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Adrian

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#### **Understanding the essence of Bitnoise's culture**
As an Office Manager, the topic of **organizational values** is of particular importance to me. At Bitnoise, a technology company, we bring together individuals working on various projects daily. Since we operate in a hybrid manner, technical personnel interact with certain team members regularly, while others only sporadically. We have opportunities to connect during casual encounters at the coffee machine, shared lunches, and company meetings. Being a diverse group, we spend varying amounts of time together. However, our shared values ensure that regardless of how well-acquainted I am with someone, I know I can approach them freely, and we will undoubtedly find common ground.

#### **Visualizing values through artistic expressions**
Bitnoise has been operating in the ICT market for 14 years, which has given us plenty of time to learn what is truly important. Our CEO and CTO are well aware of this, as they work closely with all departments on a daily basis. This allows them to constantly share the company's vision and listen to and understand what is important to the team. **By adopting an open-door policy** and fostering a culture of discussion, they create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts. **Bitnoise Values** are the result of combining these core elements that have been important to us since the beginning, our years of experience, and our partnerships with employees and clients.

From my perspective, it is particularly significant that the values that the organization has lived by emerged before they were formally named. They hold such importance for us that they became the theme of our [company merchandise in 2022](https://www.bitnoise.pl/blog/bitnoise-kit-2022-edition)
, taking the form of wild animals through the talent of **artist Marta Szymańska**. This simple act allowed us to engage with our values not only in abstract terms but also in our everyday lives. It instills a sense of closeness within me and enhances my ability to identify with them.

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#### **The essence of Bitnoise's culture**
Bitnoise's shared values are a few aspects of our organizational life that apply to all areas of our operations and to all individuals involved. They foster a sense of community and form the foundation of our organizational culture. We nurture this culture by effectively inviting people who value our guiding principles, people who possess similar characters or temperaments, to join our team. This does not mean working exclusively with a specific type of person. Instead, we view it as a compass that helps us maintain our identity. This approach benefits everyone involved: an organization that grows sustainably and continually improves the quality of its services, team members operating in a stable and predictable environment, and clients who can be confident that their expectations remain consistent even as the project expands and more Bitnoise members become involved.


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I invite you to explore Bitnoise's values, and I will provide a brief commentary on how our team understands them:

- **Partnership:** We believe in delivering the utmost value to our clients and fostering personal growth, so we provide mutual support regardless of project assignments.

- **Development:** We create opportunities for personal and professional growth for ourselves and the organization. We support the development of our team members and strive for our solutions, architecture, and ideas to be mature, scalable, well-considered, and sustainable.

- **A safe place:** We trust each other and avoid imposing rigid rules. Instead, we flexibly balance our professional and personal lives.

- **Expertise:** We value each person's expertise and openly share our knowledge and experiences, which enables us to engage in meaningful discussions.

- **Agency:** Regardless of seniority, we have a voice in product and code solutions, as well as in the development of the organization.

- **Ownership:** We embrace the idea that projects evolve alongside us, and we take ownership of our work by proactively resolving issues.

- **Harmony:** We strive to create a harmonious work environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and supported. We work with dedication and professionalism, and we care for both individuals and the business. We support one another while respecting personal boundaries.

- **Intellectual courage:** We have the courage to express our opinions, knowing that we won't face judgment.


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#### **Bitnoise's values: building a community**
I believe that values are the foundation of an organization's long-term success. Goals change, environments fluctuate, and people come and go. But by upholding our values every day, we can ensure that our organization retains its distinct character, matures, and evolves. This commitment allows us to deliver high-quality solutions and services to our customers and associates, who can have clear expectations about our attitudes and behavior towards one another.



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Unity in diversity: Bitnoise’s organizational values as a compass for success

There are many ways to avoid the trap of being "just another generic software development company." For me, it is specialization, the value proposition that comes with it, and organizational culture. 

Why is it important not to be "just another generic software development company," you may ask?  For us, it is crucial because **we like working with interesting brands, and our developers love coding in tech-challenging and satisfying projects.** We don't want to compete only with time and money because that is a dead end for any tech company. But what exactly is specialization and organizational culture for a company that mostly works on JS-driven projects and has a team of 50 tech-savvy programmers? Let's break it down.

#### **Specialization and the value proposition**
The main problem with genericity comes from the fact that many of us don't think and plan ahead when starting a company. We tend to have a vague concept of what we want to achieve with our business in ten years, relying on the technology that our CTO or tech lead knows best and a handful of recommended clients. This approach lacks experience, vision, and a positive attitude, leading to daily struggles. It can even consume the best entrepreneurs and undermine their motivation to work on their own unique value proposition. 

At Bitnoise, we have adopted a "**doing things a little different**" approach, **with a strong vision and values, and specialization**. It may be easy to say, but the real challenge begins when you start implementing specialization in your company. For us, it took some time, but we eventually discovered that our holy grail is JavaScript - specifically **React**, **React Native**, and **NodeJS**. This does not mean that we have no knowledge of other technologies, but we consciously focus on JS and direct our messages to customers who require such services. 

It took years of work and deep experience to be able to say that we are specialists in this area, not only in our marketing communication but also in practice. To prove it, we have taken part in hundreds of large and small projects, run internal workshops, and participated in industry events over our 14 years of existence, and it has paid off. 

#### **Culture - take it seriously and you will see the difference**
In our case, it means always cooperating with people with matching characters, temperaments, and values. This does not mean "the same" people, **but if the teams work on the same page technologically and socially, you have a win.** For us, the most important thing that makes our team well-connected and cooperation easier is acceptance of differences to a reasonable extent. We have people on the teams with extremely opposite worldviews, but we have never had conflicts at this level. Why? 

One of our ideas is to create a space for casual discussion, an internal platform like Hyde Park, and we actually call it Hate Park (the rest is confidential). From my point of view, another important thing is to be "**a present manager**," not "the owner of a high castle." We have a custom of open doors. Any of the company's leaders, as well as a person who has just joined the organization, can at any time have a talk with me and the company CTO. The same thing applies to business partners; devoting time to them makes it much easier to deliver the value proposition we've promised. 

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#### **Specialization out of expertise and experience**
Face it, running away from generality into specialization is a challenge and takes a lot of work, not only in the marketing of your company but also on the level of your teams. Basically, **you need the best people, and they need to constantly develop their skills**. It is time and money-consuming, but in the end, it pays off. At Bitnoise, we have come up with [<u>Bitnoise_meet</u>](https://www.bitnoise.pl/blog/tags/meetup)
, where more experienced Bitnoise members can share their experiences with those with less skill in a given field. 

We provide training not only on technical topics - we have mastermind workshops, public speaking, or event storming workshops behind us, and mini-conferences **-** [<u>Land on Moon</u>](https://www.landonmoon.co/)
 **- organized in Berlin**, **where we encourage local communities of scale-ups and start-ups to share their knowledge** and acquire new skills. What impact does this have on our clients' business? It's simple: it translates into a committed team that not only completes tasks and builds high-quality products but also looks after each other and works effectively as a unit. 

#### **Summary**
Both tech socialization and culture are not a silver bullet, but they work well for me and Bitnoise. There is more to add, among others, a niche industry, extraordinary partnership, and many others. For us, what works is to have a mature, independent, and high level of seniority teams and a strong **React.js** core on the side of competency and in the clients' portfolio. It allows us to go outside the simple software development process, and if we see areas around the business in which we can support the client - whether in technical terms or in terms of processes - we help to make the right decisions or refer to one of our many partners who, in a given area, can help (being part of the community is something I'll discuss in the future).

Finally, what I think is worth mentioning - as owners and managers of Bitnoise, **we are always available to developers and customers to help dispel any doubts or problems that may arise.** On time and as efficiently as possible, because when our clients' business works well, it means that we do our job well. It is an important consequence of being a "present manager," which I mentioned previously. My final take on the whole genericity problem, if you want to overcome it:  

- Make an in-depth analysis of what is the strongest value of your company;

- Research how and what problems of your clients it answers;

- Specialize in technology;  

- And last but not least, build strong, independent, and experienced teams (and support them). 


Of course, it takes time and resources, but it is worth it. Do you agree? Or maybe I should talk more on some specific point? Give me a heads up, and let's talk.



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Why we are not just another generic software development company

#### Embracing the Unseen Artist: AI in Design
In the first quarter of 2023, our conversations, meetings, and brainstorming sessions began to revolve around a particular theme that dominated our work ethos - Artificial Intelligence. As we immersed ourselves in the potential of AI, an idea emerged that was as daring as it was exciting. We decided to invite an artificial intelligence system into our creative process.

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#### Navigating the Uncharted Territory of AI-Generated Designs
The decision to work with AI raised a problem: do we start with defining the motif, or do we decide on the gadgets first? After some deliberation, we chose the former, employing our AI collaborator to help generate a motif inspired by our shared love for hiking. We reviewed numerous AI-generated graphics before we found one that perfectly embodied our theme and fit our anniversary hoodie.


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#### Overcoming Obstacles: A Creative Conundrum
The initial victory, however, was just the start of a series of hurdles. Despite the exceptional talent of our designer, transposing the AI-generated design onto our chosen hoodies presented a significant challenge. Quality is a non-negotiable aspect of our work, and we wanted to ensure that the print on the hoodie did not undermine the material's integrity. After conducting several tests with multiple printing vendors, we finally struck a balance between design integrity and material quality.


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#### Broadening the Design Horizon
Though the design was perfect for the hoodies, it didn't adapt well to our other intended gadgets - t-shirts, socks, and mugs. This predicament forced us to re-evaluate our strategy. We revisited our AI collaborator with a new vision, creating a collection of designs that drew inspiration from the initial motif. We embraced minimalism in our unique designs, emphasising that "less can indeed be more."


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#### Crafting Tokens of Appreciation: Beyond Company Merchandise
Our intent behind creating these gadgets extends far beyond producing standard, logo-branded corporate merchandise. We see these gadgets as unique tokens of gratitude and appreciation for our invaluable team members. Every item we create is more than just a piece of merchandise; it's a symbol of Bitnoise's spirit and a testament to our gratitude for our dedicated team.


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Our journey to creating this year's commemorative gadgets was fraught with challenges and learning opportunities, but was it worth it? We believe so. But we invite you to judge for yourself - take a look at the pictures and let us know what you think!



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Bitnoise Anniversary Celebration: An Artful Blend of Human Creativity and Artificial Intelligence

Unity in diversity: Bitnoise’s organizational values as a compass for success

Paulina

Why we are not just another generic software development company

Adrian

Bitnoise Anniversary Celebration: An Artful Blend of Human Creativity and Artificial Intelligence

Magdalena

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