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.

We have professionals with an engineering background that are leading the development of our hardware; we have sharp marketers that make our brand distinctive around the world; and amazing customer success representatives that can resolve any tech problem. Then there’s my closest colleagues from the People team, who are making sure we continue to grow in a diverse and scalable fashion, all while making sure the team is happy.

We have so many high-achieving ladies on board, but it can be hard to exchange lessons learned during a busy workday. We’re swamped with our daily routine and barely could find time for a chat and share ideas, concerns and discuss vital topics.

I wanted to arrange a small event for our women community that will help us to work on our professional development together, or just talk about the most prescient topics on our minds, and all in-person – a new Slack channel is not enough.

Salon … like a beauty salon?

I stumbled upon an interesting article from First Round’s former Head of Knowledge, Anita Hossain. She was sharing tips on how to make social work events successful and pitched the idea of ‘salons’.

Salons have been known from the 16th century, when intellectuals and socialites were gathered by an inspired host, committed to sharing knowledge and enlightening the community. Hossain sees the Salon as an event that “allows people to get to know each other’s goals and challenges quite well — especially when the same people are brought together repeatedly — unique bonds form.”

While salons aren’t gendered by definition, it was tempting to gather all talented ladies and discuss the most relevant questions.

My colleague and I started brainstorming issues we could cover, and we decided our first session would focus on the hefty subject of professional and personal development.

Ahead of the meeting, I communicated the subject to all attendees and asked them to prepare actionable examples and thoughts on the topic. The more prep, the better!

Our first salon

The day came for us to unite for a two-hour session. We tried to make this event as informal as possible, so it was “hygge” atmosphere (which is, in effect, Danish for “cozy”) that encourages people to open up and share their main concerns. We had some food, bought some wine, and very much considered the session as down-time away from the workplace. 

We went around the room, and everyone presented at least 2-3 stories on how they perceive personal development, and what it means to them as individual women within tech.

We all agreed that being reflective made us slightly vulnerable, but through this, we were able to build self-awareness and team trust – a foundation that has helped us define our workgroup.

The value of feedback

The second important discovery was about the value of quality and constructive feedback. It also helps us to define our shortcomings and master our skills. We talked about ways of asking for feedback and sharing it with our peers in a direct yet customary fashion.

It seems like most of us tend to overthink some work situations, mostly for the worse, and worry about upsetting a colleague if we are critical. Again, this is where constructive feedback can step in – the fear of offending is more demotivating than receiving that critical, and perhaps severe, input in the first place.

We defined how we would like to receive constructive feedback from our managers and peers, in asking:

• What do you think about X situation?
• What do you think about my approach? What would you do differently?
• What are your concerns about X?

This may seem simple, but actually providing a framework for giving feedback is crucial for transparency and personal growth within the tech industry, and beyond.

As further homework, for those curious around this subject, I recommended reading leadership coach Kim Scott’s book, Radical Candor, which does a great job at disseminating use cases around the feedback-leadership paradox; on how to be a great, constructively critical boss and still humane in your approach.

Constructive learning

I shared a concept that I’ve heard about in my previous company, it’s called the 70/20/10 model for learning and development. The methodology can be broken down as follows:

• 70% of our personal and professional learning is from experience; the challenging tasks we take on, and the mistakes/wins we make.
• 20% of our education is coming thanks to our colleagues, friends and role models. It’s essential to observe others and learn from them.
• 10% of our learning and knowledge base is coming from books and courses.

I emphasized to the group that it’s important to be surrounded by people who you can learn from. This could also materialize in the form of mentorship.

Reflections

Women in tech is a growing force globally. Here, in our tiny corner of the world, we are a small but growing group and voice at Airtame. We come from 10 different countries, all with myriad education and professional histories, and yet we share a lot of common truths. This was the big learning for me in conducting the salon.  

We face the same challenges, we worry about the same things, and we all try to find the right way to develop ourselves. Now, acknowledging the similarities, we are a stronger collective force.

I hope that this continued move towards transparency and allowing for dedicated time to reflect – in something as enlightening and fun as a salon – can encourage positive change to the broader tech world, across Copenhagen, Scandinavia and globally.

Want to join our diverse team? Check out our open positions on the Airtame jobs page.

The post Women in tech: introducing ‘salons’ at your workplace 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.