Where Are We?

I've been pondering having a place to write my thoughts as I learn and grow.  A lot of great changes have been happening at work. One of my favorite things about 1-800 Contacts is the company culture. People care about each other, are passionate about the work, and have a great work/life balance. These things haven't changed.  I love where we've been, but I am so excited where we're going.  Recently we've made some small changes that have made significant benefits:

Continuous Delivery

One of the best changes over the past year has been the move to continuous delivery for both code and database builds.  Our push, following the Accelerate model, has blown our deployment frequency out of the water, much less other statistics.

Continuous Improvement

In the last few six months, my teams have been focused on making small, simple changes that make our process better.  From small process improvements and eliminating waste to having QA test earlier in the process, these have been extremely values additions.  Another great win has been having one story per build to bring value faster to production.

Leadership

I love the 1-800 Contacts culture.  We are continually learning.  We are working towards being more proactive than reactive.  I love that new book reads are always floating around the company, often multiple times per month.  The latest book going around is The Culture Code.  The focus on building a safe place, vulnerability, and purpose go hand in hand with where our culture is improving.