Welcome to Thinslices!

Our resumé, manifesto, vision, and guide to life at Thinslices.

We're glad you're here.

This handbook is the document that covers all "people things" in Thinslices. It’s rooted in reality but also aspirational.

You'll find this document to be a set of guidelines for life and work at Thinslices, for employees and people who are interested in joining our team. It is rich in context and principles and light in formulas and prescriptions. You'll soon discover that we like autonomy and we treat people as adults. We like clarity, but we don't confuse the clarity with a set of detailed instructions.

If you have some questions you can't find written answers to, don't worry. We trust you to figure some things out on your own, and if you don't, just ask.

If you’re just joining our team, try out these guidelines. Do your best. Use your judgment. Make your own mistakes. Don't wait to be told. The team is here to support you, but don't wait to be pushed.

Our mission

Our mission is to Create Value for our customers through software development. This value comes to life through various elements like ideating a product idea, designing a prototype, creating an MVP, and developing quality software. It’s not a finite list, it can encompass all other tasks that our clients find valuable in the development, enhancement, and maintenance of their products and systems. It’s also reflected in the work of support areas that bring in new business, manage internal operations, and design the people's experience described here.

Our values

Our core values are the guiding principles steering our decisions and actions. They embody our collaborative efforts in delivering value to our customers. These values transcend job titles or duties, influencing our communication style, collaborative efforts, and work approach.

We understand not all of them will appeal to you equally, but to some degree, you should be comfortable with all of them, or you're likely to have a tough time being successful here. They are our norms of behavior. This is how we treat each other, our clients, and our partners.

Engineering mindset

Find the root cause (ask the 5 whys)
Plan before you act
Solve like an engineer

Diligence

Take commitment seriously
Be hard working
Go the extra mile

Openness

Sweep nothing under the rug
Empower by sharing information
Be receptive to feedback and new ideas

Entrepreneurial attitude

Change is the only constant. Embrace it!
Every pain is an opportunity
Be part of the solution

Team player

Care for your team mate
Lend a hand
Win together (lose together)

Being proactive and showing initiative

Clarifying requirements

Demonstrating attention to detail in delivering work items

Identifying opportunities for creating extra value for clients

Learning by doing and constantly seeking to improve

Offering and asking for feedback and feedforward

Celebrating achievements, both big and small

Showcasing trust, respect, and empathy in interactions with others

Being flexible and open to change

Bullying and aggressive communication

Passivity and low involvement

Gossip and using third-hand accounts of events

Dodging responsibilities and not taking ownership

Ghosting colleagues during work activities

Refusing to improve one’s skills

Our structure

Our most relevant "unit" is the project team, and we’ve developed the entire company around this essential component. We are trying to develop high-performance teams to build and deliver world-class technology products to our clients. As such, our structure includes the following:

MVP Teams

Dedicated Teams

Delivery Management Team

Leadership Team

Sales & Marketing Team

Finance & Admin Team

People Team

Instead of organizing team members into departments depending on their job titles, we strive to create high-performance teams based on a unique combination of people attributes reflected in the behaviors we described earlier and the Agile mindset, as follows:

Satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale

Work together daily throughout the project with business people

Convey information to and within a development team through face-to-face conversation

Promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely

Pay continuous attention to technical excellence and good design

Reflect at regular intervals on how to become more effective, then tune and adjust behavior accordingly

Our standards

Our ability to create this value comes from a mix of key forces: Skill, Being Proactive & Staying Involved, Working Efficiently, and Getting Things Right the First Time. By harnessing these elements, we can turn ideas into valuable deliverables for our clients. We repeatedly follow and improve our internal practices to make these forces more fortified - like a cycle.

For instance, our Decision Making practice helps us stay proactive and involved in every project.

Our TDD practice ensures we work efficiently and accurately. We’ve created our own version of TDD, that better reflects our way of delivering.

Through our Skill Development practice, we enhance our technical skills, and our Monthly Performance Review practice helps us understand where we stand, the achievements made, the improvement to follow and the overarching objective of where we want to get in terms of performance

TSDD

TDD is an embodiment of Thinslices’ commitment to deliver value to our customers, rooted in the spirit of rigorous testing and adaptive development. We’ve personalized the classical TDD approach to reflect our way of doing things, which we call Thinslices Driven Development (TSDD). At its core, TSDD is driven by a cycle of understanding, implementation, and reflection.

Understanding through Testing:

Write one, multiple, or all test cases that detail the desired functionalities and outcomes.
These tests act as initial blueprints, establishing clear expectations for the software's behavior.

Implementation through Coding:

Produce the necessary production code to satisfy the predefined tests. This phase is not about just passing the tests but understanding the underlying needs and crafting solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations.
Flexibility is our strength. Depending on the project's nature and complexity, developers can choose to write code for a single test, multiple tests, or all tests. The emphasis is on creating software that resonates with client needs and delivers exceptional value.
We kickstart the journey by refining your concepts, turning your ideas into concrete blueprints that set the stage for success.

Reflection through Refactoring:

With tests as a foundation, we have the freedom to refactor and optimize our code. Refactoring is not just about improving code structure but re-evaluating the solution's essence to ensure its alignment with the client's vision and goals.

In our version of TDD, the tools, frameworks, or specific methodologies we use are secondary to our overarching commitment: crafting software solutions that stand the test of time, deliver remarkable value, and resonate with the ever-evolving needs of our clientele. We aim for TSDD to be the golden thread that ties together our technical expertise, client expectations, and Thinslices' vision, making us the go-to destination for high-quality software services.

Decision making

In any project, success hinges on a multitude of factors, but one aspect stands out as particularly crucial: decision-making (DM). Each team member possesses a unique set of skills, perspectives, and ideas that can significantly influence the outcomes we achieve. We must recognize the value of these proposals, decisions, and subsequent implementation.

Proposals

The very foundation of successful decision-making lies in the proposals put forth by team members. By actively engaging in the project and contributing innovative ideas, you have the power to shape its direction. Proposals bring fresh perspectives to the table, fostering creativity, and enabling us to explore alternative paths. They represent the first step towards realizing the results we envision.

Decision Making

Once proposals have been shared, the decision-making process comes into play. We believe in fostering a collaborative environment where every team member has a voice. However, it is important to note that for proposals impacting the way software is created, including the tech stack, team practices, software architecture, and design, the Software Delivery Lead (SDL) holds the decision-making authority.

Implementation

Decisions alone, however, well-considered, are merely theoretical constructs until they are brought to life through implementation. It is at this stage that we transform our ideas into tangible actions. Every team member's commitment to executing decisions is vital for the project's progress. By taking ownership and fulfilling your designated roles, you contribute to bridging the gap between plans and reality. Through diligent implementation, we pave the way for the results we seek.

Learning through Decisions

Beyond the immediate impact on our project, each decision we make serves as a learning opportunity. It is through decisions and their subsequent outcomes that we gain valuable insights and expand our collective knowledge. Even in cases where decisions may not yield the intended results, we have the chance to analyze, adapt, and grow from these experiences. Learning through decisions enhances our capacity to tackle future challenges and increases our resilience.

Skill Development

This practice is rooted in our belief that when you're empowered and self-directed, you can innovate, deliver high-quality service, and create ultimate value for our customers. Instead of forcing our team members into a one-size-fits-all approach to skill acquisition, we offer them a framework.

The Active Development path for skill development is about applying what you learn in ways that align directly with our mission to Create Value. By taking on a Skill Development Path, you're not just boosting your career; you're also contributing to elevating the collective skill set of Thinslices.

Embarking on a Skill Development Path is more than a solo quest; it's a coordinated effort that integrates with the larger ecosystem of Thinslices, supported by technical area leads and the Delivery Management team.

I love it when I get to have a "no-bullshit" talk: where I get the info I need, I know where we stand and what we have to do, without the unrealistic fluff.

Transparency and not doing something because a lot of other companies are doing it, but because it makes sense for Thinslices. Also, it's a Romanian company which is expanding internationally. I think this is a reason to be proud.

For me, Thinslices is a company that offers the chance to work even to people without experience in the field; that helps you grow and evolve, that appreciates its employees. It is the company with the healthiest thinking, with a constructive attitude.

I feel I belong when I'm asking something uncomfortable.

Autonomy, being able to be myself, having the space to develop and express my own ideas.

Feedback and Feedforward

Feedback & feedforward are our main mechanisms to grow together in Thinslices and to deliver value to our clients. There will never be a better way of improving as an individual or as a team than being radically candid about what we did well, what we did less than well, the outcomes that our actions led to, and what other actions and behaviors we need to cultivate moving forward.

Feedback is information about past performance, while feedforward is information about future performance. Both feedback and feedforward are important for improvement, but they have different purposes.

Feedback

Helps us understand our strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas where we need to improve. It also helps us understand how our behavior affects others.

Feedforward

On the other hand, is about helping us to prepare for future performance. We use it to identify potential challenges and opportunities and to develop strategies for success.

Measuring Performance

We’ve recently piloted a new monthly performance review process in Thinslices. As we roll it out and get user feedback, we iterate and improve with every opportunity.

At its core, the Monthly performance review serves as a compass, helping team members identify any skill gaps, and helping them to define a path to acquiring those skills and delivering value.

After multiple iterations, the path gets more clear and team members are equipped with a documented track record of their results and improvement over time.

Rewarding value

In this ecosystem we’ve described so far, your performance and growth is reflected in the value you created for our clients. Once you feel like you’ve reached a tipping point of creating more value than what you’re extracting, you can trigger a Create value - Extract value (CV-EV) discussion. The old-fashioned evaluation but aligned with our own vision.

A CV-EV discussion is not about presenting numbers or skills, it’s about showing the evolution of your monthly performance reviews and the value you delivered during that time. You share how the skills acquired were not just for you, but to foster a culture of excellence, to create a ripple effect of value creation that aligns seamlessly with the Thinslices philosophy.

The system is designed to bring together the Monthly Performance Review, Skill Development practice, and CV-EV events to show your growth journey at Thinslices.

Our Benefits

We strive to create a working environment where you find like-minded individuals with whom you enjoy working and growing together.

That being said, we love to get together for different types of events - our internal book club, a yearly Teambuilding and Christmas party, random parties, mountain hikes and more. The official list of perks also includes:

Learning events and certifications

Private medical insurance

Extra vacation days

Headspace subscription

Bookster subscription (RO)

Therapy sessions

Using this information

If you’ve reached this point you have a pretty good image of how life & work unfold in Thinslices. It will never be a complete picture without your own experience.

If you’re an existing employee, everything here will be filtered through your own lenses. Share this perspective with us and propose improvements. We’re here to listen.

If you’re someone who is thinking of joining our team, take some time to reflect on this information. Make your own decisions and if you think we’re a good match, get in touch with us. We’re always looking for good people.

Let's talk