We’ve devoted the week of August twenty second to a model new inside initiative known as Construct Week. We’ll all be placing apart our common work for a single week to come back collectively in small teams and work on concepts that may profit clients or us as an organization, ideally with one thing of worth shipped or in place by the tip.

The inspiration for Construct Week

Earlier than constructing Buffer, I had a number of formative experiences attending “construct a startup in a weekend”-type occasions.

Two I attended had been run by Launch48, and one other was Startup Weekend. Anybody might signal as much as attend it doesn’t matter what talent set or expertise stage they might carry. So long as you had been prepared to roll up your sleeves, construct one thing, and contribute in any approach, you’d be very welcome.

The main focus was on constructing one thing quickly from finish to finish, throughout the area of a weekend. Groups could be capped to a small quantity, round three to 5 individuals per workforce, so the teams might transfer rapidly with choice making. As soon as the groups had been shaped, you’d get to work and begin doing analysis, constructing, and advertising (usually all in parallel) to maneuver as quick as doable in constructing a minimal viable product and reaching a stage of validation.

On the finish of the weekend, groups would current what they achieved, what they validated, and what they discovered.

Via these occasions, I met individuals, shaped sturdy bonds, and stayed in touch for years with them afterward. Some groups even turned startups. It felt like extremely accelerated studying, and it was intense however enjoyable, very energizing and provoking.

I’ve been serious about how this might translate to Buffer and why it will be so highly effective for us in our present season, which is the place Construct Week is available in.

What’s Construct Week?

Construct Week is per week at Buffer the place we’ll kind groups, work with individuals we don’t sometimes work with, and work collectively on an thought we really feel known as in the direction of.

The very best stage targets of Construct Week are to inject into the corporate and workforce a spirit of transport, creativity, and innovation, making progress and choices quickly, consolation with uncertainty, and finally going from thought to usable worth out on the planet within the area of per week.

In terms of the kind of initiatives we’ll work on and the talent units required to perform them, the objective is for these to be far-reaching. Whereas it could look like Construct Week could be extra suited to engineers particularly, our objective is to attain the end result that everybody realizes they’re and is usually a Builder.

In the end, being a Builder in Buffer Construct Week will imply that you’re a part of a workforce that efficiently makes a change that brings worth, and it occurs within the quick interval of per week. Everybody on the workforce has one thing to carry to this objective, and I am excited by the varied initiatives that might be labored on.

How we’re approaching Construct Week

With our high-level imaginative and prescient and concepts for Construct Week, a number of months in the past we set to work to carry this idea to life and make it occur.

The very first thing we did was kind a workforce to plan and design Construct Week itself. Staying true to our imaginative and prescient for Construct Week itself, the place we need to have small groups of people that don’t usually work collectively, that is additionally how we approached forming the Construct Week Planning workforce. With this workforce in place, we began assembly weekly. General, it has been a small time dedication of 45 minutes per week to plan and design Construct Week. As we received nearer to the precise week, we began assembly for longer and having actual working periods.

Our last design for Construct Week consisted of three key phases: Concept Gathering, Crew Formation and Construct Week.

For the Concept Gathering stage, we created a Trello board the place anybody within the workforce might contribute an thought. We used voting and commenting on the playing cards, which helped slender the concepts to people who could be labored on throughout Construct Week. We gave individuals just a few days to submit concepts and acquired 78 whole contributions. This was an enormous win and a transparent indication of an enormous urge for food for Construct Week throughout the firm.

The Crew Formation stage was a trickier downside to unravel and decide the method for. Initially, we had hoped that this may very well be fully natural, with individuals gravitating in the direction of an thought and becoming a member of up with people who find themselves additionally excited to work on that concept. In the end, we realized that if we approached it this manner, we might possible battle with our objective of getting individuals work with of us they don’t usually work with, and we wouldn’t have sufficient management over different facets, such because the time zones inside every workforce. All of this might jeopardize the success of Construct Week itself. So we arrived at a hybrid, the place we created a Google Type for individuals to submit their prime 3 selections of concepts they’d wish to work on. With that data, we decided the groups and made each effort to place individuals in a workforce that they had put down as a alternative.

And the ultimate stage is, after all, Construct Week itself! The groups have now been shaped, and we created a Slack channel for every workforce to start out organizing themselves. We’re offering some very light-weight steerage, and we could have just a few required deliverables, however aside from that, we’re leaving it to every workforce to find out one of the simplest ways to work collectively to create worth through the week.

In case you’re a Buffer buyer, one small observe that as we embrace this company-wide occasion and time collectively, we might be shifting our focus barely away from the assist inbox. We are going to nonetheless be responding to your questions and issues with Buffer; nonetheless, we could also be barely slower than normal. We additionally will not be publishing any new content material on the weblog. We’re assured that this time for the workforce to bond and construct numerous initiatives of worth will finally profit all Buffer clients.

Why proper now’s the time for Construct Week at Buffer

2022 has been a distinct 12 months for Buffer. We’re able of flatter to declining income, and we’ve been working arduous to seek out our path again to wholesome, sustainable progress. One key factor of this effort has been actively embracing being a smaller firm. We’re nonetheless a small firm, and we serve small companies. Except we lean into this, we are going to lose a lot of our benefits.

We need to drive extra connection throughout the workforce in a time the place we’ve felt it missing for the previous couple of years. Whereas we’ve been distant for many of our 11+ years of existence, we’ve at all times discovered a ton of worth from firm retreats the place all of us meet in particular person, and we’ve suffered through the pandemic the place we’ve not been capable of have these occasions. Construct Week is a chance for us to do this with an entire new idea and occasion relatively than making an attempt to do it with one thing like a digital retreat which might possible by no means be capable to dwell as much as our earlier retreat experiences.

There’s an enormous alternative for exchanging context and concepts of present Buffer challenges inside groups the place the groups are cross-functional and with individuals who don’t usually work collectively. This might assist us for months afterward.

Construct Week can be a time the place sturdy bonds, each in work and personally, are shaped. My dream could be that after Construct Week, individuals inside their groups hit one another up in Slack and soar on a spontaneous catch-up name from time to time as a result of they’ve turn into shut through the week.

We’ve had engineering hack weeks for a very long time now. These have been superior of their approach, however they’ve been very contained to engineering. And whereas these occasions created quite a lot of worth, they usually lacked views that will have enhanced the work, equivalent to buyer advocacy, design, tradition, or operational views.

As an organization, we need to problem a few of the processes we’ve constructed up over the previous few years. Construct Week is sort of a clean canvas – we filter an entire week after which diligently resolve what we want when it comes to construction and course of to make this idea thrive and no extra. This may act as inspiration for us going ahead, the place we will use the week for example of rethinking course of and questioning the methods we do issues.

The chance that comes with Construct Week

If we’re profitable with Construct Week, I’m assured that we’ll shock ourselves with simply how a lot worth is created by the entire firm in that one week alone. In embracing being a small firm, we’re presently striving to problem ourselves by transferring at a quicker tempo with out over-working. I feel that is doable, and the fully totally different nature of how we work collectively in Construct Week might give us concepts for what we will regulate to work extra successfully and productively collectively in our common circulate of labor.

The chance for worth creation inside Construct Week goes far past product options or enhancements. Construct Week might be a time for us to construct something that serves both clients or the workforce in pursuit of our imaginative and prescient and mission, or strengthens and upholds our values. We are able to stretch ourselves within the prospects – there may very well be a advertising marketing campaign, a knowledge report, enhancing an present course of within the firm, rethinking our instruments, creating a brand new factor of transparency, bringing our clients collectively, and many others.

Want us luck!

I imagine Construct Week may be one of the enjoyable, high-energy weeks we’ve had in years. I count on we will come out of the week on a excessive that may gasoline us with motivation and delight of our work for months. That may be a worthy objective and one thing I feel we will obtain with just a little creativity and the appropriate group of individuals designing and planning the occasion.

In fact, a part of the fantastic thing about Construct Week itself is that similar to all of the concepts and the liberty to decide on how you’re employed in a workforce, we don’t know every thing we’ll study as an organization by doing this. It may very well be chaotic, there may very well be challenges, and there’ll undoubtedly be many insights, however we might be higher off for having gone via the method.

Please want us all luck as we head into subsequent week. There’s quite a lot of pleasure within the firm to create worth. We hope to have new options to share with you within the coming weeks, and we’ll be again quickly with a put up sharing the way it went.
Have you ever tried one thing like Construct Week earlier than? In that case, how did it go? I’d love to listen to from you on Twitter.