Rituals

Work is a major part of our journey at Nebulab, but it’s the bonds that enrich that journey which truly define us. Being distributed, we create the occasions for those bonds on purpose.

Non-work Slack channels

Slack is our office and, just like a real office, not everything happening on Slack is related to work—any channel that has the “#social-” prefix is a place to have fun!

#social-cazzeggio (/katˈtsedʤo/) is our Slack channel dedicated to all random stuff. The name is Italian for “messing around” and it stayed, for lack of an equally powerful translation, from when we used to speak Italian in our Slack workspace.

Everyone is free to post whatever they want in the channel, and threads are encouraged so that multiple conversations can go on at the same time.

We also have a variety of thematic channels in Slack, for discussing certain topics or interests: #social-musicaddicted, #social-movieaddicted, #social-sports… Just have a look at the channels directory in Slack and join whatever channels are interesting to you!

Intros

Weekly people in the #general channel will be randomly paired. The pair is encouraged to take a remote coffee (or donuts!) together.

Intros can take any form you want, but usually it’s a 20-30 minutes video call where you can talk about whatever’s on your mind—it doesn’t have to be work. In fact, most people use it to catch up about their hobbies, families, and personal lives, and to get to know colleagues in other teams/departments.

Pair programming Donuts

If you want a more technical chat, albeit a very informal one, the Donut Pair Programming initiative is for you. It’s a company-wide program to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing: once a month, you pair with a colleague from a different team, learn from each other, and share cross-team initiatives.

Joining the initiative

To join the initiative, engineers must join the #donut-pair-programming Slack channel. Upon joining, engineers should select their project 📝 to indicate which projects they are currently working on.

Pairing sessions

Once per month, two engineers are randomly selected by Donut to pair across different teams. When the Donut chooses the pair, the engineers should decide who is the driver 🚗 and who is the navigator 🧭, and which project or ticket they will work on during the pairing session. The pairing session typically lasts for one hour but feel free to change it to better suit your needs ⏰.

Pairing sessions don’t always have to include writing code. It’s a great opportunity for engineers to discuss problem-solving techniques and share insights on what has worked well and what hasn’t.

Here are some examples of how to make pairing effective, even in situations where interactions can be difficult:

• Frontend pairing with backend: they can discuss the interaction between frontend and backend or ways to improve communication between the roles. Alternatively, they can try to understand each other’s code to gain a brief introduction to another world.
• Principal IC pairing with associate IC: they can talk about the IC career path, share tips on being effective, or discuss language internals to improve technical skills.
• Non-technical manager pairing with IC: they can discuss ways to improve communication with customers, learn more about management work, or help EMs understand IC needs from a cross-team perspective.

Before kicking off a pairing session

A quick tip to make your pairing sessions even more productive: it’s very important to have everything ready before you start. To make the most of your time together, it’s adviced choosing the project and topic beforehand. 😊

Pairing tools 🛠️

As we aim to enhance our pairing experience, we recognize that Google Meet may not be the most suitable tool. Therefore, we encourage everyone to suggest and provide feedback on tools that could better facilitate pair programming. As a starting point, we suggest trying out CoScreen , but we welcome any other recommendations. Thank you for your help in making our pair programming sessions more efficient and enjoyable! ☺️

This is an excellent opportunity for engineers to collaborate with colleagues from different teams, enhance their skills, and learn from each other.

We encourage all engineers to join the initiative and make the most of this opportunity. 🚀

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to improve the project, please do not hesitate to contact the project lead.

Happy pairing 🎉

Icebreakers

Every few days, LunaPark proposes an icebreaker question in #social-cazzeggio , and everyone’s encouraged to answer it.

Some of the icebreakers are fun and interesting, and the ensuing conversations are a great way to get to know each other on a more personal level. Some are… a bit over the top (“When was the last time you struggled to change your mind after learning something new that changed a long held belief you had?”)—when that happens, it’s still a good opportunity to make fun of the bot together.

Of course, if you have an icebreaker of your own, feel free to just post it in the channel and see what happens!

Happy hours

Every Friday at Nebulab, we wrap up the week with a 1-hour Happy Hour extravaganza. It’s not your typical team meeting. Instead, it’s a cocktail of fun and bonding activities that helps us kick back and relax.

From challenging each other in board games, engaging in spontaneous chit-chat, diving deep into round tables about the latest tech topics, to teaming up for intriguing escape rooms—there’s something for everyone.

And while you’re immersing yourself in the activities, feel free to bring a beer, a soda, or your favorite non-alcoholic beverage. After all, it’s all about winding down and relishing the company of your fantastic colleagues!

Activities we run or are considering:

Activity	Status	Links
Luna Park	Ongoing
Drawing Games	Ongoing	https://skribbl.io, https://garticphone.com/
Board Games	Draft
Video Games	Draft
Escape Rooms	Draft
City Guesser	Ongoing	https://cityguesser.eu
Shooter	Ongoing	https://krunker.io
Snake-like	Draft	https://curvefever.pro https://agar.io
Fallguys online	Draft	https://lolbeans.io
Social deduction board game	Draft	https://secret-hitler.online

Luna Park events

At Nebulab, we’ve got a secret weapon for our special occasions: Luna Park . Ditching the conventional, we dive into their treasure trove of interactive games and are often led by fun hosts that bring out the best in all of us.

When we celebrate, it’s not just about marking the calendar. It’s about fostering connections, igniting laughter, and cementing memories that’ll last for a while.

Social and learning calendar

User groups (AI, PM, Shopify), clubs and the other social or learning events live in a shared calendar you can access with your nebulab.com account. Keep an eye on it to know when they happen.

Calendar lists every recurring ritual during the year.