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45, that's how many they're with, the technical profiles at Dropsolid. Most of them are full-on Drupal developers. We'd love to take you for a behind-the-scenes look at our technical teams. I put no less than six of our technical colleagues from different backgrounds on the grill to pulse on their work lives at Dropsolid. Who they are, why they love their job and how they try to make a difference. Meet Niels, Dieter and Portuguese colleague Filipe, three Technical Coaches, Enterprise Architect Frederik and Drupal Developers, Jan from Slovenia and Matthijs.
If you don't know us yet, Dropsolid is a digital agency and a sustainable MarTech partner with one goal in mind at all times: the best digital experiences. Our focus is on complex digital experience platforms with Drupal as the central CMS. That's where our strengths and those of our teams come into their own the most.
Challenging and complex projects for major customers
The projects, that's one of the reasons why developers from all over Europe end up at Dropsolid. Challenging and complex projects for large and often international clients. Just think of Pidpa, Acerta, Tourism Flanders and Soudal. "Not only the nice name of such customers is a nice bonus, for many of our developers it is an added value that they can really get stuck into a project," says Dieter. "You get the chance to offer value to the customer. You also have a lot of contact with them and you get to know them really well. You help to build the appropriate solution and then determine the next steps together with the customer." Niels continues.
Our way of working
The goal within each sprint is actually an interaction between the high-level planning and the immediate needs of our customers and projects.
Niels
Technical Coach
Standups, sprints and retro’s
Every project needs a good follow-up and structure. That is why at Dropsolid we work in an Agile way. The basis remains the same, but each team has the freedom to apply it in its own way. Through daily stand-ups, the members of the teams stay abreast of each other's work, through bi-weekly sprints they ensure together that the open customer tickets are completed with quality and during the retros, they evaluate the projects, their work, and each other." The goal within each sprint is actually an interaction between the high-level planning and the immediate needs of our customers and projects," Niels adds further.
During the monthly guilds, you sit together with your colleagues with the same function to improve your job, to spar about working more efficiently, and to optimize the processes.
Matthijs
Drupal Developer
We're building Dropsolid together
"The nice thing about Dropsolid is that you can contribute to your team, and you really get that opportunity here. You even contribute to Dropsolid as a company. The things you do, the input you give, that just makes Dropsolid better as well," Niels explains. "That's also really the vision of the company, everyone has the chance to contribute," says Dieter. "And you also get a lot of responsibility here. You get the space to figure things out yourself and improve," Matthijs continues. "And it goes really fast at Dropsolid. You can switch quickly, without wasting time with slow and cumbersome procedures." Jan in turn appreciates the flexibility, variety, and diversity: "You're really not coding all day. It's more than that. There are so many different things you can do, so your days never get boring."
From innovation board to our own, open DXP
With our own Dropsolid Experience Cloud we expose the best of our internal innovations to the world. We keep our ears and eyes open to market evolutions and how these impact our clients.
Platform innovations are not a job of an isolated R&D team at Dropsolid. Everyone can pitch new innovations. We have a company-wide innovation process, driven by product owners and technical experts and with regular Innovation Boards. That allows us to set the right priorities, ensure proper follow up and keeps everybody engaged in this proces, from sales to support.
A culture we all carry with us
I think it's important to be challenged in my job. I really want to improve constantly, which is also one of the reasons why I came to work at Dropsolid. People here want to invest in me, the right tools are there and I am encouraged to get better.
Filipe
Technical Coach
Our 6 values
The internal culture at Dropsolid is something we have been working hard on for over 9 years. Everything stands or falls by our 6 core values: Trust, Connect, Help, Challenge, Grow and Enjoy. And we apply that 360° in our company. "The values at Dropsolid are really the core of the company. Grow and Challenge I personally think are the most important. You get the chance to learn and do new things every day. People also tell you what you do well, but also the things that could be better. That way we can all grow and improve," Filipe says. "In addition, I think it's important to be challenged in my job. I really want to constantly improve, which is also one of the reasons why I came to work at Dropsolid. People here want to invest in me, the right tools are there and I am encouraged to get better."
"Our 6 values are truly a great asset. Everyone really carries these with them. That is also why there is such a nice culture at Dropsolid. You can really be yourself here," says Dieter. "That is true, and they also lean very close to my own values, by the way," Niels continues.
It gives you a good view of what's happening in the company. You know where we are financially, where we want to go in the future, what obstacles we have overcome...
Jan
Drupal Developer
We are a blended company and employ a hybrid work structure.
Dieter
Technical Coach
Connecting, something we do together
One of our six core values is to connect. That's why we maintain as flat a structure as possible. We encourage everyone to speak to everyone. And we also try to make each position as approachable as possible. "We are a blended company and employ a hybrid work structure," says Dieter. And that's absolutely right. About 15 of our developers live outside of Belgium. We really encourage people to come to Ghent a few times a year to meet our other colleagues in person. This hybrid structure is extended throughout the company. You have flexible hours and work in the place that is most efficient for you and your team at that moment. Many still come to the office every day, but others prefer to work from home for a few days. For example, Jan, one of our remotes, prefers to work from a coworking space in Slovenia.
Technology, an essential component
Drupal and open source
The fact that we're fans of Drupal, we probably don't need to tell you anymore. At Dropsolid, we love the principle of "makers, not takers." That's why we hold the Drupal community, open source openness, and contributors in such high esteem. Filipe is a member of the board of the Drupal community in Portugal. He plans events and is very involved in his local community and as a matter of fact, he is also hosting a session at DrupalCon Prague this fall.
Contributions to give back
Most of our developers find it very important to give back to the community. And it doesn't stop with our technical profiles. Giving back to the community is really something that lives in our company, especially among our two founders. We do that through sponsorships, speaking at Drupal events like DrupalCon and through effective contributions to Drupal itself. Just think about the contributions of Rocketship and the optimizations to Layout Builder. In addition, we are also trying to make more and more core contributions.
Developers don't have to worry about operations because of our no-ops platform. They are completely unburdened. This way, they can work much faster and are much more productive.
Frederik
Enterprise Architect
More than 45 technical experts
"I think it's a great added value that we work with different technologies like Drupal, Apache SOLR, Vue.js, React, Symfony, PHP, JavaScript... at Dropsolid," says Matthijs. "And there is also a tremendous amount of technical knowledge in the teams," adds Dieter. "Take the fact that Drupal is used both as a CMS and as part of our DXP for a multichannel experience. Together with that enormous amount of technical knowledge, you can offer a really strong service as a company," he explains. "And our no-ops platform is not to be forgotten," says Frederik. "Developers don't have to worry about operations because of this. They are completely unburdened by the platform. That way they can work much faster and they are a lot more productive. Many developers like to focus on writing code, with our platform they can do that perfectly."
