Creativity and Productivity Thrive in a Living, Breathing Culture
Project Evolution is committed to solving problems, and our culture supports creative thinking by being flexible, open, flatly-organized and collaborative. We are open source software devotees who apply the tenants of open source to our work environment – everyone together is smarter than one person alone. That said, we know how important it is to be able to focus on a problem and write clean code, so we provide ways to have open, loud collaborations as well as focused, quiet isolation.
Providence, RI is our home, and while we support working remotely, we know that in-person collaboration is the best way to work effectively. The City offers its inhabitants almost everything they might want in a small, manageable footprint. Great food and libations are not far from our doorstep, which helps our team have those “eureka” moments outside of the office. Providence is a well-known destination with much to offer – just ask the NY Times Travel writers.
Project Evolution is a recipient of the 2012 Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility in Providence. Project Evolution has distinguished itself as a leading employer that is successfully using flexibility as part of an effective workplace strategy to achieve business goals and benefit employees by helping them meet their responsibilities on and off the job. Awarded by When Work Works – national partners Families and Work Institute and The Society for Human Resource Management, with the regional partner, Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce.
Our Employees Say It Best
I like working here because of the relaxed atmosphere and the competence of my coworkers – it feels like everyone does a good job in order to make themselves proud rather than trying to show off or just to get it done.
Everyone is passionate. We argue and play devil’s advocate, but it never feels mean. We never take it personally, it is all part of the larger conversation where we are trying to find the core truths of a problem or solution.
Other Tenets
Perfection is the Enemy of Progress
Our process is iterative, and we prefer “agile” with a small “a”. Projects are phased, with minimal deliverables in version one and room to grow the idea in later phases. Working software is our goal, with enhancements delivered when we can start to collect user feedback. The best software is never done, but we use goals and deadlines for that sense of accomplishment and to give us time to think about future phases.
The Best Practices of Others Inform – Don’t Dictate – Our Own
Developers offisite use tools like HipChat to be part of our daily conversations. Our Technical Director is available when someone hits a wall via chat or Skype or in person. Our technical dossier includes (in no particular order): Python, Django, Gunicorn, nginx, Circus, SASS with Compass and Susy, Coffeescript, Chef, Apache JMeter, Jenkins, Tracelytics, Spine.js and Backbone.js, and Zepto.