How PHPro implemented the Google philosophy
Toon, Nik, Jan and Joke must pretty much embody what PHPro stands for: four young, extremely driven IT professionals who are constantly looking for new solutions and technologies. And who want to learn continuously. From this philosophy emerged the Special Interest Groups, or S.I.G.'s for short. Unique thinking labs in which teams are free to work on their own ideas and new developments. What exactly goes on in these S.I.G.'s? That's what we wanted to hear.
Three developers and an analyst - one lady and three gentlemen, one and a half to six years on the job - sit together at a table. One puts in, the other complements. The interview is conducted via Skype. Of course. What's the point of technology if you don't dare use it, you hear them thinking out loud - even as the questioner fiddles with her new smartphone.
“Print with the button on the right,” Toon points out tolerantly. He has just explained how Special Interest Groups make life in the workplace easier, more versatile, too. “Within the S.I.G.'s you do research on new products and developments. Apart from that, it's really a boost for your personal development, you push your boundaries. And it's also just plain fun, a nice change. Something different from working and performing for a customer. Although we still get excited about that every day too.”
Sowing and harvesting ideas
Toon is responsible for the S.I.G.'s within PHPro. About two years ago, the idea of starting thinking labs grew. The mustard came indirectly from Google, where employees are allowed to spend a percentage of their time on their own creative projects. Still, it was mostly a need that arose during the work itself. “We wanted to research certain tools that seemed useful to us for our customers,” says Toon. “Only, those tools were not immediately part of the projects that were on the roll at the time.” What is useful for the customer is useful for the company itself, PHPro also knew.
So the company decided to set aside time each month for their employees to explore their own questions and technologies. “Anyone in the company can propose a topic,” Joke explains. “Anyone interested in a topic joins a group. Every last Friday we meet at our office in Kontich. That location is the most central, between the Hasselt and Aalst branches. Usually you work in groups of two to four people. You find a spot near each other, decide what exactly you want to do and what the objectives are. You divide the tasks and then everyone gets to work.”
Voluntary, but not non-committal
“Anyone, that is, anyone who wants to participate,” Jan clarifies. “The company gives you the opportunity, but you get to decide whether you participate or not. About 20 people sign up each time. That fine dynamic behind the S.I.G.'s, that is really typical of our company. We have a flat organizational structure, there are no real levels. Responsibility and knowledge are more important than status or promotion. Above all, we want to learn. The S.I.G.'s are living proof of that.”
Although things are relaxed during the S.I.G.'s, it remains important to work toward a result. “At the end of the day, you fill out a report of what you all did that day,” says Toon. “You also indicate what remains to be done. I myself every so often give a presentation of the topics around which all has been worked during the past period. Sometimes the team members also launch news or updates themselves. This keeps the whole company involved.”
An investment in people
The S.I.G.'s are a way for PHPro to invest in their people,” Nik knows. ”With a client you learn a lot, but just by being given the space to figure out new things, you can grow, innovate and deliver quality. That's something PHPro really promotes. A famous plus, I personally think.” With that added value, PHPro also managed to convince Nik during his job application a year and a half ago. “There I heard, 'Yes, we'd like to hire you as an analyst, but we're also open to if you want to research and learn things outside of that analyst profession.' I found that really positive. You know then that as an employee you're not just there to make money for the company, but that you can grow and take on new challenges.”
“Our days are very varied,” adds Toon. “We have a nice client portfolio with big fashion retailers like Essentiel, Bel&Bo and E5 fashion, some B2B clients like Atlas Copco, Edmac and Imes, as well as BPost, Nokia and Digipolis. On one and the same day, you can be working on as many as three different projects. That makes it exciting every time.” “Within Custom Development we have a lot of variety in our tasks,” agrees Jan. “You get to come up with solutions to the specific problems each customer faces. And the answers really aren't there for the taking. But that only increases the satisfaction when you can make an assignment a success.”
S.I.G.-Successtories
One of the success stories that has emerged within the S.I.G.'s is the open source project GrumPHP. “That taskrunner is now being installed about two thousand times a day around the world,” Jan says with appropriate pride. “GrumPHP is a great example of what open source can be. An active forum where colleagues worldwide can make suggestions for new features.”
“True,” says Joke, ”that's a really cool story. Slightly less spectacular, but certainly just as valuable, are the workflows we wrote out in the S.I.G.'s for the Magento webshop framework. There, the problem was that we were often reinventing the hot water internally. During the S.I.G. days, we came up with overarching solutions. We now work a little more efficiently.”
“Or at Pizza Hut, one of our customers,” adds analyst Nik. “There we saw that conversion was not quite optimal. We investigated how it could be done better. And what do you notice? That you can use similar tests and measurements with other clients as well. The S.I.G.'s provide best practices and general standards. These ensure that we can deliver even higher quality to our customers. We are also known for that.”
Never stop learning
Exploring new opportunities and sharing knowledge is the motto at PHPro. “Even outside our own field, we get to know each other better thanks to the S.I.G.'s. We exchange views on something that excites us together. That also makes you work more closely together as a team.” To strengthen that team even further, PHPro is looking for just about all types of profiles: PHP developers, analysts, Magento and Frontend developers, project managers and marketers... “Applicants we like to see coming? People who are genuinely motivated,” it sounds in chorus. “We are followers of the philosophy 'one learns by doing'. The most important thing is to get people to join us who want and can learn. We require a lot of flexibility, but in return we also have a lot of trust and freedom.”
What personally motivates Toon, Jan, Nik and Joke the most? That's the successful projects they get to deliver every day at PHPro. “And although our days are a barrel of variety, standard components are: relaxing together, getting some air, laughing together, doing something fun in the evening after work. We have an annual team-building weekend and regular social events. We go go-karting together or fly drones. Our ladies even organized a real ladies' night the other day.” “Yes,” Joke winks, ”we could all fill a full table together. Not bad, within our industry, right?”
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