3 things I learned at the Soluble Offsite
A few weeks ago, one of our most anticipated moments arrived: the 2022 Offsite. After far too long without in-person events, talking plenty but through video calls, unable to see each other's legs or what shoes we wore, without meeting many of our new team members in person… we finally got to celebrate together! And not just any way, of course: a 4-day intensive Offsite with 20 people, in a rural house in the middle of nature, 50 minutes from our studio in Barcelona.
Some of us flew in from Lanzarote, Oviedo, or A Coruña, others took the AVE from Madrid, and the luckiest ones came in our beloved Solubleta from Barcelona. Excited about the reunion and that dreamlike branding land where we were going to work, share knowledge, enjoy it with a screen printing workshop, discover hidden talents at karaoke…, we started by eating (something that would be a delightful constant throughout the event). At the stove of the house was chef Luis Cors and his assistant, Ricky, who fed us and cared for us like we were family.
In my case, this Offsite was also my onboarding, following my joining Soluble the day before the event. Perfect timing, right? It's not very common to have the luck of meeting the entire team, spending more than 72 hours straight together, chatting in pajamas or doing the dishes while discussing the company's history, how each area works, or our pets, and all of this in "chanclas". But at Soluble, and you can feel it from the first moment, we're not very interested in what's "normal" and we care even less about it.
The Offsite was packed with great moments, but I wanted to share with you 3 things I learned about Soluble that I've carried with me ever since:
Maslow's pyramid applied to Soluble: we're here to be happy
Today, work plays a leading role in our lives. This is the system we live in and we're aware of it. At Soluble, we've reflected a lot on this question, but we don't just think, we also act to be happy: here, now. In life and at work. And, moreover, we work to make others happy. That's what drives us.
And that's why at the Offsite we talked about technology, mental health, strategy, first aid, design… but above all about our "power to be". In a world where everything seems and nothing is, we want to reclaim the power of authenticity in our lives and through our work. Sounds odd or idealistic for a company retreat? Maybe, but it's not something that stays in words, it's Maslow's Pyramid adapted to our jobs:
Rigor + Ease = Flashes of emotion
Like everything in life, Soluble moves between dualities. Or, as the design team says, we're Apollonian-Dionysian. And how do we maintain the balance between rigorous work and the irreverence that lets us be who we are? Well, with touches of emotion. Those strokes, stickers, or gifs we made our own with the new brand identity and that make us really happy in the remote and digital environment.
Always moving with the MVP
Okay, but day-to-day, how does Soluble pull off being happy at work—rigorous but also irreverent—and making the people we work with happy too? Well, one thing that works really well is spending our time on high-value tasks, and making sure the teams we work with can do the same. The champions of this principle are the Product and Technology colleagues, who work in an agile way starting from the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and, from there, created Soluto Design System. With it, their work is more efficient and so is the consistency of the brands we work with. And that's where we are, all in on the MVP.
I could keep listing learnings, because at this reunion we shared many and varied experiences that took us from business to poetry, as our strategist María León would say. But I think many will agree with me that it's good that some of what happens at the Offsite stays at the Offsite…
And now, on to thinking about the next one!