Project Tech4Dev conducts quarterly sprints where the entire team comes together to ideate, collaborate and innovate. The most recent one was conducted at the pretty city of Shillong, in the North East of India. This was my first sprint as part of the team and for me the event was a blueprint of how effective collaboration and team building in an organization should be. What began as an opportunity to align on organizational goals and plans for the future quickly transformed into an immersive journey of learning, team building and adventure that left each and every one of us more connected, both professionally and personally and ensuring that all of us bring out our best for the progress of the organization in its goals of empowering the impact sector with technology.
Contrary to my expectation of hitting a conference hall on Day 1, the first day started with an introduction of all the team members in the scenic setting of Ward’s Lake, Shillong. The initiation of the sprint in a scenic and peaceful open environment set the stage for a week of energetic and thought provoking interactions and social activities that really strengthened the bonds within the team.
The sprint was meticulously planned and executed with adequate time allocated for team discussions, one-on-one catch ups, work times and the icing on the cake was a day-long hackathon where we got our hands dirty with coding. It was a great opportunity for all of us to don our thinking hats from a product perspective and try and build features that could make their way into the product in the future.
The sprint was punctuated with several product based workshops where the team as a whole ideated on product roadmaps and features that could make our offerings more beneficial to the target ecosystem as well as provided a platform for other team and product members to challenge and then debate on some of the fundamental assumptions of the product and its role in the targeted diaspora.
True to our belief that the impact sector is at the center of our work and mission, the sprint concluded with a day-long interaction with several NGOs working in the North East and it was both informative as well as reinforced some of our assumptions of the impact sector at large.
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” goes the saying and Team Tech4Dev seem to have taken this message to heart. Days started early with morning treks, basketball games and walks that not only enabled us to enjoy the local scenery, but also provided us with ample opportunities to connect to team members at a personal level in the midst of such a hectic work schedule. It also helped each and every one of us make the sprint to be a wholesome experience.
As I left back after the sprint, I was already looking forward to the next sprint and the opportunity to meet, ideate and celebrate being part of Tribe Tech4Dev.
