We run hard. Each quarter, we set lofty goals to generate demand, close deals, engage customers, and release new features and product improvements. On top of all that strategic OKR work, we also have to keep up with the “business as usual” work–the stuff we do day-to-day that keeps this place humming.
But for one week, at the start of each quarter, we intentionally take a step back. We affectionately call this “Listening & Alignment Week,” and it’s an opportunity to reflect on where we’ve been, re-anchor around where we’re headed, and restore our energy. It’s a time to reconnect with each other and with our mission as a company. This week is also a chance to pause and reward ourselves for a successful quarter.
But Listening & Alignment Week had an especially important purpose this time around–it marked the beginning of the second half of our fiscal year, and what a doozy the first half was! With a global pandemic, civil unrest across the United States, and a heated election season, things just kind of felt sideways in the world. At Fullstory we are still running hard and our company continues to thrive, but in the midst of external uncertainty and a transition to 100% remote work internally, we felt a heightened need to press “reset” and take a week to ground ourselves.
This L&A Week “reset” meant embracing a completely remote culture and focusing on taking a step out of the day-to-day. Our series of internal micro-talks centered around reminding people of our mission, sharing progress on big projects, giving opportunity for professional development, and bringing people back together for some community time.
It was like a mini-conference, really. Here are some highlights from the many great things we had going on all week:
We kicked the week off with our Q3 OKR meeting like we always do–it gave us an opportunity to reflect on the past quarter and rally around what our goals and objectives are for the next three months. Throughout the week we anchored back on the vision and strategy of the company, and how we all play a part.
We had some fun reconnecting with one another with a DERP (an old school Fullstory term for Drop Everything for Recreational Play), and a FS Voices session where we heard about one FullStorian’s experience living through Hurricane Katrina and another’s motorcycle adventure across the country.
We also wanted to take this opportunity to grow our social awareness through Allies Training sessions, where we learned how to develop our ally skills in everyday interactions, in-the-moment interventions, and ongoing advocacy. FullStorians also had the chance to learn best practices on slide building, writing, and management from coworkers in educational sessions throughout the week.
We even brought in some outside guests. The Meet the Customer session gave us an opportunity to see how Fullstory is being used “in the wild” and ask questions directly to real users, while our Fireside Chat with an investor offered a glimpse of what makes Fullstory stand out in the world of venture-backed businesses.
Overall, we learned some things and had some fun, too. We saw that even as the world evolves, and we evolve to meet its demands, we are still able to stay true to our core values of empathy, clarity, and bionics. Most importantly, it felt really good to hit that reset button and realign ourselves around the mission, vision, work, product, and community that make Fullstory so special.
