The summary of 2021

This year was filled with surprises and transformations. We continued our hybrid work, made some changes, and grew in many aspects. Let’s reflect on 2021. 

We changed from within 

Our goal is to constantly improve to deliver the best services and experiences. So as our company changes, our processes and methods also have to be altered.

To do that, we had to go back to the core of our business, to each stage of digital product development, and define it once again. All of it to analyze, restructure and, ultimately, improve the way we do business.

Brand new website

A refreshed look of our website was one of the steps of the change. We added various subpages (such as industries, resources, services) and other sections to make it as informative and, at the same time, readable as possible. 

Plus, we have cultivated our blog that gives even more useful information on all topics. But more about it later.

New tools and solutions

And as we underwent the internal changes, we also implemented new tools to improve the process even more.

Our Product Owners chose new solutions and methods to better prepare the ground for the projects from the more strategic view. Investing time at the beginning of the project helps us deliver more suitable solutions not only from a technical aspect but also business-wise.

Thanks to that, we help clients determine what will give them the greatest value in a given budget and time, what tests can be carried out on users, and which things they should measure to develop the best direction of application development.

We also help implement analytical tools such as Google Analytics and HotJar and then, use them to determine how they should build their apps (so as not to waste the customers’ money on features that will be rarely used).

As a result, we’re better at project management which benefits both clients and us. We’re more vigilant to changes and bugs, more responsive, and can build better teams and use their skills in the project. 

New projects

In 2021 we got new clients and projects. Each of them was different and needed an individual approach. There was a project supporting ecological production of biofuels, a web application helping electrical field workers to go over manufacturers’ catalogs and make lists to place orders, a project for data solutions startup, and many more.

With every new project, we always try to do as much for the client as possible. Why? Because we believe in their businesses and ideas. And long partnerships with our clients prove that they see our effort and appreciate it. 

Here’s some recent feedback from our Clutch profile:

More content, more Dribbble shots & new platforms

We want to explain to our clients the topic of software project development in the most accessible way. So, in 2021, we published 34 articles on our blog as well as made a first-time appearance on Medium, dev.to, and hackernoon platforms (with 3 other articles). We wrote about project management issues and design matters, made a few technical comparisons, and created a couple of guides. We also launched the Gorrion newsletter! 

Plus, our team of UX/UI Designers added as much as 22 shots on the Dribbble profile! They created a variety of animations, landing pages, 3D illustrations, gamification badges, and more. 

So, needless to say, we’re incredibly proud of what we achieved. But we’re not going to settle down.

We’re constantly learning

Monthly developer meetings have become a norm for us (and this is something we’re incredibly proud of). So each month, we gather for an hour and share knowledge. Usually, we make presentations about interesting technologies. But sometimes, when we want to learn something more complicated, or when we want to do it in more practical form, it transfers into workshops (just like in the case of Prisma or microservices; if you read our newsletter, you already know that).

Gorrion Unplugged is also a big part of our sharing knowledge initiative. And as we reactivated the meetup in December, we want to keep pursuing it. Plus, we always try to attend various meetups and conferences. So this year, our team attended Design Days, which was a great opportunity to learn more, make connections and represent Gorrion. 

New roles & groups

Along with the various changes, we also evaluated the state of our teams. We decided that we need to grow in terms of responsibilities and parts we hold in the process and the company overall. It was time for new roles and new groups. We created and developed ‘specialized task forces‘ among developers, like security or DevOps. 

We also have a brand new position: People Manager, who helps to improve the comfort of work of Gorrions, supports their development and expands our recruitment on a larger scale.

We exchanged experience 

The last way of improving our services was through workshops and consultations with other companies, including another software house. We did it to learn more about the market, exchange good practices, and overall, improve the way we do business and gain new projects. 

We won the Red Dot Award 🏆

2021 was also a year of victory. We won our first Red Dot Award. 

Diagnomatic: the project, in cooperation with Pro-Project, was the first work that we submitted for the Red Dot Design Award, one of the most prestigious design awards.

All in all

It was a challenging year, no doubt. But it was also extremely rewarding. We grew as an organization and strengthened relationships with our partners. And we’re definitely ready for 2022. If you want to be a part of what we create this year, reach out to us – let’s build something together.