Intro

For many of our developers, X-Team is not only a place of work but also — and perhaps even first and foremost — a vibrant community that boosts their growth and encourages to expand and share their various passions and interests.

Animating remote communities is challenging, but we pride ourselves on constantly innovating in ways of keeping our developers engaged, motivated, satisfied and growing their skills and productivity.

Three years ago, we started the Unleash program where we focused on helping X-Teamers achieve their personal and professional goals.

Today, as the company has significantly grown in numbers and experience, our environment for growth has evolved into a huge theme park where everyone can gain and contribute value.

Come along and get a taste of the rides! In this first blog in the series, we will take a look at Quests.

Quests

Have you ever played a game where you leveled your character by completing tasks and quests? Of course you have.

What if I told you that you can do the same in real life, with the character being your very self? And on top of that — you can play with your colleagues as if in your company's own MMO!

The most popular Quests we have recently run were:

  • Productivity Quest
  • Fit Quest
  • Spy Quest

Productivity Quest is all about equipping X-Teamers with new methods of overcoming TODO items quicker and in a more efficient way. No energy drinks were required. Only pure knowledge about tools and techniques was shared — plus motivation from other participants.

There's an excellent summary of the first Productivity Quest by the Game Master himself, Karol Sójko, which you can check out here.

When it comes to motivation, though, one may find it hard to jump straight into a productive mode without being in a productivity mood. What's our remedy for that?

Very often, a physical effort is all you need. The shot of endorphins you get after even a short, 30-minute workout may have the power to uncloud your mind for the rest of the day. Therefore, enter Fit Quest.

Read an excellent blog post by Ryan Chartrand, X-Team's CEO, about the very first Fit Quest and the value and inspiration it brought to our community.

When it comes to Spy Quest, the third one, there's no comprehensive summary out there (yet!), so let me quickly introduce you to the idea behind it:

Remote work gives you the freedom to work anywhere you want. Everywhere is our office, we say. A bench in a beautiful park? A coworking space full of interesting people? A café with the best coffee in town? A library where inspiration oozes from surrounding volumes?

You bet.

Such freedom may be the best thing in the world, but being able to capitalize on it does not always come as easy as you may expect. Instead of choosing all those beautiful places to work at, we often decide to work from the couch. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you remain productive and motivated. On the other hand, a bit of exploration has never brought any harm, right?

Therefore, in Spy Quest, we motivate our developers to go out, explore their neighborhoods and find new, interesting places where they can immerse their minds in new contexts, colors, sounds.

If you want to read about first-hand experience of this practice, give this article by Ignacio Segura a look and then start doing it yourself!

And in case you need extra motivation, Ryan has your back: