Simpleweb doesn’t just develop products, we invest in people and ideas.
So we’ve just launched the Playground program which provides an opportunity for any member of the Simpleweb team to make something cool or learn something new, preferably both at the same time.
Every other week on a Friday afternoon, team members are invited to pitch an idea to the rest of team who will anonymously rank it based on how innovative, useful, cool and collaborative it is.
If it gets the seal of approval from both our tech and business teams, it becomes a legitimate Simpleweb project that can be worked on in personal project time.
Of course, as well as innovating, it’s about having fun too. If you’ve ever seen the outcome of some of our internal hacks – especially our 5-day extravaganza in Sitges – you might have already seen how our priorities can sometimes favour a certain table-based pub game.
What we’ve learnt so far…
That said, in beta-mode Playground has already seen David C. pitch a breezy wind-surfing game, Andy a handy tool that helps people manage their personal development budget and Mike a CRM for your personal life.
Whilst providing feedback to these brave trend-setters, we realised just how important the ‘collaboration’ part of Playground is.
Not only do teams make for more robust implementations, but the goal of convincing someone else that your vision or idea is one they should share is a great first step in demonstrating that the project is worth investing time in.
We also found that, although we wanted to limit the complexity of the projects to ensure they don’t lose their momentum, this didn’t necessarily mean we didn’t want the team to think big. Like any early-stage startup, we don’t need a complex project plan, but the first stretch of the project needs to be within grasp – with some top line objectives to aspire to in the long run.
We’re really excited about the awesome projects that could come out Playground. In fact right now, as you read, members of the team can be seen scurrying around hosting secret meetings about their plans to change the world (or, more importantly, to use tech to discover which biscuit really is the most dunkable).
Stay tuned for regular sneaky insights into the Simpleweb Playground…
If you’d like to discuss your startup or project, get in touch with Simpleweb today.
