Last week we held our first-ever design retreat in Austin, Texas. This was a milestone for many reasons. We got to meet up with Aviva Pinchas, Head of Growth, in her hometown. We met Senior Growth Designer, Alicia Cressall, for the first time in person. And we tried a new approach to our sprint as outlined by the Sprint book from Google Ventures.

Since the pandemic we’ve been making efforts to meet in smaller groups in a way that is safe and easier to manage. The number one goal of the retreat was to bond as colleagues, as we are forming our design culture and practice at Parabol.

Austin was a great destination for many reasons:

• Our team didn’t have to travel too far or cross many time zones.
• There were many outdoor options for our time together: restaurants with outdoor seating, beautiful parks, fun streets to walk, shops to explore, etc.
• And perhaps the number one highlight from the trip: we met Aviva’s full fluffy Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Finneas. He made quite the teammate, joining us for a full day of the sprint!

While we were together, we wanted to roll up our sleeves and do some design work. We decided to take on one of the more unloved parts of our software: Parabol’s account administration interface.

We’ve heard from a number of customers on how they could be better supported in managing their accounts. We realized this problem space could benefit from a full design sprint to uncover the biggest opportunities and our riskiest ideas. Over the week, we raced toward a scrappy prototype in order to gather feedback from customers this week and next. Using the terms from the Sprint process, we want to know if our ideas are ‘efficient failures’ — we only spent a week! — or ‘flawed successes’ — they have legs, but need improvement.

We left the week with good vibes. We enjoyed amazing food, played games, baked cookies, stretched our legs outdoors, and came away with some exciting design concepts. We can’t wait for the next time we gather!

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Originally published as Parabol Friday Ship #275