FIVE

Naša Ana Petrovi, voditeljica HR odjela, u razgovoru za Journal.hr podijelila je prikupljene dojmove i osjeaje koji su popratili nedavnu akviziciju agencije, te se dotakla naše kulture i izazova koji su pred nama.

Naši senior dizajneri Rebeka, Anja i Krešo traže pojaanje u timu! Ako želiš raditi na razvoju digitalnih produkata za velike svjetske klijente i sudjelovati na timskim druženjima najveeg dizajn tima u Hrvatskoj, predlažemo da baciš oko na otvorenu poziciju. FYI, osim vraški dobre kave, naša ekipa slaže i bombastine koktele, a dijeljenje znanja je naš modus operandi.

[Humans of FIVE] From gaming, D&D, and board games to CrossFit, skiing, windsurfing, motorcycles, and parachute jumps. You name it, our Java dev Luka has done it (or at least tried to). Luka’s love for trying different things goes hand in hand with his love for action, acquiring new skills, learning new techniques, and pushing his mental boundaries. However, of recent, he had to slow down a bit and hit pause on his motorcycle adventures, among others. Since taking on parental... leave, Luka wholeheartedly embraced his fatherly duties. During this time, and lockdown, he misses playing D&D with his gang, CrossFit, and hitting the road, but he cherishes the time spent with his daughter. When he gets the time, he indulges his geeky side by playing Dark Souls on PlayStation when his daughter is napping. Being a developer is sometimes like playing Dark Souls, Luka says, - it’s hard work, you need to continuously improve and get better but in the end, it provides a sense of accomplishment. See more

U razgovoru s Ivanom Brezakom Brkanom iz Netokracija, naš Viktor se prisjetio projekata koji su prethodili nastanku agencije FIVE, kao i onih koji su uslijedili i održali se do danas, no u nekom drugaijem obliku. Oni koji vole rubriku Jeste li znali htjet e uti kakve veze Pet minuta ima s community nišom i društvenom mrežom koja okuplja ljubitelje konja.

We've kick-started our fifth iOS course at FER! Naturally, we made sure the students are hooked up with all of the equipment they need to develop their very own iOS app from scratch. This semester, our iOS team members will be taking on lecturers' roles and sharing their know-how, so let the games begin!

We’re stepping into the new year in our new attire. Not only have our outfits updated, but so has our reading list!

Dear friends, these are some rough times we are living in. Our love and support go out to the families and individuals hit by the devastating earthquakes in Petrinja, Sisak, and nearby villages. Many people already showed their kindness and solidarity in this time of need, but help is still wanted, and the best we can do is donate - be that with our assistance on the ground or with material goods, every small deed counts! If you are willing to help, you can donate funds through Hrvatski Crveni križ/Croatian Red Cross https://www.hck.hr/n/how-to-help-for-english-speakers/10652 Take care of each other, stay safe, and hopeful for a more peaceful new year!

Hope our little seasonal groove brings you joy and puts you in the right festive mood. Happy holidays from our team at FIVE!

We have a long tradition of decorating our office Christmas tree, and we weren’t planning on skipping it this year because holiday cheer is definitely needed! Another Christmas rite we wanted to continue is FIVE’s Secret Santa (we’re massive gift-givers here). But for us, it’s not about exchanging gifts with each other. It’s about bringing smiles to the faces of those less fortunate. This year we’re stepping into Santa’s shoes to help bring holiday cheer to the kids from Udruga Krijesnica.

For a digital product agency, a team of 35 designers sounds like a lot. However, when you look at all the thinking and design work that goes into each one of our projects, it becomes quite clear why we need so many UX/UI folks on the job! To find out how our continuous design team growth reflects on our business and allows us to keep delivering on the highest level, check out our latest blog post.

We are getting greener, day by day! Since yesterday, we are officially a Cycle Friendly Employer. This recognition is very meaningful to us because cycling is implemented in our culture from the very beginning. We’ve always encouraged our employees to bike to work and made efforts to raise awareness of the benefits of traveling on two wheels, especially during the pandemic, when it’s crucial to maintain a physical distance and avoid public transport and traffic jams as much as possible.

Our second online TBD conference took place yesterday, when our NYC based Product Design and Product Management team members seized the opportunity to talk about something we are very passionate about - Product Discovery. We've been honing this process for years and decided to share a few of our juiciest secrets with our clients. If you want to deep dive and explore how we do Product Discovery, you can read about it on our blog https://bit.ly/product-strategy-2020-pt1

[Humans of FIVE] This is our dear teta Nada! She makes sure that everything in our Zagreb office is at its place, clean and sanitized. A lesser-known fact is that teta Nada has been with FIVE since the very beginning, and she went wherever FIVE went - that means changing location three times in the past 13 years. Before coming to FIVE, she worked in the textile industry for 30 years. It was a completely different time, she says, when everybody feared their boss, never really ...talked to him, which is far from what things are like in FIVE. During the past 13 years, this hardworking lady witnessed the growth of our firm, the comings and goings, fresh faces, and the abundance of young energy, she says. They are all good people who I have a good relationship with, always willing to help out, and are fun to be around (didn’t make her say that, promise). She says she doesn’t mind staying longer hours on Fridays when some of our guys tend to relax and hang out after finishing with work, at least they used to. We asked her recently what changed for her during this pandemic. She said, nothing much, except for, during the lockdown, she used the time to put her sewing skills to good use and produced handmade face mask for all of her neighbors! Such a lovely lady, hope to keep her with us for a long time. See more

FIVE team is growing by the day! Following that general trend, we most recently welcomed our new Director of Product - Kristie Wauthier, to our US team. Over the past ten years, Kristie has worked in a product capacity on the client-side (FreshDirect, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Meredith Corporation), agency side (HUGE, Prolific) as well as taught Product with General Assembly and even took a stab with her own startup (aflutter). She is a keen traveler and has visited 30 US states and 33 countries so far. In fact, she was nomading her way through SE Asia and Central America prior to COVID. She also enjoys staying physically active with running, cycling, yoga, and dance - what a match!

[PROJECT STORIES] These two guys have their hands full most of the time. However, somehow they always get to make jokes along the way. Believe it or not, they are responsible for ensuring that every stage of the Rosetta Stone project goes to plan. Here’s their story! "We’ve been on the product and project management side of Rosetta Stone since their partnership with Five began, with Krešo (on the left) joining the project 4.5 years ago and Boris (on the right) joining two yea...rs ago. Although our work is a bit more behind the scenes and may not look as sexy as what some of our colleagues are doing, we pride ourselves in running a 20+ person international team and continuously working on pleasing our learners as well as our business stakeholders. A large portion of our time is focused on new initiatives and researching improving our learners' experience and surpass business goals. This means that we’re always in a build, measure, learn loop through almost 60 app releases per year, and numerous usability testing sessions. Tools like Amplitude and Optimizely enable us to see how new features and improvements affect our learners' engagement, retention, efficacy, and whether they also positively impact other company goals. Along with defining product initiatives, we work on supporting our team of talented Android and iOS developers, designers, testers, data analysts, customer engagement specialists, and collaborating with other teams in the Rosetta Stone organization. The result of this partnership with the Rosetta Stone is satisfied and engaged learners and a significant increase in revenue since our partnership has started. You can see more details here --> https://five.agency/projects/rosetta-stone/ Before 2020, we also used to travel a lot to the US for various workshops and planning, but we’re going to have to get used to online meetings for now." See more

Our good friend Ivica Kostelic stopped by our office yesterday to share his stories and talk about new challenges as an offshore sailor and competitor from the Route du Rhum to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris to the legendary Vendée Globe. In tandem with Ivica’s open sea challenges, FIVE’s been working with a team of meteorologists and some of the world’s top sailors to develop a software that’ll give him an edge over his competitors. We’ll share more details soon, and until then, we wish Ivica fair winds and calm seas.

[PROJECT STORIES] We've already introduced you to our team members who stand behind the On-demand feature and Live Lessons which are tried and tested by consumers. Now is the time to meet the man in charge of the internal working of the Rosetta Stone app - Marin Maši. "I've been building backend services at Rosetta Stone for the past three years. From the very beginning, I was given complete freedom for decision making from the architectural design to the implementation deta...ils. I have built four different services from ground up during that period. My services are consumed by front end applications (iOS, Android, and Web), but also by backend services in other Rosetta Stone products. The biggest challenge is making services fast and responsive for tens of thousands of users. The technology stack is cutting edge and super interesting. Services are implemented using Node.js, GraphQl, MySql, Redis, etc. We are automating our work as much as possible using continuous integration and continuous deployment using Docker, Kubernetes, and Jenkins. Also, going to the States on quarterly planning and meeting all of the coworkers in person was always lots of fun. Unfortunately, this is currently off due to the pandemic, but hopefully, we'll be able to do the same soon enough." If you want to join Marin and the rest of our Backend team, be sure to check out our careers page https://five.agency/careers/

[WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY] On this day, like any other, we strive to encourage and motivate young women to enter the IT industry by creating equal opportunity and fostering a supportive, inclusive, and inspiring community. Don’t be discouraged thinking the Tech sector is a boys-only playground. Challenge the stereotype, find the role that fits you best, and lead by example, showing there is no skills gap.

[PROJECT STORIES] Did you know that Rosetta Stone recently bolstered its engagement rate by spreading the word about its streaming Live Lessons? Our growth marketing expert with a background in QA Damjan Oreškovi shared his experience in building out this initiative. "Ever since I started working with Rosetta CRM team, I was very hands-on maintaining CRM campaigns for the Live Lessons that were occurring multiple times a day. The early phase of the project proved challenging..., having 2 sessions a week - it took us about 1-2 hours per session to set up, QA and launch the campaign. We realized this would not be feasible once we start supporting multiple sessions. Having in mind that times of the session vary from day to day and multiple teams collaborating, we needed a system that would support all parties involved. In the end, we used Google Sheets as a source of truth for session information. Relying on Google sheets API and Braze webhooks, we set up the campaigns to send notifications before the session start. Also, to avoid possible API limits breach, we used Braze content blocks to display the information within mail. After testing the final automation process (and monitoring it for a week), we were able to tweak the time needed to set up the campaigns for launch to half an hour a week. As always, there is additional room for improvement we are considering (e.g., using Google Calendar to schedule the campaigns). All the future improvements and approaches need to be adequately investigated in order to prove worthy of time spent setting it up. I was really hyped when I started working on this automation flow and incredibly happy when it was finished. I learned a lot about what we could achieve in Braze by simply connecting it with Google sheets, which we all use on a daily basis." Find out more about the Rosetta Stone Live Sessions success story --> http://bit.ly/rosetta-stone-case-study

Six weeks of FIVE Boot Camp have passed by in what feels like a blink of an eye, and our interns are already finishing their summer practice. It was a great ride from the very start, see for yourself - here is a slice of the atmosphere from the first day!

[PROJECT STORIES] Curious about the behind-the-scenes of the best full-featured language-learning software out there? Here are a few notes from a developer’s perspective written by our Android developer Denis Buketa. I’ve been working on the Rosetta Stone project for three years. So far, every new feature was a challenge, and you learn so much when you have an opportunity to work on a lot of them, especially when you meet a lot of cool and smart people on that path. Well, th...e last such challenge was working on the On-Demand feature. To me, the idea behind this feature was great - our users could learn the new language through scenario-based video conversations. This was the perfect opportunity to try out the Exo Player - a cool media player for Android. I was surprised how easy and fun it was working with it. The whole feature is supported by the GraphQL. We decided to go with this approach instead of REST, and it turned out great. We also incorporated small tasks that would pop-up during the video, and the user should try to solve them. It was challenging to make that transition as smooth as possible for our users. This feature opens a lot of doors for further improvements - such as overlay video player feature, casting the video to other devices, etc. That means that we can make learning even more accessible and fun for our users. What more can you ask as a developer? I feel that this feature is a breath of fresh air in the app. It looks cool, and it was fun working on it. See more

We love creating digital products, no doubt about it. However, the road to product success is long and winding. After years of experience working with product teams inside industry-leading businesses and acquired expertise from launching startups, we can say we’ve discovered the formula that brings success to larger companies and startups with limited funding and resources. Our goal is to continue building practices that can help us fight against the odds, maximize returns for our clients, and launch successful products one after the other. If you want to learn more about the iterative process we have developed over the years, here is the full overview written by our Product Strategy Partner Viktor Marohni.