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In the past couple of months, I’ve had a number of thoughts around the growth Buffer has experienced in the last year and some interesting challenges and paradoxes that seems to be bringing us. I’ve had a number of conversations with people in the team on this and I recently shared a version of what follows with the whole company to get their thoughts. It resonated with almost everyone, and as a result we’ve started to put in place some changes based on these realizations. I’d love to share it
Accessibility isn’t a topic that just affects some of us. As no less of an innovator than Google puts it , “the accessibility problems of today are the mainstream breakthroughs of tomorrow.” We at Buffer are delighted to have Neil Milliken (@neilmilliken ), Debra Ruh (@debraruh ), Antonio Santos (@akwyz ) of AXSChat
(Editor’s Note: Hi there! We’re experimenting with sharing the transcripts of our new podcast, Buffer CultureLab , on the Open blog. Would love to hear how this feels for you!) This is Buffer CultureLab, a podcast by Buffer – where we’re slightly obsessed with creating happier more human work. Here are your hosts, Courtney Seiter and Carolyn Kopprasch. Carolyn Kopprasch: Welcome to the show, this is episode 4. Courtney Seiter: Woohoo! Courtn
A few weeks ago, one of my students posted this in my Facebook mastermind group (emphasis mine): Let me start by saying that I applaud this woman for having the courage to step up, share her story, and ask for help so she can overcome this and move forward again. It’s actually pretty damn hard to admit when you’re not in a good place professionally and to then ask for help. I wrote an initial response with my thoughts (below) but I wound up thinking more and more about this topic and it got m
Whenever I’m working on a new challenge and keep getting stuck, there’s one post that I seem to return to again and again. It’s by our CEO, Joel, and it’s called “I Have No Idea What I Am Doing.” We’ve likely uttered that exact sentence 30 times over the course of the last month as we worked to figure out the ins and outs of launching our new podcast today. Despite talking a lot about podcasts at Buffer—sharing the podcasts we love [https://buffer.com/resources/p
At Buffer, our journey has been full of experiments, pivot points, reflection and transitions, and it is our privilege to share them all with you here. Today, we’re excited to update you on a few changes here on the Open blog! For a while now, Courtney has been the incredible shepherd and heart of the Open blog, reporting on the lessons we’re learning at Buffer and sharing insights on happier, more productive, more creative work from all kinds of smart folks
Having a remote job has been a life-changing experience for me. I worked in traditional offices for a few years before I decided to start working remotely . Working from anywhere frees you from commuting; it also requires you to be organized and productive, everyday. There are so many benefits of remote work — it’s hard to name them all. I feel fortunate to have been given the chance to work from where I’m hap
Around 8 weeks after giving birth, I began to panic. It was a rough time for us — our little one wasn’t too keen on sleeping at night and endured colic that left him crying for hours at a time. With my return-to-work date only two weeks away, I wondered how it would even be possible — especially because we hoped for me to continue as the baby’s primary caregiver while working full-time. Doubts crept into my mind: * Would I even be capable in my new role? * The team had functioned so well w
Buffer is now the largest team I’ve ever worked with. This time last year there were 29 people on the team. Today there are more than 80. Hyper-growth mode is both exciting and scary because it means a new chapter and challenges. One thing that’s been on my mind is how can we keep our startup mindset as we keep growing. I have been seeking advice from a few people I look up to, and last September I chatted with Greg
It’s nearly inevitable: Humans tend to associate with those who are similar to us—whether politically, economically, racially or otherwise. This phenomenon, called clustering, is so prevalent that white Americans have 91 times as many white friends as black friends, according to research from the Public Religion Research Institute reported in the Washington Post: And not only are we more likely to have friends who are similar to us, but many popular social networks employ algorithms that “rewa
Recently I learned something new about the history of photography that illuminates a lot about the relationship of technology and diversity. In the 1950s, Kodak sold almost all the color film used in the U.S. To make sure the colors of their prints were calibrated correctly, Kodak had to set a standard that any studio that processed film could match against. So they came up with the Shirley card [http://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s-shirley-cards-set-photography-s-skin-t
When I started working at Buffer, there was a phrase I heard often when discussing projects and ideas: “Let me reflect on that.” It’s a sentiment I had rarely heard at the previous tech companies I worked for, and it surprised me. While moving fast and making quick decisions can be a very valuable approach, I have learned from Buffer that it’s also great to make the space to pause and reflect. At the 1-year anniversary of Buffer’s image-creation tool P
💡August 2023 Update: We have a brand new Transparent Product Roadmap and it's even better. You can upvote your favorite ideas and suggest features we should build. Take a look → Buffer is known for being transparent in radical ways. We share the diversity of our team. We share our cultural evolutions and learnings. We share our salaries. We keep sharing because we keep learning so much along the way! So many of you participate in discussions and help us shape the Buffer path. And we’re inspir
For a long time, almost as long as I’ve been a member of the exclusive “Women in Tech” club, I’ve avoided talking about diversity. I modeled myself after Marissa Mayer, who when asked what it was like being the only female engineer at Google (back in the day) said, “I didn’t notice.” I completely believe this. It’s often very useful not to notice. Perhaps her blindness came naturally. For me, I trained myself not to notice being the only woman in the Slack channel because noticing hurt me. It
They call us “The Sandwich Generation” —the group of workforce-aged adults who are not only caring for their aging parents, but also balancing the needs of their own children. It might be hard to understand the term until you experience it firsthand. When my father-in-law had an unexpectedly difficult time recuperating from surgery last summer, I was stunned at just how upside-down it turned our lives. If you’ve been through the prolonged hospitalization (or any other intense, sustained medic
Buffer got two incredible notes in our inbox over the weekend: “Hi Buffer/Pablo! I love using Pablo . I hopped on to make some graphics for International Women’s Day for my business and couldn’t find any good graphics. Please can you change this. When I typed in women and girls I got women whispering to each other, girls holding hands, and a woman in cutoff shorts fueling a gas tank. Please upload some inspiring images ahead of international women’s day. Thanks!”
Check out our new podcast! Hey there, podcast fans! We recently launched a new podcast of our very own, Buffer CultureLab! We’d love for you to check it out and share any thoughts, feedback or ideas with us! You can listen on iTunes here or Google Play here. :) OK, now back to the post! We’ve talked a lot about podcasts at Buffer. We’ve shared some top marketing podcasts. We’ve talked about podcasting tools. We’ve even provided a blueprint for starting your own podcast. But one thing we have
I often read quotes, blogs and books by some of the great minds of startups , and realize that I don’t fully take on board what they mean until some time later. A while back, I reached a point where I felt like I understood the following Basecamp quote: “Great businesses have a point of view, not just
Hi there! This is an older post that we’ve kept around for transparency but that means that sometimes the information is no longer accurate. Head to our homepage to view our most recent posts. I truly believe our value of transparency makes Buffer a better company than we might be otherwise. There wasn’t one specific reason why we began to share so openly about nearly everything we do, like: * Salaries of all team members * Revenues of Buffer’s combined paid plans, consisting of the Awesome
On a recent flight to Hawaii, I tried a little experiment and did an “AMA in the Sky.” On a flight (sitting in a chair in the sky with wifi!) ✈️? Got a little time, ask me about @buffer / startups / anything and I’ll reply! — Joel Gascoigne (@joelgascoigne) February 20, 2016 It was incredibly fun and kept me busy for about 2.5 hours, nicely passing some of the flight time. I think I ended up answering
“Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.” – Bruce Lee I’ve felt lucky to learn so much from being an avid reader in the past few years. I’ve come to believe that there is such immense power and knowledge contained within books. As a natural introvert, I’m a reflective person and love to read books and think about what we could try to apply at Buffer. In fact, we’re such believers in the power of reading at Buffer that all new team members (and family members
As a psychotherapist in the mental health and counseling industry and the partner of a Buffer team member , I jumped at the chance to attend Buffer’s recent retreat in Hawaii . I was curious to learn more about the world that my partner is so passionate about—this particular job has affected him so profoundly. And as my own industry is built on ideas of empathy, relationships, and human interaction, I hoped to ge
“Everyone sits in the prison of his own ideas; he must burst it open.” — Albert Einstein Einstein was right about a lot of things, but in my mind this sentiment is one of his finest discoveries (OK, the general theory of relativity is pretty good, too). Creating—building something from nothing and sharing it with the world—requires a lot of bravery. In the end, it can feel a bit like breaking yourself free. I’ve chronicled both my own idea prison [https://buffer.com/resources/6-ways-brain-stops-m
How many people know your salary? Your boss, of course. Your partner, perhaps. Maybe a few friends you can trust. What if everyone knew it? And not just everyone at your company; everyone like everyone—Internet commenters. Friends of friends. People you’ve never met. This is the experience of every team member at Buffer, where we’ve been sharing our salaries with the world since 2013. And we’re not alone in breaking the salary taboo: * The startup SumAll shares employee salaries within the