foreign office
in krakow
The story
why/
Why
not?
VG Live:
2x developers in STP
2x developers in VG
1.5x designers
VG Live:
Jorunn considered going,
I considered going;
Almost entire team in Krakow
hypothesis
- Improve communication:
- Get to know the team better
- Discover cultural differences
- Discover strengths/weaknesses
- Feel more like "a group of friends"
hypothesis
- Get more stuff done
- Less interruptions
- Work closer with team
- Remove communication overhead
hypothesis
- Enjoy my stay
- Lots of spare time to do whatever
- Really get to know a new place
- Drink cheap (and good) beer
- Be social with a new group of people
hypothesis:
living in Krakow
winter-krakow
lets do it.
process
- Find apartment on Airbnb
- Book flight tickets
- Figure out transportation
- Done.
transportation
- "It's summer, riding a bike should be fine"
- Jorun bought a bike
- Espen borrowed a bike from apartment owner
What
Did we
do?
espen Coded.
Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego
Jorun learned the language
espen Had coffee
(kawa)
Jorun
Had tea
(herbata)
we both drank beer
(piwo)
we rated restaurants
(restauracji)
we ran
into old friends
we had a bbq-party
we enjoyed the weather
we worked. efficiently.
take-
aways
summer-krakow
is awesome
biking to work is nice
STP has a cool office.
stp has amazing chairs
communication is easier in real life
polish manner vs norwegian manner
different,
but managable
(Once you know about them)
Hard to put
into words
being friends makes things easier
Getting stuff done = easier
different language
less meetings
less slack/mail
Pięćdziesięciogroszówka
or: language is a barrier
be nice
- Being in a foreign country can be isolating
- Talk English when FO-people are around
- Invite people to lunch, social events
- Let them know about stuff going on in the city
did we have a good time?
yup.
highly
recommended
Foreign office in Krakow
By Espen Hovlandsdal
