company overview.

Ready to join our ambitious team? Send your CV and application to tech-jobs@airtame.com letting us know why you would be a great fit. We can’t wait to meet you!

The post Why join the Airtame engineering team? appeared first on Airtame.

All these feelings are far from negative, but they need to be tackled and approached in the right manner. An effective way of doing that is having a standardized employee onboarding plan for new hires to make them feel prepared, welcome and taken care of.

Sink or swim? Not for us

An effective employee onboarding plan doesn’t have to be long and complicated. Something simple is helpful both to the company and the person being onboarded.

Some new hires need a bit more handholding than others who are already familiar with the industry or technicalities we deal with. It’s not always the most experienced new hires that need the least bit of priming. Senior hires are often more set in their ways and therefore have a harder time transitioning smoothly.

Regardless of the person we’re hiring, we always try to follow these five essential steps to a successful onboarding plan.

Start employee engagement early

The first day at the office isn’t necessarily the first day of employee onboarding. Besides signing the contract, we set them up with an email account and event calendars, pass along any material about the product and company culture, and make sure they’re updated other office procedures. We don’t have a dress code or any out of the ordinary code of conduct, but communicating the lack thereof is still essential.

Airtame has an entire “People Ops” team dedicated to making sure the office runs smoothly and keeping staff happy. Someone from People Ops, for example the office manager, makes sure new team members come prepared. Before the first day, she makes the new hire aware of such important documents and information. She also sorts out issues of convenience, for example, if they prefer a vegetarian lunch option or need any special hardware or equipment.

We make an agenda for the first week. That way, our new employee knows what to expect. and create a board on Favro with small assignments that can be easily checked off when they begin. We use Favro because it has an intuitive UI that allows for easy prioritization of various assignments. These online overviews are not only for new team members – we make guidelines for ourselves as well to make sure we haven’t overlooked anything.

Welcome to the team

Yay! It’s our new team member’s first day! There are several steps to take to break the ice. First of all, we introduce them to the team. That means everyone at Airtame, not just their designated department.

We have an initiation ritual at Airtame that helps newcomers ease into the company culture. They are taken to the favorite local café for a spicy ginger shot. The drink is harmless, even healthy, but has a burning sensation that makes most people sour up. We take a picture of their reaction to the burning drink and share it with the rest of the office. On Slack, we also pair up new “coffee buddies” each week. It encourages everyone to meet new people and communicate cross-department.

All new employees also prepare a short presentation about themselves which they show at one of our wider bi-weekly team meetings. We encourage these presentations to be as humble, silly or personal as possible rather than a summary of previous achievements. This applies more nuance to the individual and also hints at how they can contribute to the company culture.

Oh, and we high-five – a lot, actually! It’s not just for new employees, we high-five on a day-to-day basis. It’s a fun and neutral way of interacting and meeting people on the team, and we find that it also makes new faces feel more familiar quickly.

Customization

Every new hire brings something unique to the table, and thus every employee onboarding experience is unique as well.

The People team schedule all essential meetings for the first week, while the team lead sets up 1:1s with other relevant people the new hire should meet. The new employee is also encouraged to reach out to other departments leads as this might help give them a better understanding of the overall business goals, eradicate blind spots or foster unexpected working relationships.

Besides meeting up cross-department, we set new team members up with the right tools to communicate. The right technology can be an effective way to socialize – we use Slack a lot and immediately introduce new team members there and other social platforms.

Creating a warm atmosphere both in the workroom and in the digital universe can help any newcomer feel right at home.

Strategic placement and training

We especially employ a lot of people on the engineering team, and onboarding of engineers is thus a bit more complicated. Because there are so many engineers, we create a rotation schedule for a better technical onboarding.

Find out more about our engineering culture and what we look for in new hires here.

Everyone goes through customer success training, product demo calls and a broad company introduction to provide a better understanding of the product and the customer journey. That’s not the only benefit, though. Working with another area of expertise provides an insight to a different department and a greater awareness of successes and failures, business goals and customer needs.

Following up regularly

This is as important as all the other steps, perhaps even more so. We commit to catching up regularly, especially in the first few months. It’s a point often overlooked or simply forgotten, and we don’t want anyone to feel overlooked. The team lead schedules 1:1s after 4 and 8 weeks besides small lunch chats and walk and talks. That way, we can evaluate the employee onboarding process and learn where to improve.

We follow up, not only on new employees but the entire office, by sending out short surveys via Peakon at recurring intervals. Each survey looks at different elements of employee satisfaction, covering a variety of topics and also including employee onboarding. The surveys are anonymous and designed to help management get valuable feedback with learnings fed back into the company flow.

Onboarding shows that we care about new employees and helps us get better over time. But besides that, a successful onboarding plan builds a supportive culture within the company and this helps build a solid business reputation for future recruitment. So an effective employee onboarding process is not just a process that helps new employees thrive, it’s for us as well, because it improves our company culture and brand.

So, how do you do employee onboarding? Are there any steps we have missed?

We’re hiring right now! Find your next big career move on our jobs page and reach out ?

The post Essential tips for an effective employee onboarding appeared first on Airtame.