Bringing mindfulness to the process of building technology
We all have our visions for what a journey might be, but often times the outcomes are surprising different. I am so glad/grateful for all the wonderful experiences we’ve had in 2021 and as part of walking the talk – I had to publish our learning for 2021.
Serendip is now 2 years and 9 months old. Our team is 4 people strong. We as a company remain focused on kindness, gratitude and bravery to help our teams be authentic while we build good products and bring joy to the process. That remains the the core of our company culture.
I personally continue to practice daily “abundance meditations” to remind myself of my personal dharma, the reason I exist. I am so grateful and proud of our little team for their continued support of our clients and Serendip culture. I am also very grateful for the respect and trust our clients place on us.
As a company, I am happy to say we continuously remind ourselves of lessons learned and acknowledge there is still plenty of room for improvement and growth. Here are some areas we’d like to focus on moving into 2022.
This article can also be found on LinkedIn.
#1 : Repeatable process
In 2021, we added 7 new clients to our portfolio, 2 new consultants to the Serendip Team, celebrated 2 years of partnering with Fanzoo Technology, and added 1 new partner in CODE Èxitos. We had 363% revenue growth. That meant we needed to bring some process into the company and diversify the responsibility. I am thrilled to say we have brilliant talent supporting our vision to make it even better. In particular, I thank Margrét Eva Árnadóttir and Indigo Whatley for their guidance and commitment.
In 2022, we would need to develop a more clear process around hiring, people satisfaction and client satisfaction.
#2 : More information on website
As we helped several companies build their MVP (Minimum Viable Product), we realized that pulling the process of workflow design more upstream, helped our clients plan a better MVP rollout. We have user experience design, workflow design, development specifications, development and user acceptance testing but our website doesn’t talk about any of this. That is a lost opportunity.
We need to bring more visibility to this process on our website.
#3 : Turning down business
Business as usual is not how Serendipians work. We are constantly trying to rethink how we might bring more equity and balance to people’s lives, so work-life balance is a priority. Setting those expectations right with clients has been important. My radar for clients that fit our culture has been getting better.
As a sales person, I realize that my decisions have a profound effect on people’s pay and joy factor. This year we said no to 3 clients and I am guessing that number may go up. That conversation is never fun. It gives us no joy. It is something we do to mitigate risk. We are in the business of creativity. One bad client can suck the joy out of the creative flow for everyone else, so we have to play it safe.
#4 : Accelerated learning
Accelerating learning around UX strategy and design, business valuation, writing specifications, building thoughtful applications, mindful team communication and user acceptance testing continues to be our value proposition. We will strengthen the clarity around our learnings through informed process so future teams will benefit.
#5 : Insert calendar event reminders
Second/third time around, we have some feedback on what initiatives work and what do not. For example, we should have added a calendar event to start planning our gratitude gifts in October so they go out the door in time for Thanksgiving. That was botched. You will not be receiving our gifts till late January 2022 at best. Apologies!
#6 : Community reputation matters
Most of our business has come from local businesses recommending us. We would like to take a moment to thank the people behind SPARK, Jottful, University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship, Invest Detroit, TechTown Detroit and other business leaders who have been recommending us. We are very grateful and appreciative of your trust!
As we begin another new year we look forward to the joy of many more release parties. What a privilege it is to be on this journey!
Thank you for reading this newsletter and wish you the reader abundant joy.
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