I hope that the new year will be the best year of your life. May all your dreams come true and all your hopes be fulfilled!
But let's travel in time for a while and see what happened in Visuality last year...
In January:
- Jarek wrote a couple of words about Quality Assurance Testing In every company, no matter if it creates software, mechanical parts, chemicals, delivers law or economic ideas or any other similar example that comes to your mind, there is a need to ensure processes, which provide quality of designed solutions or products. These processes, in general, are called Acceptance Testing (AT)...
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/quality-assurance-testing
- Maciek wrote a quick summary about the training he attended with the sales&marketing team: We’ve been busy at the end of 2018… all in the name of knowledge! We wanted to learn as much as we could, to be able to create the best things you want and need to run your business. Visuality team had attended an intensive training course about "Internationalization of the company"...
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/how-to-conquer-westworld
- Our Business Developer wrote an article "Common communication issues in Project Management": You hear all the time that Visuality is a full-stack software house. We do our best, but even the best professionals encounter challenges throughout the process. Communication is one of them. Michał asked our Project Managers what common issues they have, how they fight them, and what they advise our clients.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/common-communication-issues-in-project-management
- We supported fundraising in a primary school! Kids from a nearby school wanted to learn programming, and they needed some money for equipment and materials. In exchange for some donation, they prepared a delicious cake and brought it to our office!
https://www.facebook.com/events/2435114273183402/
In February:
- Marcin Prokop explained how his team use CircleCi: Marcin Prokop, in his lightning talk, is talking about CircleCi with Docker usage in one of our projects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FiP2SqpOfQ&t=37s
- Our CEO told in detail about the recruitment process in Visuality: Before Visuality started hiring people, we had a long discussion about our mission. As a result, two things came up - we wanted to focus mainly on providing the best quality of software, and we also wanted to create a great working environment. In this article, Michał concentrated mostly on the first part. If you're interested in how a recruitment process at Visuality looks like - read this article...If you are not that much into reading, there is a nice diagram at the end!
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/guide-to-recruitment-at-visuality
- As a part of the preparations to SXSW Interactive Michał Krochecki wrote a few words about this conference: So as you might already know, Visuality was present at many different conferences. SXSW, Techcrunch Disrupt SF, Gitex Dubai, DLD Tel Aviv, and WebSummit - you could meet us there! Read our blog post to learn how our business developer prepared for this conference and what he advised:
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-sxsw-interactive
- For the first time we co-organized PRUG event, where Mariusz conducted of the talk. PRUG is a Poznan Ruby User Group but not only Ruby enthusiasts but also just people interested in software development and everything connected with it. They organize meetups and events, and because our second office is in Poznań, we wanted to support it and be an active part of it. We celebrate our first collaborative event with the talk of our Engineering Manager - Mariusz.
In March:
- Our team traveled to Texas to be present at the SXSW conference.
- And after that our CEO wrote two blog posts about the conference! We've attended a lot of conferences before, but it was the first one that we were exhibiting on. We did not really know what to expect, but we had some assumptions. At first, it seemed like SXSW is a pretty huge conference that is covering not only startups and IT but also (and actually mainly) music and movie industry , which meant that the topics of the talks held were very broad and there was even too much to choose from. But since we were exhibiting, we could not focus that much on this part so our goals were mostly connected to the effects of having a booth there. Because of the size of the event, we were not expecting a lot and actually wanted to warm up before the next events and also gain some experience with being on the other side of the fence. Besides, since it was our first visit to the USA, we had some expectations regarding the country itself, and we were really excited to see how everything looks on the other side of the "pond." To see if the event meets our expectations and what surprised us the most read the whole summary article:
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/sxsw-summary
- Besides the exhibition, our CEO managed to attend a few talks held during SXSW, and he decided to share some insights from the best ones in his second blog post about SXSW Conference in Austin:
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/selected-sxsw-lectures-takeaways
- Jarek took part in Rails Girls Tricity event as a mentor: Rails Girls Tricity is a non-profit community that organizes programming workshops in Ruby on Rails in Tri-City and lectures at which they inspire, motivate, and encourage women to develop in the IT industry. As a partner and sponsor of this event, we send our Ruby developer Jarek Lubelski to become a mentor of one of the team and help participants in their tasks.
- Umit recorded a talk: "Intelligent UX: Progressive enhancement vs. graceful degradation" He is talking about Progressive Enhancement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx3kc2stXpI
Slides are available here: https://www.slideshare.net/visualityp...
- Jasiek, Grzesiek and Prokop decided to record a summary of the GoGo Conf they attended: Our backend engineers prepared a quick recap of the Go Conference which took place in Krakow in 2018:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSuljYVc8Y
- We attended one of the WRUG events Mariusz spoke about pair programming Our Engineering Manager Mariusz Kozieł had a talk: "Pair programming rules, best practices, and tips on how to convince your clients and PMs."
In April:
- Case study of Fieldd landed on our website:
- Kuba Tokarzewski joined our team as an engineering intern!
- We presented our very first video case study, based on Cognitus: "Programmable Simulation Engine to Visualize Accounting" What is it exactly? A business simulation model that helps people visualize accounting transactions and learn through experiencing different business scenarios. What do we explain? How we used a throw-away prototype and innovated the development workflow for a cost-effective approach. We encourage you to see our process, journey, and workflow in the project. I hope you'll enjoy it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m49tWhq2vyU
- Jarek was a speaker on April's edition of WRUG with a talk "Materialized views".
Jarek, our experienced engineer who is not afraid of challenges, solved a massive performance problem in our project using materialized views.
Based on these experiences, he created a presentation describing this technique.
This talk contains the pros and cons of such views, use cases, and in general, when and why they might be efficient for your application, especially the Rails one.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2249130021833151
- Grzesiek presented a talk about Proxying API calls: Let's see how do we handle multiple integrations in one of our projects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_FVrj0kTFs
- Kasia Szewc joined our UX/UI team! So our design team consists now of three experienced people!
- Case study of Fieldd landed on our website: Fieldd is an advanced web application that allows our clients to manage field workers. Our main goal was to redesign and simplify some of the processes in the existing application. We did a workshop and provided UX/UI design and ongoing development. Check our whole case study below:
In May:
- New frontend developer joined Visu! Jack Gluskin!
- Jasiek wrote a blogpost "JSON:API consumption in Rails: In the world of modern web applications, you cannot avoid becoming a heavy user of APIs. Consumption of different interfaces brings experience, and experience brings knowledge. One of the many things we learned at Visuality is that it's not only okay to try new things, but it is also even better if other people tried these and have some insights on how to actually do it the good way. Over time we researched and developed ways to introduce JSON:API into our Rails applications so that we could be compliant with this specification, thanks to which the development process would be more productive and time-efficient. Let's get down to business now, and as a backend engineer at Visuality, Jasiek is your guide in this blog post!
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/json-api-consumption-in-rails
- Marek wrote the first part of "Marketing hacks and tips" series: Marketing hacks are a series of articles in which I will share with you exciting hacks, tips, and tricks that I'm learning during my digital marketing journey. This part will help you to track off-line conversions such as email or call conversions. Marek used Visuality's example of how we track the source of our leads.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/marketing-hacks-01-how-to-track-off-line-conversions
- Staszek presented a talk "Smashing project monitoring" on WRUG.
We collect a variety of data in huge sizes, but most often, they are not used.
Can we use this information to be kept informed of problems and progress in the project without additional work?
Stanisław, who is always looking for ways to improve his productivity and better organize his work, tried to answer those questions by starting a new project during his hackathon.
And that's how we implemented dashboards in Visuality.
Listen to Staszek's WRUG talk and how he adapted the dashboard project to help organize his and colleagues' everyday life!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=499855004086411
- Wiktor presented a lightning talk about Risks in project management: The presentation is about risk management in IT projects. It describes basic concepts and approaches when it comes to assessing and identifying risks. Listen to Wiktor because he will try to answer what is risk in the project and how to manage and react to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR6CwTj_qz0
- We were named as Poland's Best Software Development Companies by Clutch.co Two things that we think make a company stand out from others are great communication and organization. We emphasize those characteristics within our own so that we can deliver winning solutions in a timely fashion to our clients. We do this so consistently that Clutch has named us as one of the leading software development companies in Poland.
- Jarek's blogpost about Quality Assurance testing featured in JustJoinIT: Article of one of our Ruby developer was featured in famous polish IT blog site.
- Adam introduced us into basics of React Native: In this lightning talk, Adam showed what is React Native, how to work with it, and the key concepts behind it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36QtjIZyOd4
- Piotrek talked about Ruby formatters: Interested in Ruby programming style history? Check Piotrek's lightning talk!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPc-4UpLE1w
In June:
We did a common Investment Day and Mateusz Wodyk prepared a workshop: Cynefin Game. Workshops agenda: "There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to problem-solving and task-doing, as the right decision-making model depends on the domain you’re in. The Cynefin model, created by Dave Snowden, explains how to make decisions in different domains, so we'll play a game that will let you experience obvious, complicated, complex, and chaotic systems.
After this session, you will be able to explain why different domains need different decision-making models, identify the domain you’re currently in, and choose the right approach to solve your problem." Interested? Let us know, so we will send you the whole workshop's presentation.Maciek wrote a blog post about marketing tips you can use in your everyday life: In the first episode of marketing hacks, you could learn how to track an offline conversion. Right now, Maciek took a step back and presented some basic hacks and tips, which will, for sure, make your life easier and save some of your time.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/5-marketing-hacks-which-will-make-your-life-easier
- Case study of RacesOnline landed on our website:
https://www.visuality.pl/case-studies/races-online
- Sakir presented his lighting talk "Three-point estimation" on WRUG: The objective of the presentation is to know how to apply a Three-point estimation technique in 10 steps with an example project.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=641091613042955
- Visuality was featured as a Top Ruby on Rails developers by Clutch and Manifest: Since 2007, our dedicated software engineering teams at Visuality have built reliable, scalable products for our clients. We have been dedicated to becoming knowledgeable in various technologies (React.js, Golang, Ruby on Rails, PWA and AMS Suites) in order to create high-quality products. Specifically, our knowledge in Ruby on Rails was recently recognized by Clutch.co as they named us top Ruby on Rails developers.
In July:
- Alicja wrote a blogpost about the culture of the organization: She took part in 8th Employer Branding Forum based in Warsaw. The theme of the meeting was the question asked by the organizers "Is the culture of the organization important?". In the introduction, Julita Dąbrowska from Kalitero presented conclusions from the research carried out on the seven best-rated companies from the Clutch portal. Read the whole article to know what is the conclusion of the research.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/is-the-culture-of-the-organization-important
- Michał Ł. wrote an article about Prototyping: Uncertainty is an inseparable part of creating any software. At the beginning of the project, you never have a piece of full knowledge about future requirements and features. Developers don't know the whole specification, the project manager doesn't know all clients' expectations, and usually, clients are not aware of all features their product should have. When the amount of unspecified requirements is significant, choosing to create a prototype could be really beneficial!
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/let-s-prototype
- Mateusz Wodyk wrote a blogpost about the cooperation of Project Managers and Software Developers: Software Developers and Project Managers. Do they play for the same team? They work in the same companies, work on common projects, but do they really always share the work, or do they sometimes fight each other for no good?
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/between-the-devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea
In August:
- We were chosen as one of the bests Ruby on Rails companies by TopDevelopers: We've been featured again!
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/visuality-recognizes-as-one-of-the-best-ruby-on-rails-devs
- Jasiek published a lightning talk about Consumer Diver Contracts: He explains what Consumer Diver Contracts is, what does the output look like, and important terms such as Provider, Consumer, Interaction, Contract.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1saKYdDuVw
- We implemented RFC process in our company! From August 22nd, any change related to the organization will be introduced using this process. It is a transparent procedure to initiate change and get regular improvements while staying consistent. We record two lightning talks explaining what RFC is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7MC6ZQGvzU PART1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peUq2jYx_6U PART2
- Jarek presented a lightning talk where he is talking about GraphQL basics and example in Ruby on Rails.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFS5fAH2zFQ
In September:
- Alicja explained Employee lifecycle: When we talk about Human Resources, we often focus on the first part - recruitment. However, we have to remember that the employees will spend more time with us, and their employment period is a part of their life cycle in our company. Like in real life outside the company, it's important to look for happiness and self- development. Alicja thinks it might be interesting to briefly describe each of the stages, so feel invited to read this post and post your comments if you feel we omitted something important - we're still learning best practices.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/employee-lifecycle-this-is-how-it-looks-like-at-visuality
- Bartek Kowalewski joined Visuality as a Ruby Developer!
Out team went for an integration trip! We visited polish Mazury and had a lot of fun walking in the beautiful forests and singing by the fire!
Jasiek prepared a blog post about Ruby Quirks: Ruby is a beautiful language to work with. It provides tons of amenities for developers. Like every other language, though, Ruby has things that you may not be aware of or may not fully understand --- and these quirks are the subject of Jasiek's blog post.
- Marek wrote a few words about Marketing Conference he attended: March 2019, he had the opportunity to visit London and the B2B Marketing Expo 2019. He attended many seminars presented by popular marketing agencies. Below he presented his takeaways and notes on how to market to Businesses in 2019.
- Alicja wrote a few words about another HR conference as well Our HR specialist took part in HR Wave Conference called No-Bullsh**t. It was a great occasion to get to know how other companies face problems everyone copes with and how they organize their work and culture. Despite the rainy weather, we were welcomed with a great atmosphere and a good dose of knowledge and inspiration. What made this conference stand out was the time for us- the audience. After each talk, we could ask questions and clarify the information we learned. It was a great opportunity to exchange experiences. Check what we've learned:
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/hr-wave-no-bullshit-hr-conference-2019
- We were a part of DLD Tel Aviv Conference!
In October:
- Paweł gave a talk about Fuzzy Text Search: He explains how to find similar text phrases in Ruby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOjcoYFqHMc
- Kasia - our UX/UI designer - unleashed a very complicated case study of the Redesign polish carrier website. The article is super popular among UX/UI communities! Congrats Kasia!
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/pkp-intercity-redesign-and-case-study-of-polish-national-carrier
Adam Król became an Engineering Manager. Congrats!
Sales team went to Dubai for a GITEX Dubai Conference:
- Our business developer wrote an article "How to find good developers and keep them happy": In this article, we would like to support you in making good, long-term decisions regarding the development of your products and avoid bad choices. We will give you advice on what to remember when dealing with hiring and managing the team. All of the information is based on 12 years of our experience with 125+ applications and many developers we hired to create them.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/how-to-find-good-developers-and-keep-them-happy-part-1
- Wiktor published his blog post about Stress in Project Management: Since projects have claimed their rightful place in the business as a means of achieving complex goals, one can observe a tendency to attribute the success of a project to a method applied. It's widely believed that an innovative and up-to-date set of routines is a key factor in having your goal achieved within the budget and to the proper quality. It's a statement that has become almost a myth. Therefore more and more companies worldwide struggle to apply tools and newest methodologies to optimize their processes and ensure that the risk of failure is mitigated.
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/stress-in-project-management
- Patryk Ptasiński joined Visuality as a new backend engineer.
- Jarek wrote a blogpost about Lightning talks! Deepening knowledge of the company's employees is the key to let them develop themselves and keep them in good mental condition. There are a couple of ways to provide them with it. Of course, an interesting and challenging project should be a major factor, as most of the developers' time is consumed there. Giving them an opportunity to take part in side projects, for example, via hackathons, is also a great way to explore new areas. Another great idea to expand their horizons is just to let your employees share knowledge between themselves. Here comes a fairly easy way to make it work, which is Lightning Talks!
https://www.visuality.pl/posts/lightning-talks-in-your-company
- Case Study of Cognitus landed on our website
https://www.visuality.pl/case-studies/cognitus
In November:
- Sales team conquered Portugal during WebSummit!
- Diana and Michał Książek joined Visuality as a new PM!
Michał Książek joined Visuality as a backend engineer!
We supported a Rails Girls event which took place for the first time in... Ghana! Rails Girls is a global community that organizes workshops for women to get into Ruby on Rails. The maiden edition of Rails Girls in Ghana took place on the 13th — 14th December in Sekondi Takoradi at Icode Hub. The tagline for the workshop was inspired by the Adinkra symbol Nea Onnim which translates: ‘He who does not know can know from learning’. The two days workshop was filled with coding, lightning talks, and after-party.
Sakir gave a "Three-point estimation" talk on PRUG in Poznan.
- Sales&Design team went to Cracow for a DesignWays Conference
What technological trends of 2019 met their expectations? Which technology is the must-have of a modern designer? What will the creative industry be like in 2020?
We want to know the answers to this and many other questions!
In December:
- Our Frontend team took part in ConfFrontJS conference:
ConFrontJS is a conference that focuses on JavaScript used in Front-end development held once a year.
The target participants are mid-level and advanced JavaScript programmers. We were very happy to be one of the sponsors of this event.
https://evenea.pl/event/confrontjs-2019/
- We published the first "discussion video" After 12 years in the business, Visuality has accumulated a lot of experience regarding hiring great talents that fit our culture. We will discuss what are the most important things you need to know about hiring software developers for your project. Do I need to hire an agency, freelancers, or create my own team? How to be sure that the company or developers are qualified? CEO of Visuality and Business developer will respond to those questions, and more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA8yjDhxvXc
- We met to celebrate Christmas Time!
So as you see a lot of cool things happened and of course this is not everything!
Best wishes for 2020!
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