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At Craft, we’ve always strived to strike the right balance between a tool that's empowering and delightful — as we say: “form and function must come hand-in-hand”. In this post we take a look at the process around the latest delightful dimension we've added to Craft — sound design. 

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How we designed sound in a productivity app like Craft

Innovation is at the core of everything we do at Craft. And while our product team is constantly coming up with new and exciting ideas, we think it's important to make space for our teams to think outside of the box. This is especially crucial in the busy day-to-day environment of an ever-growing startup.That's why, to celebrate the opening of Craft's new office in Krausz Palace in Budapest, our Director of Engineering Marin Dimitrov planned a two-day long hackathon where the whole team came together to build innovative new tools with the future of AI and machine learning in mind.<blockquote>We had a few goals in mind when shaping up the hackathon. We wanted the event to be exciting &amp; engaging for all participants — and for team members to build new, cross-functional relationships, that are both inclusive and engaging even for non-engineering teammates, and finally, we wanted it to be a learning opportunity for everyone. — Marin Dimitrov, Director of Engineering at Craft</blockquote><h3 style="margin-left:0px;">Harnessing AI to build the products of the future</h3>At Craft we've always seen the incredible potential of AI technologies, — in fact, we were the first writing tool to introduce an AI assistant. So, it's no surprise that for our first Craftathon, teams were asked to come up with new ways to harness the power of AI and machine learning to solve a problem for our customers or introduce a helpful new feature or workflow.The goal was to give our entire international team an opportunity to come together, think outside the box, and drive creativity and innovation forward in a fun, collaborative environment.Despite the fact that a lot of the Craft team works remotely from all over Europe, the majority of the company was able to participate in the Craftathon and most of us made it to Budapest to hack together in real life.Unlike other hackathons, the Craftathon wasn't exclusive to engineers. A huge number of team members were from other departments across the company and many had never had the chance to participate in a hackathon before. This meant we formed some truly cross-functional teams, which led to lots of exciting and innovative ideas, as each team could bring their unique set of skills and perspectives.<blockquote>I was seriously surprised by the whole vibe around the hackathon. I have been on a few of them before but this one felt different — people weren’t determined to just win and get the money, they wanted to create something interesting and valuable! Everybody was so happy to help each other, which was super heartwarming. – Bartek Legięć, Senior Product Engineer at Craft</blockquote>The Craftathon gave us all a chance to collaborate with colleagues from other departments whom we don't usually work with on a daily basis. It was both an incredible social experience and an opportunity to build new relationships.<blockquote>When you can break free from the constraints of day-to-day work and production-ready solutions, it’s much easier to bring bold ideas to life. — Moritz Rübner, Product Growth Manager at Craft</blockquote>Working in these large, cross-functional groups took a bit of getting used to but the teams were quickly collaborating, delegating, and having fun — so much fun in fact that some teams stayed in the office as late as 10 p.m. Fortunately, the coffee machine in Krausz Palace makes excellent espresso! ☕️<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/6b3a3ea32568009eedfe843f7c6e2609.jpeg" alt="IMG-2240.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/97e0406948b3f62554cd56354219c1e9.jpeg 208w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/4897651165dccfbc75dbcb61f006d339.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/1e44448b1fb51dc745c58bd86d947773.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/71f064f524f0414470eef4eee785ee01.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw"><img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/9a9fc964a17e4f79cb7c65ac3f9a2779.jpeg" alt="2023-10-05 10.04.37.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/de23e674f51387fa438f46f943bbafc4.jpeg 208w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/a19055bded44bf8cc893c0e476cbc310.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/dec4ca22628ddc2a7d2dd50f07a878aa.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/d18a8bb13a2875cd4f481aa18dee1ce6.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">In just two days, the Craftathon teams were able to come up with some spectacular concepts and prototypes — from auto-generated podcasts with updates for busy teams to AI-powered customer onboarding.On day three, it was time to pitch and emotions ran high. The pressure was on as there were three cash prizes for the winners. Technical issues and nerves aside, every team presented their ideas well — so well, in fact, that the deliberations had to take a lot longer than planned.The quality of thinking and innovation on show was phenomenal. Every team built a working feature and even factored in things like handling data efficiently, cost calculations, and user experience. And they still had time to create hilarious or awe-inducing videos.<blockquote>The 2023 Craftathon was the best hackathon I've seen in my career. In terms of engagement — almost 80% of Craft employees participated, and inclusivity — every single function was represented including Engineering, Product, Design, Marketing, Customer Support, and People &amp; Recruitment. And the same goes for the quality of the prototypes, which were solving real customer problems and were covering end-to-end workflows, from data ingestion &amp; backend processing, to integrations with the web or the mobile Craft apps. It was really amazing to see the excitement, buzz, and energy in the office throughout these two and a half days of the Craftathon — now everyone is asking when the next Craftathon will take place. 🚀&nbsp; — Marin Dimitrov, Director of Engineering at Craft</blockquote>Teams pitched to a panel of judges including three of Craft's executives and special guests Piero Sierra, CPO at Skyscanner, Filip Filipov, Founder of Moment, and Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer.&nbsp; The judges were impressed with the variety of ideas and the quality of the prototypes.<blockquote>For all CEOs and CTOs spending weeks pondering how to integrate AI into your product: Host a proper AI hackathon at your company. You will get inspiration and prototypes. The turnout was ~80% of all staff (about 50% of staff are devs: huge number of non-devs also turned up). 100% of teams produced usable stuff!&nbsp; — <a href="https://x.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1710413534729822495?s=20">Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer (via X)</a></blockquote><h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Celebrating our move to Krausz Palace</h2>The hackathon, or in our case Craftathon, took place in a whole new setting for our team as we've recently moved into a new office space. As we continue to make Craft better, our team needs room to grow. It was time to move out of our old office building and into a new, inspiring office space that also prepares us for what lies ahead.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/18ebc5b0d971726e09f855255093620f.jpeg" alt="Image00004.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/6e6baba8783440f82d6d09f080b49ef7.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/041cf51f5bdc49f46717fd6ab9f34fb6.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/4a2aac76a44c7a1fd3ea74b3cd54e2dd.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/4dcbabec5a49df34763e2eec6744c8fb.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Craftathon concluded with the office opening party — the foyer of Krausz Palace was a perfect spot for a celebration — but no party would be complete without four roundtable panels. 😉The discussions were moderated by our CEO and Founder Bálint Orosz, our Director of Engineering Marin Dimitrov, and Head of Product Design, Artom Konovalov. The guests discussed topics around innovation, technology, and the future of AI and machine learning.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/3abe884f776e22be0df326ecd0af544a.jpeg" alt="Image00060.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/e44a701d362d1137d92b92a7aa9e6dd1.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/b39ad4aeba9d75ee48eeda01ab37168f.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/a8d64153cf852af9cb1b9c83e0264e74.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/e738dd4c1510a4fd84584f484336652e.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Our CEO Bálint Orosz welcomes the team.Roberto Bonanzinga and Graham O'Keeffe, two of Craft's investors shared their thoughts about the future of funding for startups and the current VC landscape. And what's even more exciting — we learned what made them invest in Craft in the first place.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/2f68eb24e31e849adc26b0c2c1dd6168.jpeg" alt="Image00063.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/e53ab7cc2bfcde27726b645483ca0fcf.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/fbb472351f1126d7ac31b6b148f1fcea.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/30b207572ddf2ba2f1e9136c2411ceb7.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/52cd2ea14fab99456620ac08f763f054.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Roberto Bonanzinga and Graham O'Keeffe discuss the startup landscape.Marin welcomed Ross McNairn, CPTO at TravelPerk, and Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer, on stage to discuss engineering in startups. The conversation touched on how engineering teams and functions might change and evolve in the next ten years.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/a072065f37d5a1542e47a599f4b31175.jpeg" alt="Image00089.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/d19733dc54eabbd736b38c14689677e5.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/33376b6e9a465f2e228241736eb0554f.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/f9eb5776e61b38ed2d82a1b0f204fedd.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/834df628cdc3c6fbc3fff842db47d075.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Ross McNairn and Gergely Orosz discuss engineering in startups.And finally, Craft's Artom Konovalov chaired a discussion on the blending of growth and product featuring speakers Craft Advisor, Katya Skorobogatova and Skyscanner CPO, Piero Sierra.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/3bb5b042471a7d6b8f94e75e72f0ad1f.jpeg" alt="Image00127.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/801c0eb33c9baeff36b4f3fc843354e9.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/279270cb32ab678dd82789fb06b86da2.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/963b8d19194fab5e6cc101712fb0863f.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/fdaba79f1cb754aed6fca80000059859.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Katya Skorobogatova and Piero Sierra discuss the blending of growth and product.When the discussions concluded, it was time to announce the winners of the Craftathon. Although it was close, the judges felt the winning teams proposed the most useful, innovative, and best-presented concepts. The winning teams got up on stage for a photo op and to receive their giant check.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/7f0ff737cc59c2fabdc782d7964dab42.jpeg" alt="Image00173.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/56d70f4638b1801b6fd8ab55f91efc20.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/570f9b78cdcb208a159509f85f9bde41.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/8872aae4ee8d3e0fd0a625d8dabe22ad.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/1b491580bd71941385992d8775bf0666.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw"><img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/4570b2fab310e407988ed20bd7b2b736.jpeg" alt="Image00170.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/fb3eed6880ba6ce22f236b53257aa256.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/ea15fab06fd6a8df6658a01d81ea9e97.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/ff09950a76cec22d7e6ac02de1035d1e.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/f2ff551a898b333461336b5f8d71788f.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw"><img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/7f903334ed02a7b35cc142ede4ee77ab.jpeg" alt="Image00164.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/ef891b9a902cd1c0abc24baf55a0ca23.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/0f538231ca65e7ea4ed43d1c5aa393e5.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/7b3ebdf1e64ceae76555ac0f8c5eff97.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/cc1a5c4817c8d76a139522348558e5f9.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Cocktails and craft beers were served as the team enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and live music from two members of our own team! Afterward, the party continued upstairs. Even those with an early flight home on Friday took the chance to enjoy each other's company in person and partied into the night.<img src="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/ac872ce01a1e8033f100bedc5e469a32.jpeg" alt="Image00210.jpeg" srcset="https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/3e87247a0349b01272e27e6785c68b35.jpeg 234w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/e831b2189c1e792571e7da5c9550e68c.jpeg 500w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/8043474c525749a07f72a7cbcb821107.jpeg 750w,https://craft.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/a220e4eb81ef727162c69df6062aedc7.jpeg 1000w," sizes="100vw">Daniel Duke, our Head of Content, and Mikey Casalaina, our Engineering Manager, gave a performance together during the celebrations.&nbsp;It was an intense few days but the Craftathon was an unforgettable experience that brought the team together like never before. The spirit of competition got our creative juices flowing and helped us bond in a unique way —&nbsp;so we can all confidently say we are looking forward to doing it all again next year.And with that, we'll leave you with some last thoughts from one of our winners:<blockquote>It was nice to work on a branch that I knew I wouldn't need to merge. — Wojtek Mandrysz, Senior Product Engineer at Craft</blockquote>

At Craft, we celebrate innovation and passion. Last week we held our own hackathon — Craftathon, where teams came up with brilliant ideas on how to harness the power of AI and machine learning. The event embodied the spirit of innovation and collaboration that defines Craft's culture — and we celebrated it all in our new office in Krausz Palace in Budapest.

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Craftathon 2023: Celebrating innovation at Craft  

Let's face it: The way we work has evolved, but our approach to meetings hasn't. The recent shift to remote and hybrid work models offered businesses a chance to rethink how we connect, communicate, and get things done. But lots of orgs are still struggling to adapt how they work, instead falling back on old habits, including an over-reliance on meetings.With huge companies like Shopify purging all meetings from calendars earlier this year, it's clear there's growing awareness of the problem and an appetite for change. Craft recently conducted a comprehensive study, asking 2000 hybrid workers in the US about their meeting schedules as well as how meetings make them feel — and the insights are eye-opening.Here’s a glimpse of what we've discovered and some actionable tips to help you combat meeting fatigue without sacrificing productivity or teamwork.<h2>The stark reality of today's work meetings</h2><ol><li>An overwhelming meeting culture: A significant 59% of workers believe they could spend less time in meetings. An average worker clocks in about four hours of meetings every week, and this jumps even higher for managers. This shows an overarching feeling of inefficiency, suggesting that the actual time spent in meetings might not always translate into productivity.</li><li>The ROI conundrum: A mere 25% of employees consistently feel prepared for meetings. Unsurprisingly, 35% felt their last meetings were unproductive. Unprepared participants lead to meetings that don't provide value, wasting precious time and resources.</li><li>The anxiety trigger: A massive 80% of workers report feeling anxious about attending work meetings. Beyond just productivity, excessive or unproductive meetings can negatively impact the mental well-being of employees, which can have negative effects on your team and your business.</li><li>The call for async communication: About 72% of employees believe that recent meetings could have been replaced with written communications. Employees are recognizing that not every update requires a face-to-face meeting, emphasizing the potential efficiency of asynchronous communication.</li><li>The siloed team phenomenon: Even though 70% of workers understand the value of staying updated on their colleagues' work, almost two-thirds feel it's challenging to do so. This suggests a disconnect between departments or teams, leading to reduced efficiency and collaboration.</li></ol><h2>The async advantage</h2>One key takeaway from our study is the importance of embracing asynchronous (async) communication. This form of communication offers flexibility, creates visibility without overwhelming team members, and can help break down information silos within an organization. But how exactly do you transition from a culture of back-to-back meetings to one that leverages async methods effectively?<ol><li>Embrace asynchronous communication: Implementing written, async communication can empower teams, offer flexibility, boost efficiency, and promote transparency.</li><li>Make cultural shifts: Breaking free from a meeting-first mindset requires a cultural transformation. This means promoting asynchronous communication benefits, fostering intentionality, and seeking employee feedback.</li><li>Tool up: Investing in the right collaboration tools that support asynchronous communication is vital. Choose user-friendly tools, provide training, and establish a feedback loop to ensure ongoing adaptability.</li><li>Reframe meetings: It's not about eliminating meetings completely but making them more intentional and effective. Adopt a combination of async communication and focused meetings to nurture connections and drive innovation.</li><li>Enhance meeting quality: Before scheduling a meeting, evaluate its necessity. Set clear agendas, encourage preparation, collect feedback, and when possible, meet face-to-face to avoid the pitfalls of video conferencing.</li></ol><h2>Your guide to making meetings matter</h2>How can you balance your approach to meetings and async communication? Our report lays out strategies that can help your meetings be more intentional and productive, suggesting a balance between old-school, in-person sessions and modern, digital tooling. Want to dive into the full findings and get actionable recommendations tailored to your team's unique challenges?<h3 style="text-align:center;">➡️ <a href="https://www.craft.do/resources/download/meetings-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Download the full report</a></h3>

Discover the surprising truths about today's work meetings from Craft's comprehensive study on 2000 hybrid workers. And download the full report to learn actionable strategies to combat meeting fatigue and boost productivity with the right balance of async communication and intentional meetings.

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New Craft research finds that meeting-first culture is letting hybrid workers down

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