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In a previous post, I explored the question: Is your chair your enemy?, based in part on the many recent articles, research reports, and infographics claiming that the simple act of sitting is killing you. But I recently read David Zax’s FastCompany article, In Defense of Sitting, a humorous counter argument (“Sitting may kill you. But at…
When companies are very small, internal communication happens pretty naturally. You all work closely together, sharing a small space and a small number of projects, so it’s pretty easy to keep up on the news without even trying. But the larger a company gets, the less you can take internal communication for granted. Atomic now…
The local AIGA chapter hosted another round of Design for Good April 12-14. Design for Good parallels Give Camp in many respects, but from the design community instead of the development community. Dustin and I attended the event this year, lending our services to The Creative Youth Center and the Well House. I had the…
I’ve been working at Atomic for just over three years. In that time, I’ve learned a lot about designing great custom software. But I’ve also learned about working with people. I work with some good, caring people. Atomic’s 5 value mantras pave the way for a work environment in which people are able to make…
Atomic Object will be presenting two talks at the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference (GLSEC) on April 29. Time-based Estimates Are For Suckers; Size-based Is The Way To Go – David Crosby Dave will discuss the benefits of using relative complexity estimation to achieve better results. Nurturing Top-notch Tech Teams – Drew Colthorp & Mike…
Atomic has added Crucial Conversations to our short list of required reading, meaning new hires will be expected to digest this book within their first weeks on the job. We think it’s important enough to rank right up there with Extreme Programming Explained (1st edition!) as a book that explains how we work and what…
On the weekend of March 22-23, a group of educators, their students, and industry professionals came together at Calvin College’s Prince Center for the Michigan Celebration of Women in Computing or MICWIC. Along with my colleague Carl Erickson, I had the privilege of attending this event and getting to know some of the best and…
On March 27, 2013 Local First held its 5th Annual Sustainable Business Conference. I was invited to speak on a panel about sustainability initiatives in business. My fellow panelists were Marcia Rapp of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant, and Matt VanSweden of Integrated Architecture. Bill Smith of CompuCraft was our panel’s moderator. Participating on…
I believe frameworks that foster cross-pollination of ideas work better than top-down policy implementation when it comes to spreading knowledge and innovation across an organization. The Need to Share Knowledge and Innovation Atomic consists of self-managing teams that are organized around projects. Our projects can typically last anywhere from three months to over two years,…
I saw a number of great talks this year at South by Southwest. One talk, in particular, stands out in my memory: Behind the Iron Curtain. Mike Butcher, Maria Constantinescu, Bogdan Iordache, Alec Andronikov spoke as a panel about the state of technology companies in Eastern Europe. Though they discussed a number of topics, one…
Carl is the president and co-founder of Atomic Object