A Little Bit of Action this August
Summer is starting to wind down, which means business is picking back up! Our team has made the most out of this past August by attending multiple conferences and events, along with tackling various internal projects. Read further to hear about David and Stephen’s presentation at Drupal GovCon, see our most recently completed project summary, and learn about our most recent initiative towards incentivizing the DesignHammer team and boosting office morale.
Featured Blog Post | Recent Projects | Tools and Technology | Conferences | Community Involvement
Featured Blog Post
The Why and How of Developing a Website MVP
Summer at DesignHammer means time for Drupal GovCon, one of the premier conferences for Drupal practitioners in the US. Held annually at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, GovCon attracts nearly 1,000 people and features a variety of discussions with subject matter centered around federal, as well as state and local Drupal projects. DesignHammer has been sponsoring and presenting at Drupal GovCon since 2014.
What do you do if part way through the project, senior leadership decides the project needs to ship early or if other priorities pull off half the team? These are some of the questions that need to be considered when facing the reality of “known unknowns.” In this blog post I explain why every project should have an MVP planned, even if the need is not necessarily evident at the beginning.
Tools and Technology
Bonusly
At DesignHammer we’re constantly looking for new ways to help keep our team engaged in both work and each other. Our most recent tool is Bonusly, a tool that formalizes a way for teammates to recognize each other, while also adding awards for the recognized teammates.
Bonusly allows a team to give each other points (which can be represented in a variety of ways; we’ve decided to use cookies, for the obvious pun) over the course of a month. There are a variety of configuration option, and we’ve elected to give each staff member 200 cookies than can use the call out positive contributions. We have this integrated into Slack, so there’s very little overhead. Each cookie transaction is called out in Slack, and other teammates can add on to an existing bonus as they desire.
At any point in time, anyone can trade in accumulated cookies for a variety of gift cards options that run from restaurants, retail outlets, movie theaters, donations to charities, or the ever popular ‘cash’ through Paypal option.
We’ve only been using bonus.ly for a month now, but the response has been enthusiastically positive, and that’s even before people are really trading in their points; I imagine everyone will be a bit more excited when we start getting those gift cards!
Recent Projects
NC Center for Nonprofits Project Summary
National Nonprofit Day exists to educate, enlighten and empower others to make a difference, while acknowledging those that are in the trenches, impacting lives every day. DesignHammer is very involved with our local nonprofit community and so in honor of the holiday this past August, we are proud to showcase some of the work we accomplished with the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits on their award-winning, website redesign earlier this year.
Take a look our most recent project summary to see how this complex Drupal 7 migration and Salesforce integration project resulted in a better theme and improved usability for both the Center and their members alike.
Conferences
Drupal GovCon 2018 Recap
David and Stephen attended Drupal GovCon in Bethesda, MD, August 22-24, 2018. 2018 marks DesignHammer’s fifth year as a sponsor. In addition to getting some great meals in Bethesda (check out some of our favorites: Smoke BBQ, Barrel and Crow, and Gringos & Mariachis!), David and Stephen presented on Defining a Strategic MVP: Your Roadmap to Success. DesignHammer sessions have traditionally been popular with attendees and this year was no exception with approximately 50 attending the session. See you next year Drupal GovCon 2019!
Announcement: NC Nonprofits Conference Takes Place September 12th-14th
The 2018 Conference for North Carolina’s Nonprofits, Power Play: Disruption for Good (#18ncnpc), is the largest annual gathering of nonprofit leaders in the state. Hosted by the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, the three-day professional development and networking event brings together nonprofit staff, board, volunteers, supporters, and funders to inspire and be inspired, share ideas, and discuss solutions to strengthen their work in the communities they serve. The DesignHammer team will in attendance on the 12th and 13th, very much looking forward to reconnecting with some of our favorite non-profits in the area!
Community Involvement
DesignHammer Assists RPRS in Judging California 2018 Influence Awards Submissions
As newly-joined members, David and I had the opportunity to sit down with the Raleigh Public Relations Society to judge the 2018 Influencer Awards entries that were submitted by RPRS's partner chapter in California. We had a great time connecting with the representatives of several local marketing agencies in the area. In addition to DesignHammer, Raleighwood Media Group + Raleighwood Event Group and French/West/Vaughan were also present to assist in the award judging process. Sticking with what I knew best, I focused my judging efforts on a few campaign submissions that were entered into the web and digital categories. It was a great learning experience and gave us some insight into what deems a marketing/PR campaign as “successful” or “unsuccessful”. The icing on the cake, however, was certainly the pizza provided by DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli in downtown Raleigh–specifically the veggie one! It was by far some of the best pizza I’ve had in a while. 10/10 stars, would highly recommend.
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