THE RATTLESNAKES DIARIES

Setting the tent ⛺

Fennecs, Bears and Rattlesnakes are on a mission. Our users are wandering around and they need our expertise and guidance in order to get a better experience and understanding of what Issuu has to offer and help their business grow. By helping them settle, giving directions on setting their goal and easing the publishing experience - we expect an increase of paid plans which unlock many more growth possibilities.

We’re setting the tent, gathering all the resources and tools needed to get us started. We’re all getting excited about having the opportunity to unite our powers, emphasize agility and build something awesome which brings great value to our customers.

ON EMPATHY

Our fellow bear Antônio, recently shared a great article on how software engineers can better develop empathy, and we highly recommend you to read it, here. The article is summarized well in the last two sentences -

And there is no better way to inspire you like our Director of Product did, by sharing the quote below, and emphasizing empathy after spending a quality time in the Copenhagen office and meeting with us for the first time.

“Empathy is compassion, listening, and understanding. Empathy is about actively listening to our customers, our colleagues and business partners and creating a feedback loop that allows us to create the best product for them. Empathy is demanding the most out ofyourself , and humbly requesting the efforts ofothers. Learning more about one another and what each of us do to contribute to the organizationcanhelpusalltounderstandourcapabilitiesasateam. Cross-divisional and functional teamworkis what willcreateprogress rather than ill-fatedmissions conductedinsilos.

IDEA MERITOCRACY

I bet you have heard this before, maybe from Erik, our VP of Engineering who went to make his own games, or perhaps from Joe, our CEO, bringing it to our attention on various occasions. Here in Issuu, we all like to hear ideas and opinions from anyone, which means we only care about having the best ideas and not where they come from. And according to Ray Dalio, this is the best way to make decisions in a company. Watch his great TED talk here.

The way to build an effective idea meritocracy is to:

● Bring together smart, independent thinkers

● Have them thoughtfully disagree with each other

● Get past disagreement using agreed-upon systems.

Together, this will yield the best ideas and collective thinking. Idea meritocracy works better than just one person coming up with the ideas and issuing orders. It also works better than a group of smart people who can’t thoughtfully disagree with each other.

An idea meritocracy is built on a few foundational principles:

● Radical truth

● Radical transparency

● Thoughtful disagreement

● Believability-weighted decision making

A STORY FROM THE SUBURB

You know our Rune is a kick-ass fighter and jiu-jitsu master. He has such a power in both fighting bad guys and nasty bugs, worthy of respect. Remember we had sent him on a recovery vacay in Barcelona, after his one-wheel clash? Well, right before his landing in Copenhagen, we heard some shocking news from Barselona! Anti-virus software entrepreneur John McAfee has been found dead in a prison cell after a Spanish court agreed to extradite him to the US to face tax evasion charges. And strangely enough, the closest snake buddy to Rune, Simon the second, just went off on a full-month vacation, and will spend time not at one, but various places. Does Simon is hiding something we don’t know? We’ll find out after his return!

Kudos goes to Misha for making out the coolest illustration portraying our conspiracy theory. He’s such a multi-talent!!