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Tony the Developer

Before joining Stampede, I found that communicating with my ex-coworkers wasn’t so intense although we were all in the same office. If you weren’t the extroverted type, this sort of environment was pretty normal and I’m sure others could relate to this. When I joined Stampede however, a large shift occurred.

As you might already know, Stampede is a remote agency with team members working from different places across the globe, so one would think that communications would be much less than your standard office.

Boy, was I wrong.

What I learned was that Stampede had a very active style of communication and coordination with the team was very tight. Our daily stand-up ‘Blitz’ meetings is just like warlords preparing for a strategy to stampede the enemy’s line (Wait, maybe this is why this company called Stampede).

BlitzThis is how our Blitz meetings feel like

To be honest, I had some trouble keeping up with the pace at the beginning but soon learned how the herd ran. While minor chatting happens throughout the day, our daily ‘Blitz’ meetings and weekly sharing session, ‘Happy Things’ make up the majority of our tight communication. It took me around two months to get comfortable with this sort of tension. I survived.

Tony the Project Lead

Back in 2016, we lost our project manager. Despite transition and hiring efforts, we just couldn’t find a new project manager with the right fit, let alone remote. Turning a near-disaster into an opportunity, we decided to experiment.

We asked “Instead of having one project manager, can we distribute this role to many people? And instead of managers, can we become leaders?”. Being a project lead means that you have to manage the team associated with the project, and deliver the project to the client on time and make sure everything signs off. You would have to be the bridge which connects the client and the team.

The first project which I got to lead was a brand called Big Film. The client had worked with Stampede before and good relations were already established. This knowledge pressured me. I thought to myself, what if I messed this project up? I would end up disappointing the client and my team. Luckily however, the project scoped wasn’t that large and only had two people on board; me as the developer and Shaza our founder, as the lead designer. It was a weird feeling giving directions to my own boss.

It was a weird feeling giving directions to my own boss.

But everything new is a learning process. What I learned from this setup was to:

Talk to team. As I mentioned before, to lead a project well, you need to deliver the project on time. To do so, I needed to get in contact with the team about each task’s status every day. At first I felt like I was being annoying, but I gradually got used to it and understood that it was my job to do so.

Talk to client. As a project lead you are the bridge that connects the client to the team. This task was a bit daunting to me at the beginning as I had to compose messages to the client to request and update the project’s status. I was worried that tone used in the message was wrong. Luckily, Zana helped me out with this.

What I learned from this

During my transition from a full-time developer to a developer with project leading responsibilities, I realised that the challenges and problems that came with the project could be solved by communicating it with the team. In the past, I would only see it from a developer’s perspective but now that I front the client and also work with more team members, I have a bigger picture of how the project runs.

So now I have modified my workflow. When I sign into work, I will spare 30 minutes of my time to check the status of the projects under me. From there, I will create a to-do list based on my observation from before. I find that my workflow is a lot more organised this way. At least I know what needs to be done.

Check, check and check.

To my fellow developers out there. If you find yourself in charge of a project, know that communication is very important. If you work it out with the team, every problem can be resolved efficiently with no need for double-work. Trust me you will not regret it.

The post From Developer to Project Lead appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

And I am Superman. (I’m sorry, let’s get to the point…)

Honestly, in Payangan we do not have much points of interest if compared to other towns in Bali, let’s say Ubud, which is the neighbouring city of Payangan. We don’t even have fiber optic internet yet, due to lack of demand. In 2010, our population was only estimated to be at 41, 164 people.

However, small towns like ours do have their own strong suits. I mean, with a name like ‘place for the gods’, it’s quite neat for starters.

Place for the gods

The word Payangan came from the word Parahyangan, which means ‘place for the gods’. In the history, there was this guy called Rsi Markandeya, a Hindu priest, who did his pilgrimage all the way from Jawa to Bali. In his journey, he built many holy places (parahyangan) to worship the gods. To honour his journey, the place is called Parahayangan, which soon turned into Payangan probably to make it easier for people to pronounce.

In the past, Payangan was very well known as the source of lychee. We used to have a lot of lychee trees, including those in front of my parents’ house. According to my father, lychees from Payangan were very good and sweet as the seeds were imported directly from China. They were gifts from Chinese immigrants to the King of Payangan. However, it has changed a lot these days – we have not much lychee trees anymore. Which is sad, because, who doesn’t love lychees?

However, you can’t beat the scenery in my city. Payangan has this wonderful scenery of paddy fields – large, green ones. Easy on the eyes. It has become such a big advantage to the tourism industry as some of big hotels located in Payangan are built around the paddy fields to use them as the point interest. Payangan, as you can see, is not as famous as Ubud, so the amount of tourists who flock here (I am not sure if flock is the right word) are not as much and specifically come because they already know of Payangan.

Another thing is due to obscurity of Payangan, these hotels would publish their location as Ubud, instead of Payangan. I am sad and feel this is unfair because one, it is misleading to the tourists and two, because Payangan by itself is a beautiful city with its own places of interest, so we should be able to magnify those.

The weather in Payangan used to be chilly, although not as cold as the temperature in Kintamani. However due to the climate change, after 2010 onwards, Payangan’s temperature could reach 28 C or even more. It feels quite stuffed and humid, like we are in Denpasar now.

Food I grew up with

It wouldn’t be complete to talk about one’s city without mentioning its staple food!

As for me, Balinese rice porridge is my favourite breakfast. There is this stall near my house that sells the most delicious Balinese rice porridge ever, one that I had been frequenting since childhood. What we usually have in the porridge are shredded chicken, roasted coconut, wild ginger, lime and scallions. It is the best comfort food one could have.

What’s special about Balinese rice porridge is that it is placed inside one big piece of banana leaf. There is no need to use a spoon while eating Balinese porridge, as another banana leaf is rolled to form a spoon!

My second favourite is  a snack called Laklak. They are some sort of pancakes made of sticky rice flour, mixed with coconut milk and the extract of suji leaves, smothered with brown sugar. Laklak is best eaten with hot tea during the evening.

Another one of my favourite is called Nasi Jinggo. Often sold in the night market near my place (the night market is called Pasar Senggol Payangan) Nasi Jinggo is made of fist of steamed rice coupled with slices of tempe, shredded chicken, noodles, tasty shredded coconut, and unbeatable spicy sauce (sambal) and all this is covered with banana leaves. Most Balinese waroeng (stalls) sell Nasi Jinggo, but what makes it special is the quality of sambal each stall makes.

The illustration above should be able to explain the ingredients inside every Nasi Jinggo packet.

Remote working life

Remote working in Payangan is not exactly easy if you don’t have your own Internet connection at home. There are no cafes or restaurants that offer wifi connection much, as we are a small town with modest population.

However, if you are up for co-working, the nearest town that can offer that would be Ubud. It is about 10 km, which would take about 20 minutes away from Payangan. There will be loads of cafes and restaurants offering wifi connection, as well as this nice co-working space called Hubud.

It also isn’t easy to buy computer stuff in Payangan. The nearest city that would offer loads of computer stuff with its own mall, perhaps, will be in Denpasar. Hence I prefer to shop my computer gadgets online. It does come with one disadvantage still thought – delivery services like JNE and TIKI do not deliver to my town. They only deliver all the way till Ubud. So what I do is I would let them to drop my delivery at a relatives’ place in Ubud, and I would go pick up from there.

Will you come?

Well, that’s a glimpse about my town, Payangan. Although a lot of things here make you struggle more than living in the big cities, Payangan does have a lot of its own advantages – quiet nights, beautiful scenery, happy, genuine people, so it will not matter where I go I would always take pride in this place for its beauty and calmness.

If you are ever in the area, let me know and I will show you around!

The post A City of Our Own VIII : Payangan appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

Shaiful, Tony and Zana catching some waves.

Going to Kuala Lumpur

I begun my morning with prayers, resisting the urge to get some extra sleep and making some final preparations before leaving my house. Understanding that my flight departs at 10:58 AM, I wanted to get to the airport early. Using GrabCar, I got picked up from my place and arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport at 8:30 AM. All that time in-between meant that I could catch up on my downloaded anime. When it was time, I boarded the airplane and traveled across the sea to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Hanging Out with Shaiful

My flight to KL was on a Saturday and the following flight I would need to take to get to Langkawi was on a Sunday; this meant that I had one day in KL to explore. Shaiful offered me a place to bunk in during my stay at KL (thanks master!). We spent some time at his place talking about Indonesian and Malaysian topics whilst munching down ‘pisang goreng’ (banana fritters) and sipping hot tea prepared by Shaiful’s mother. Later that evening, Shaiful drove us to Aimar Corner to indulge in ‘char kuey teow’ (a noodle dish). That was my first time having it and two plates were finished before I realized it. Once we got back, we did some work on the Langkawi Regatta website.

Initial Thoughts About Langkawi

The following day, we took a flight from KL to Langkawi. I was amazed by how similar the island looked like when compared to the south side of Bali with its numerous cafes, motels, hotels and foreign travelers. I found the vibe very good and started liking this country more!

My Awesome Team

My involvement during the regatta was to update the event website’s timeline on all the action that occurred from morning up to the evening. This also included popular social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The updates came in fast, by the minutes in fact. During midnight, we would prepare the timeline for the following day’s events. Teamwork was key here and without it, things wouldn’t have gone smoothly.

Before we proceed any further, a small introduction to the team:

Dahlia, Zana, Shaiful, Tony and Iwan ready for what’s in store!

1. Iwan. The leader of the team with the most experience about regatta among us. Hence why a lot of people in the club knew him.
2. Shaiful. My master, who gave me his advice regarding all matters on updating the timeline. His role was to update the website.
3. Dahlia. The project manager and designer who helped prepare all the visual assets that were used for the event.
4. Zana. The social media manager, who prepared all the content to be sent via social media.

We were like the Power Rangers!

I had a good time in Langkawi while working in the yacht club and hanging out with Dov and Shaza (thanks for the BBQ). The guys and I spent a lot of time talking on various topics, one of which was an old Indonesian song that both Iwan and Shaiful knew. It was interesting to find out that they knew quite a bit on Indonesian music, at times they knew tracks that I never knew. These talks happened mostly while working as well as in the room where we all crashed for the night.

On the Race Days

During the yacht races I did not really know what was going on, but I think it all went well judging by how fast the yachts were skimming through the seas. Obviously the one that was going the fastest had to be winning.

There was a heavy downpour on Thursday and that could have been the cause of why Friday had such small winds while Saturday had almost nothing. Because of that however, the race had to be cancelled and due to its cancellation, on Day 4, the team with the lead position would be crowned the winner. It was a pity that some teams lost the chance to catch up due to the cancelled race day.

On the 4th day of the race, the yachts sailed very closely to the marina. Iwan mentioned that this was the first time it was happening and it looked beautiful. It was also that day where I got the chance to enter the sea with Shaiful and Zana. Shaiful prepared anti-seasick medicine but we couldn’t drink it because we had to consume it at least 1 hour in advance, something we only noticed 15 minutes before. On the boat, I told myself mentally to just keep looking ahead and not the side or the back to prevent myself from turning over. I didn’t want to become a spectacle if it happened but surprisingly I didn’t feel anything even after reaching the shore.

On the last day, Dahlia had to rest because of food poisoning. It was a pity because there was a lot of food that night. I had a lot of delicious satay which had a different flavor from the ones I was familiar with in Indonesia. The event closed in a fireworks finale and the guests and participants invited themselves onto the dance floor.

Farewell Langkawi

The final day had arrived and it was time for me to return back home. It was a Sunday and my flight was booked at 11.25 AM. Shaza picked me, Shaiful and Zana up from our lodging and we left at 10 AM to go to the airport. Shaza shared with me a myth which mentioned that someone who travels to Langkawi will return back to Langkawi (and she proved it!). As for myself, the next time I’ll go to Malaysia/Langkawi with my own little family.

Thank you everyone at Stampede for having me at this event. See you next year!

The post Royal Langkawi International Regatta 2016 appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.