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Release Parties

This is an idea where all the team members required to implement a defined feature gather together to complete and launch that feature during a live stream. To make it more interesting and to involve our community, we stream it live during an event we call a Release Party. It’s a testament and spotlight on how well we work together as a fully remote, international team and a way to celebrate with our community.

It’s a good way to leak the culture of balena and expose the way we work, the way we interact with each other and the processes we use to develop things that would otherwise be hidden behind closed doors. This has been a useful resource for prospective applicants and an inspiration to encourage people to apply to our open positions.

It allows the group to share in the process involved in completing the task and identify any pain points to address later.

Check out our Release Party videos here and read our blog posts about how we do it here.

Running a release party​

An idea​

Cross-discipline tasks that require a lot of coordination are great candidates for a release party as everyone knows to gather in the same place at the same time and focus on the task at hand. OK to fail - it doesn’t matter if it’s not finished in time.

Create a defined spec​

Create shared understanding of who is working on what Aiming for 4-6 hours total. Leave time to launch and celebrate the achievement, don’t keep going for 11+hours and burn out on it. Again it doesn’t matter if it’s not finished - optimize for fun and celebration, don’t burn out on it! If there are any pieces of the project that require intense focus work, prepare these beforehand and use the party to coordinate bringing the pieces together.

Coordination​

Make sure tasks can happen in parallel

MC/stream leader is not necessarily project leader. Consider who will run the stream as this isn’t always the same person coordinating the release party - it’s a role in itself and isn’t generally compatible with carrying out other tasks. If you’re always needed to talk about the project and provide guidance, you’ll have very little time to do focussed work.

A path to completion​

Figure out the core pieces and milestones of the release party so everyone can share in the anticipation of the launch at the end. Create a shared understanding of what will happen on stream and what can happen in advance beforehand.

Preparing to stream​

Graphics. Give the viewers context. Progress information overlays on-stream so anyone joining can see immediately what progress has been made, have milestones ready to check off and celebrate as you go.

Ask for help from labs to post and promote the event on social media if needed. Set up the stream using Streamyard (again labs can help) and make sure everyone who’s appearing on-stream has the link to be able to join.

During the stream​

  • Let the team know you’re going live and encourage them to participate in chat or on-stream
  • Keep note of chapters (so we can annotate the video later)
  • Keep note of bugs
  • Keep note of process improvements
  • Keep updating the viewers and people watching with what’s going on - encourage participation and answer questions; the point is to be open and inclusive and not just broadcast a private party
  • Take breaks!! You need to drink and eat!

Alternative format ideas (under development)​

  • A group review to create and fix a hit list of items