The beauty of Sprend is in its simplicity
Photo by Nick Jones
From the very beginning, Sprend was conceived as a simple service for sending large files. In just a few clicks, regardless of your IT knowledge, quickly and efficiently send all large files that should surely arrive at a new address. Without long-term storage, you can save everything for up to four weeks and after that, it automatically disappears. In life, it would be like someone cleaning the closets regularly instead of you and you don’t even have to plan a big cleaning. At this point, I wonder if the creator of Sprend was inspired by just that? Does he hate tidying up his closet in real life?
In order for everything to function well and progress, new steps are needed. Sprend has expanded, new employees are being hired, new ideas are emerging. But we all know that what will eventually happen requires a lot of effort, mutual cooperation, reflection, meetings and everything that will remain invisible but tangible through the result itself. How do we get there? With simple arrangements - we plan everything well enough in advance. We respect the work of our colleagues and always have patience if we need anything from them. Without stress, more space is given to inspiration. And so it all goes on. No drama, no complications, with support and cheering for every good new step.
When I think back to the past days, the first thing I remember is the ease of joint planning. And that makes me happy. For the future. I believe that is the way we can go far.
The beauty of Sprend really lies in its simplicity. File sent.
File transfers with Sprend
Photo by Ken Suarez
Each of us wakes up in the morning, preparing for the day - work and everything that besides makes everyday life. Our jobs are different, as are the lives and tasks we perform so that at the end of the workday we could be content with ourselves.
Some save lives, others beautify the world with art, those who prefer numbers, create wonders in that world, or simply keep us in balance. Office workers, manual workers, astronauts, acrobats, bus drivers, teachers, salesmen and the series continues. We are all different, but what do we all have in common? In order to perform successfully, in addition to knowledge and skills, everyone needs information and data. Some jobs are closely dependent on their availability and use. Where once information was transmitted verbally and in writing, today we use many other tools. Fast and efficient. Sprend is one of many. But how to become irreplaceable for those who trust you? Or what to say to those to whom you offer your service? That you are not the only one. That a service like yours is also offered by WeTransfer, Dropbox, Filemail ... That they are maybe bigger, stronger and that we have a long way to go if we want to surpass them?
It depends on how you measure success. Sprend's first aspiration has always been the highest quality and efficient service. At the same time, prices remain affordable. We can proudly say that we offer lower prices for the same service than all our competitors. We are able to dedicate ourselves to our customers when they need it. Professionally, humanely and friendly. You are the ones who gave us the trust. It is a treatment that Sprend guarantees you.
If you want to support this way of working, with this text, we do not want to persuade you to buy the service. We recommend that you try our free Sprend service for sending files up to 2 GB and make your own opinion. The process is very simple and sending is fast. We advise you to log in to the sprend.com website as this allows you more user benefits. Storage time is one week and you're enabled to send ten transfers per month where each file can be as large as 2000 MB.
You can also upgrade your free account to Sprend Pro for €6 per month, which lets you send files ten times larger, to more than a hundred recipients, encrypt the file, and be notified when it has reached each recipient.
If you need to send files that are too big for mail in your business, be friends with those who choose this way of working. You should too, whether it’s about sending large files, a new neighborhood cafe, a small shop, an artist starting their own business, or something third because the effort behind it all is greater than any result that will be visible in the future.
Welcome to Daniel, our first intern
Sprend has the first intern. Since the establishment of the development center in Pula, in addition to improving the service, we want Sprend to also be a place where individuals will be able to gain insight into the practical side of the business.
What is our way of working? We are dislocated and work in two cities, Stockholm and Pula. While we may sometimes miss those live encounters in which we give each other random ideas or inspiration, our work doesn’t suffer because of it. Well-organized meetings three times a week (among others as needed) under the successful guidance of Tanja Evertsson, give us a clear picture and overview of what each of us is working on. A clear plan, organization and vision allow us to successfully reach the goal, no matter how many obstacles along the way we sometimes have. It certainly contributes to the fact that we are always there for each other if we need help or advice. What is even more important is our safe zone and trust. There has never been a reaction that could cause our mood or enthusiasm to decline. No question is ever stupid and deserves time to answer. It’s an environment where we’re not afraid to come up with new ideas, look for another way, and make mistakes to succeed next time. Getting praise because we dared to try even though the result was not expected, encourages us to practice Tanja's motto ourselves: only the sky is the limit. If she weren't the one who encourages us to do all this in practice, that sentence would surely only become funny to us over time. This is how we have already crossed all the borders and they no longer exist for us.
Why am I saying all this? Because through meeting our first practitioner, Daniel, I realize that to a 19-year-old who has just finished high school, things don’t seem that way. Or at least it is not assumed to be so. The boss is imagined as a serious man who will ask difficult questions and find our mistakes. Colleagues? They are a real enigma for a high school student. What to expect from us?
That is why we asked the founder of Sprend to answer the question. What should Daniel expect, a tough boss? And we got the joke from Arne: "Oooh! I need to “suit up” as they often say in the Marvel movies. White shirt and tie?"
Welcome Daniel and good luck during your internship at Sprend!
The brilliant mind of Hedy Lamarr
Who was Hedy Lamarr and what was she other than a famous Hollywood actress? She was born Hedwig Eva Kiesler in Austria on November 9th, 1914. Her father, as a bank manager and a very curious mind, inspired Hedy to look at the world with open eyes. He would often take her for long walks where he would discuss the inner workings of different machines, like the printing press or streetcars. These conversations guided Hedy’s thinking and at only 5 years of age, she could be found taking apart and reassembling her music box to understand how the machine operated. On the other hand, her mother, a concert pianist, passed on her love of art.
Hedy's story is one of a brilliant woman who was consistently underestimated. Although she achieved international fame as a Hollywood movie star, Lamarr was not satisfied by acting. In her trailer between takes, and staying up all night at home, she practiced her favorite hobby: inventing. In 1942., at the peak of her acting career, Hedy developed a “Secret Communications System” to help defeat the Nazis in World War II. By manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception, the invention formed an unbreakable code to prevent classified messages from being intercepted by the enemy. Her patented idea later became the foundation for mobile phone technology. Its influence is visible in crucial 21st-century systems like Bluetooth and Wifi. She also helped improve aircraft aerodynamics for Howard Hughes while they dated during the war.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation jointly awarded Lamarr and Antheil with their Pioneer Award in 1997. She also became the first woman to receive the Invention Convention’s Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award. Although she died in 2000., Lamarr was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for the development of her frequency hopping technology in 2014.
Without the brilliant mind of Hedy Lamarr, it is possible that today the world would look much different. What the world, unfortunately, remains the same throughout history but even today is the fact that it is easier to accept someone's appearance than their mind. The late acknowledgments of Hedy Lamarr’s work are proof of this.
Ada Lovelace - Prophet of the computer age and Princess of Parallelograms
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was born Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate child of Annabella Milbanke and the poet Lord Byron. Her mother, Lady Byron, had mathematical training and insisted that Ada study mathematics too - an unusual education for a woman back then. At the age of 12, she conceptualized a flying machine. After studying the anatomy of birds and the suitability of various materials, she illustrated plans to construct a winged flying apparatus before moving on to think about powered flight.
At a party in 1833. when she was seventeen, Ada met the brilliant and eccentric British mathematician Charles Babbage who spoke excitedly of an invention he called the “Difference Machine,” a tower of numbered wheels that could make reliable calculations with the turn of a handle. The lifelong friendship that ensued between 18-year-old Lovelace and 45-year-old Babbage sparked an invaluable union of software and hardware to which we owe enormous swaths of modern life — including the very act of reading these words on this screen. Beginning in the 1840s, Ada began a gambling habit that contributed to her dwindling finances and forced her to secretly pawn the Lovelace family’s diamonds.
Although she didn’t know Lord Byron who called her his "Princess of Parallelograms", she maintained a life-long fascination with him and his works. After her death, at the age of 36, she was buried at her request in the Byron family vault.
During the 1970s, the U.S. Department of Defense developed a high-order computer programming language to supersede the hundreds of different ones then in use by the military. The suggestion of naming the new language “Ada” in honor of Lovelace in 1979. was unanimously approved. Ada is still used around the world today in the operation of real-time systems in the aviation, health care, transportation, financial, infrastructure and space industries.
Every year on the second Tuesday in October, the contributions of women to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are celebrated on Ada Lovelace Day.
Charles Babbage - Father of Computing
"Another age must be the judge", said the gentleman of science. And another age judged him, with great respect and gratitude for the legacy. As an extraordinarily talented scientist, mathematician, economist, and engineer, he's best known today (as he was in his lifetime) for inventing two types of cogwheel calculating machines. His Difference Engine Number 1 was the first device ever devised that could calculate and print mathematical tables. During the mid of the 1830s, Babbage developed plans for the Analytical Engine. Although it was never completed, the Analytical Engine would have had most of the basic elements of the present-day computer.
Science was not an established profession, and Babbage, like many of his contemporaries, was a “gentleman scientist”, an independently wealthy amateur well able to support his interests from his own means. He pioneered lighthouse signalling, invented the ophthalmoscope, proposed 'black box' recorders for monitoring the conditions preceding railway catastrophes, designed a cow-catcher for the front end of railway locomotives and the rest of the list is long.
When he wasn't busy inventing, Babbage engaged in cryptography, wrote books of social criticism, and he was very well known for his ability to criticize the scientific establishment without limits. The title of the first biography on his life was called "Irascible Genius: A Life of Charles Babbage, Inventor".
Babbage won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society “for his invention of an engine for calculating mathematical and astronomical tables” in 1824. He's also known for his collaboration with mathematician Ada Lovelace. She was inspired by the prototype of the Difference Engine and became Babbage's lifelong friend. Our next post will be dedicated to her.
Working together in the same office for the first time
Once Sprend's Pula office was ready, in time of coronavirus, it wasn’t easy to make it a visited place. It would be nice if we could organize an opening party, but there's still hope since we never lack new reasons to celebrate.
So this pleasant place, decorated exactly as we wished, remained quiet. Until last week, when Tanja, our Croatian Sprend CEO managed to arrive from Stockholm despite all obstacles.
For the first time, we worked together in the same space. And there were no surprises. Except for the pleasant ones. The next thing may seem like something ordinary but really, not everyone does it. Tanja's knocking before entering the office is a very pleasant thing. It probably also depends on who you expect behind it, but the act itself has created a feeling which reminds me of masters of ceremonies. Pleasant intro in expectation of performance.
Our performance is our work. The week is behind us with an atmosphere of flexibility, a productive and inspirational way of working with frequent laughter. And the most important conclusion: we’ll share our desserts next week. We found the perfect balance.
I will conclude with the words of Dr. Rob Gilbert: "Working together works".
The X-files
The photo was taken by analog photography lover Petra Gardijan & her comrade Zorki 4K.
Although complicated, it is very easy to know what happens when we are not satisfied at work. Looking for the best solution is the only thing we do then. Winning the lottery also appears as possible salvation. I thought about it often but I never bought a lottery ticket. I don't think about it anymore. Which means everything is fine. And that I won't win the jackpot.
When we accomplish something we really wanted and work hard for, can we believe it ourselves? And when do we get used to it? At the moment, I have no answer to that question. I'll take a week to think about it. Or to believe.
But before I begin, I will quote the wise Homer Simpson: “Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers.”
Happy International Workers’ Day!
Tomorrow is May 1st, having it on Saturday this year but wait, it gets even better, on Sunday next one. Joke aside, it's a day of great importance. A day that symbolizes the struggle for workers' rights and that is still going on. That's how it is with fights. You know how and when it started but usually, when it comes to the progress of society, it’s a never-ending story. At the same time, it tells us that we still haven't reached the desired level but there's something positive in that - we still fight for improvement.
In memory of the great workers ’protests held in Chicago on May 1st, 1886. that date is celebrated around the world as an international labor holiday. About 40,000 workers took to the streets with demands symbolized in three eights: 8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, and 8 hours of cultural upliftment.
Sprend team wishes you a happy International Workers’ Day!
My Professional Scrum Training
This week it was time for education. As we are using the Scrum framework in Sprend, so first I had an opportunity to learn about it in real practice. It was interesting to find out that the term "Scrum" was first used by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in their ground-breaking 1986. paper “The New New Product Development Game“. They borrowed the name from the game of rugby to stress the importance of teams in complex product development.
This online course was organised by Agilist IT & Scrum.org with a great trainer Ana Roje Ivančić. For two whole days, we learned, practiced and overcoming obstacles. In a team from several countries: Slovenia, Romania, Argentina and Croatia. It's nice to know that Scrum is not something like a set of rules, it's a philosophy that allows us freedom. When I started to read the guide, one sentence of Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland stuck in my head: "We are humbled to see Scrum being adopted in many domains holding essentially complex work, beyond software product development where Scrum has its roots." To use word "humble" shows us what should be a part of us. How we should respect, feel and listen to the other people around us. When we talk about the team of people, they'll never become a real team if we can't achieve more than usual.
It is necessary to see in people what they may not even see sometimes. Praise them for their qualities. Not to react sharply to their failures but as an opportunity to learn. All of this may already sound worn out or simple, but in fact, it is still unattainable often. If we have that base to which we apply Scrum, we are on the side of success. In every sense, business and human.
After six unknown people from different parts of the world collaborated for two days, we said goodbye. There was no opportunity or time for more than a greeting, but at the last minute, as if it was hard for us to disconnect. And that’s when I first realized what online means. One button makes you leave. I walked out of the building, looked around, people were ordering food at a nearby fast food, children were entering the music school, cars were sliding down the street, and I felt like it's hard to disconnect for a real. With much more knowledge and a sense that learning needs to continue.
A new sprint is starting.
Days & Weekends
There is a lot on Fridays. Happiness, hope, expectations, high spirits. Perhaps we should make the most important decisions on that very day when we have the most optimism. In the case of absence, it will easily happen that we take it from others around us.
Mondays are hated by the whole world. It's not easy to be the first day in a week. But to be honest, it's not easy to be first in anything. Recently I've heard a great theory about Tuesday. My colleague claims that Tuesdays are even worst. They're not Mondays, so there's no simple reason to hate them. It's not the beginning of the week but we're not in the middle yet. It's a day you’re just waiting for to pass. We have no opinion about Wednesdays. Except that according to them, we measure how the first part of the week is over and the one we prefer follows.
Even if you love your job, you are not immune to those world's feelings. However, it's Saturday tomorrow, a day you decide for yourself.
Sprend wishes you a great weekend!
Who's standing behind Sprend?
Arne Evertsson
If you would like to know who's the captain of Sprend, here is the answer. It's Arne Evertsson, a developer speaking Esperanto and Croatian (one of the hardest languages in the world). Since always, he had a wish, to make a business of his own. As they say: "Fortune favours the bold" and he made it. Today, Sprend is expanding, having a Stockholm and Pula office.
Who is Arne? To know that, the best way it would be reaching in his childhood, but we'll skip that for now. In his early twenties, at the university, Arne made an educational game "Metris". He had his first job in 1995. and he was a freelancer in 1998. His first file-manager application called „UploadFolder“ was made in 2000.
But except for knowledge and talent, Arne likes to mention the ones who were together with him on the path of creating Sprend. Some of them working with him for shorter periods, others for longer but in the end, he managed to create Sprend - a company for sending large files with great business philosophy. Christoffer, Joakim and Stefan were those people, standing beside Arne at one point. Everyone who ever wanted to build something by himself knows how support is requisite. Tanja Evertsson was this strength all the way.
Today, Sprend's team of five is working with motivating business philosophy, in a stimulating, stress-free surrounding with a lot of humor. The one who brings it is in most cases is Arne himself.
“Metris” educational game Arne made in 1993.
T: Was it hard to let other people in Sprend?
A: No, not at all. I was searching for people for years. Sometimes I think that I spent too much time on that. Finding them, taking time to meet them, but in the end, very few were the right ones for Sprend. Maybe they didn't find the idea interesting enough (laughing).
T: Can we talk a little bit about leading people? I need to say, I noticed at our meetings that there are always much more things you have done than you are saying out loud. In general, people do the opposite.
A: Is that a question?
T: No, you're right, it's not. It's my noticing, and I know you would never say it for yourself. So I needed to. Do you find it easy for people to work with you?
A: Not at all. There were people who didn't like it. I'm very stubborn. And I'm a perfectionist. But also, I believe that in companies the hardest thing can be when the small problems became big problems. Like: "I'm the owner and I have a demand". Then you have classical "us" and "them", the owner and the employees.
T: What is your way then?
A: My golden rule is to behave toward others as you would like them to behave to you. Honesty is the quality I appreciate. Always stay honest. Things can be simple. When I speak with my customers on the phone, if they have some obstacle, I'm always trying to help and if that doesn't work, I offer them money back. You know, when someone is completely honest, people can feel it. In general, they never want their money back and in the end, we always find a great solution. You have many services when you get no reply emails, why? Is that polite? If you have a problem is it good to send a message: "Thanks for contacting us, but we don't want to speak about it now". We need to be available.
T: You're letting people make mistakes, not expecting perfection in every step of a working process, why is that?
A: By making mistakes people learn. It's very human to want to avoid pain, if you know there'll be punishment, you'll try to avoid it. But be able to talk to your boss, that's something.
T: How would you describe Sprend to someone who has never heard of it?
A: When you are feeling lost and lonely and a stranger turns to you, smiles, and says, would you like to join us? But in simple boring terms: Sprend helps you send files that are too large to fit in an email.
This is how our Pula office looks like
We had empty walls. Our space for making an office. The place in which we'll work, have new ideas, make our lives better and I always imagine, in some forty years this will be a building that retired me will pass on the way to the green market, thinking: it was one of the best jobs I ever had. But before future carrots, broccoli, fish, or salad, this is a short video about how it was and how it is today:
Sprend's customer support service - a real thing, not a myth
A topic about customer support services deserve to have a song. I really don't know how anyone yet didn't write one about such an important feeling: desperation while you're trying to reach it. It would become a huge hit. Millions of people would sympathize. It would be number one during the working part of the week. Then it would fell to second place, because of an even greater one: "Why are weekends passing so fast?". And on a third-place after, you're guessing the title: "Oh no, it's Monday again!".
To whom could you complain if the service for complaints is not answering you? Let's start from the beginning. It's a familiar feeling for all of us. Part of the story where we need to decide will we buy something and that is the last time that we'll have control over the situation. This light and great feeling. Everything is possible and our life will be changed after. No matters are we buying a toothpick (which is a really important thing in certain moments) or a house. Only in the case we walk away at that point, without buying it, this will become a perfect product for us. Our memory will bring it to perfection. But we don't have time for the imagination of feelings. The things are simple, we need something and it needs to fulfill the purpose.
It's not easy to stand behind the product or service after selling it. Not to make people feeling good only in those 10 minutes before buying it, but also, the whole time after. Be real. Even with the best ones, sometimes we have questions about it, but does it often looks any different than standing on the high hill and shouting it into the void? This echo we hear after is the same question returning to us, instead of the service providers.
Sprend has a different way from the beginning of its existence. Arne Evertsson, the founder, is still one of those who you'll get on the phone or by email, very easily if you have any questions regarding sending large files. Today, Tanja and Karin are the ones who joined him. No matter if you're using Sprend for free, or you're a paying, PRO user with more advantages, you'll get help. With our servers in Sweden, you can send large files easily, securely and fast.
With Sprend, you don't need to climb a mountain. Only if you like it and if you do it for sport.
And what after March 8th?
On the day when we started to think about this topic, Rosa Luxemburg was born. It's Friday, March 5th. Years and years passed after her, and a lot of things should have been changed. But is there something new we could tell? Probably not.
Croatia, like many other countries in the world, came to the absurd. Flowers on March 8th have lost their true symbolism. If the flowers themselves knew the reasons for giving it on that important day, it would just wither. If the struggle living inside of us could scream, the sound would be loud and painful. If the fear and limitations of men and women who still oppose women's rights and achievements could be painted, the canvas would be left blank because such ideas are leaving nothing behind. But yet, they're the most dangerous ones.
March 8th is the day of those who continue to fight every day. And the flowers are theirs but not the world. So let’s trade flowers for the world.
Our online Christmas party and how we beat 2020.
At the end of the strange year of 2020. we had an idea of how to steal the fun and make an online party. The initial thought was to gather a few of us to make a toast. "Why not bigger?" it was a magical touch of Tanja. Very soon we had a plan for how to invite all the ones who helped us in a process of starting with the Sprend office in Pula.
The first thing I saw when I joined was Karin's Christmas dress and a glass of wine. I haven't seen that image in a while since bars and restaurants are shut down in Croatia. My sister Petra was there, she helped us with her advice, support and sharing her brilliant analog photos with us. My brother Andrej who made a great job with the survey amongst the students at his university and my father, who was something like a great keeper of Sprend from the beginning, on the way of founding. A retired banker who still adores his job and credit rates are still one of his favorite topics.
It may seem that I gathered my whole family here, but I didn't. That's just half of it.
Tanja and Arne, masterminds of Sprend. Ratomir, our new member in the role of a developer in the Croatian office. Amir as the character who assembled all the IKEA furniture, and at the end of this task, he was sitting in the office and thinking about what would be like to become a carpenter instead of teaching and writing books. You can not say that Sprend doesn’t change lives. Not to forget our special guest: cinnamon rolls representing Swedish spirit in Croatia. The first time I tasted them was last summer made by chef Dennis, a 15-year-old, already great person.
Everything went so natural during our online party, small talks, laugh (especially at Arne’s stories; there is a rumor you can hear that laugh even today in some parts of Pula) and a very important part: Tanja's presentation, mentioning and thanking the ones who were on this path with us. Very emotional, showing how people who don't even know each other can make unity and make things bigger.
I lived again through those beautiful two days with Tanja and her friend Johanna when they came to Pula in October for a firm founding. After they traveled for an enormous number of hours and the hardest rain in the recent history of Pula was not welcoming them, they were bright and positive. Johanna is the person you meet and from the first second, you know there'll be pleasant and interesting talks. I felt I'll miss them on my walks when they'll go back home. Johanna was the only person who was charmed by the old facades of buildings in a center of Pula. That can describe her approach to everything.
So I'm writing this down, not to bother a reader with the things that maybe are not so interesting for the ones outside of this group. My intention was to say how we have never missed other people like today. With no enough social life, we intensify activities within our homes or in nature. But in the end, we need interaction, parties and fun. So we made it. Even online, even with all the things happening around us, we were happy, entertained and it was for real, not only to satisfy the form. It was a good year for Sprend and it ended in the same spirit.
I hope that very soon it'll be possible to gather people for real. To hug without a fear, to travel, or to stay at home because it’ll be our decision and no obligation. We expect simple happiness.
In that spirit, Sprend team wishes you all the best in 2021!
What students want from their first job
Pay junior developers only in cake. That’ll keep ’em happy.
In preparation for hiring our first developer, Sprend cooperated with Andrej Gardijan on a survey of computer science students' expectations on their first regular job. The participants are students of University of Rijeka Faculty of Engineering.
The method and full result is available on Andrej’s GitHub page, Student Poll. Being the geek he is, all charts were created by code written in Python. 💻😎🐍📊
The purpose of the survey was to make sure our job offer exceeded expectations. I was most curious about the preferred salary level, on the office, and if there were any surprising needs or wishes.
Sprend’s plans for the office was to find a city center location, because that’s where I would like to work myself. Pula isn’t Zagreb so the traffic situation is different. Also, I highly recommend walking or cycling to work which makes you immune to traffic jams anyway. The survey says that 4 out of 5 students prefer a downtown location. Our address in Pula is Mletačka ulica 12 which certainly qualifies as downtown.
When it comes to the office itself almost two thirds prefer an open area workspace instead of private office. The best way is probably to give each person a choice. If you prefer an open area you also sometimes need a private workspace, and vice versa. An exciting development in Pula is the planned co-working building. Co-working can give the advantages of working for small company while also providing the social context of a bigger company.
The salary is obviously an important so we made our salary formula public (or should we call it a public beta).
When it comes to surprises in the survey results there isn’t much to talk about. Rather unsurprisingly, the students want flexible work hours, ability to work from home, the opportunity to learn and improve, decision-making power, and respect from colleagues.
A shocking disappointment is that students do not want free pie. I’ll eat it myself then. Here is the chart of the progress I’ve made so far.
The sprend.com server is powered exclusively by lemon pie. Illustration by Vikki Claflin.
The foundation of everything
This is what Tanja believes we should think about before arguing about which methodology is the best one.
The picture was taken in Brijuni National Park. Here we can talk about foundations…
We can talk about project management methodologies and development processes, but we must not forget that those are made for people and used by people.
Any methodology's success depends on its clarity, but it depends on people using it even more. I believe that a group of people who respect each other and commit to the same goal can succeed with any methodology.
So before discussing the optimal ways of working, let us talk about values.
Many years ago, I worked for a Swedish retailer where I was in charge of the IT software department. For almost two years, we didn't lose any single employee. I got curious why, so we gathered for a workshop, where I asked everybody a few questions: Why do you like to work here? What are we doing right?
Usually, you get invited to this kind of workshop where things are going wrong, but I like to do things differently.
The meeting resulted in something we called "department framework" - a very concrete set of values that we recognised in our organisation. We were not just talking; we were living according to those things. They are still my big inspiration, and I often return to them.
So, now when we were about to start a company in Croatia, these ideas were a big inspiration for us when we compiled our foundation of values, which we call The Sprend Manifesto.
Here is what we at Sprend believe is needed for people to achieve miracles:
Tolerance - Treat each other with respect and tolerance. People are different, and nobody is perfect.
Responsibility - Take responsibility for the consequences of your actions, choices, and commitments.
Fearlessness - Dare to discuss problems instead of pretending that problems don't exist.
Proudness - Believe that your colleagues go to work every day with the intention to produce great stuff that they can be proud of.
Leadership - Realise that it is not possible to require great results from people, but it is possible to motivate them to achieve miracles.
Respect - Respect yours colleague's private life and family life. They choose how much and what they want to share.
And to all of you guys that worked with me for a big Swedish retailer, thank you for helping me to become a better leader and a better human being. You know who you are.
What we all deserve
The photo was taken by analog photography lover Petra Gardijan & her comrade Zorki 4K.
Since our kindergarten, we are listening and waiting for someone to explain the rules. So we can behave. And stay polite, together with the other qualities we should have. In the very next moment, the world is expecting our reaction and therefore the action. Without warning. It's at least confusing. But we manage since we learn. Starting to realise that we're a part of an organized society and we feel much more closer to the adult world.
Then we became one. Of course, it's not easier. While before, we were part of groups, now we are individuals, flying into the first, second, third, a randomly formed group of people. Again, we learn the rules, we respect boundaries and the rest we all know. It's not easy to tell anymore what is our decision or someone else's. Should we even tell our opinion since we've tried so many times without results? Maybe we could save time.
But what if one day, someone listens to you? At the moment you have an important task, a person has confidence in you. Without checking or controlling it in a crucial moment. It happens if you're lucky to meet the ones who know how to lead but also how to inspire. So you get surprised, still waiting for someone to control you. But that's not coming. Instead, great results are. So you're thinking, what shall I do next? I'll find even a bigger task. We all deserved it.
Space Oddity
Tihana and Tanja get creative with office furnishing and decoration.
Space designing can be an interesting, fun, or sometimes even dangerous thing for human relations. One can never know what to expect.
We started planning the design of our office in Pula. Chairs, tables, colours, preferences, styles and measures. It would be good to start with measures. So we did. The rest was pretty much fun. When you realise that you work with a person who easily finds entertainment in a lot of things, it becomes magic. Till this moment, I always thought that I'm inclined to exaggerate with styles and wishes, so I tried to bring that back in balance. But completely unnecessary. Tanja not only supported me in each unusual suggestion, but she had it even more. At that moment I realised that her sentence: "Only a sky is a limit" is a vivid thing.
We're waiting for our furniture to come. One last thing is how to approach the entrance with an eight tons truck in a center of Pula. A small thing for us.