Tools

A few fundamental tools are available at Nebulab to help at work. This section is a quick recap of what tools we use and why we use them.
We don't like to re-invent the wheel so almost all of the tools we use at Nebulab are external services. We strive to use as few tools as possible to avoid tool-fatigue.
You can find a section named "Essentials" on the Bob homepage with the list of fundamental tools.

Google Workspace

Everyone gets a Google account in the form namesurname@nebulab.com.
That Google account is used for:
  • logging into in to the tools described in this page
  • your main work email
  • work/social events on Google Calendar
  • video calls through Google Meet
  • company files (i.e. All-hands recordings, async updates) on  shared Google Drives 

Calendar

Being proficient in using Google Calendar is crucial to never miss a thing in your life at Nebulab. Whether it's a client meeting, a social event or the All-Hands meeting, everything happens through a calendar event!

Email

You can use the following template as a signature in your work emails:
--
[Your full name]
[Role], Nebulab
https://nebulab.com

 Slack 

Our office. Your can find all sorts of suggested channels throughout this Playbook.
Channels are continuously created and destroyed so it can happen that you know nothing about a channel which will change your life. From time to time it's a good idea to open up the dedicated channel browser to have a look at what's happening.
To make browsing channel easier we distinguish between foundational channels and optional channels.

Foundational channels

These channels are the ones you're added right away when you join our Slack team. They have been around for centuries and will probably never go away. They are not prefixed.
  •  #general : the default channel. It's used to notify when you get to/leave the office as well as let the team know when you'll be using some PTO
  •  #announcements : where we discuss the company-wide communications happen. The channel is read-only to make it easy for people to follow through. Shoutouts from Bob are automatically posted here.
  •  #praise : where we celebrate successes... if you want to praise someone, this is the right channel!  Public praises  given in this channel will be posted to Lattice and vice-versa!
  •  #social-cazzeggio : an Italian word which means "to mess around", this is the channel where fun and games happen
  •  #celebrations : where we celebrate b-days and important events.

Optional channels

To help navigate through the huge amount of channels we tend to prefer using prefixes for any channel which is optional. These channels are generally very specific and will help you find the right niche to always be on top of everything. They use prefixes.
Here are the prefixes we're using:
  • #learning- : for "communities of practice" around serious topics
  • #proj-: for conversations and questions about a specific project
  • #social-: for random chit-chat about light topics
  • #donut-: for having a coffee with your teammates through our  Donut bot 
If at any point you need to create a new channel please use the provided prefixes!
A few of these optional channels have been around for a long time and are the most active:
  •  #social-musicaddicted 
  •  #social-movieaddicted 
  •  #learning-engineering 
  •  #learning-ecommerce 

 Bob 

Our HRIS software. It's the single source of truth for team data, here's what you can find in it:
  • team directory (with interesting people bios and skills + private data not everyone has access to)
  • attendance tracking (clock-in/clock-out and PTO)
  • documents archive (i.e. your contract)
  • company updates
  • who's out on a holiday
  • birthdays and anniversaries
  • onboarding and flows
  • tasks

Sensitive Data Warning

Bob stores data about yourself that could be sensitive and it's best kept private despite being essential for working at Nebulab.
Whenever in doubt, look at the list of fields on your profile, the data category description will say who the data is shared with! Like so:

 Lattice 

Empowering performance and goal management, Lattice keeps our growth on track and aligned. It's most used for:
  • 1:1 agendas
  • giving/requesting feedback
  • running engagement surveys
  • career planning and growth plans
  • performance reviews
  • compensation reviews
  •  Mercer salary benchmarks 
You can read more about it in  ⁠⁠Grow⁠ .

 Slite 

Where this Playbook lives.

 Fellow 

Very frequently the agenda for multiple-people meetings is managed with Fellow.

 SentinelOne 

For security purposes we use SentinelOne as our  XDR  client. We understand this might be a concern for some people so we have a dedicated page:  ⁠⁠SentinelOne handbook⁠ .