6 impressions from our new life as a video conference

Times have changed so quickly, haven't they? In any case, business as usual was yesterday for us.

In the current situation, Purple's top priority is and always has been the health and safety of our employees and our community, including our customers, partners and prospects.

Next to health and safety, the success of our customers is most important to us. In these uncertain times, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that you can distribute your magazine or newspaper content digitally to your readers.

Even if your print distribution is temporarily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are committed to ensuring that you continue to reach your readers.

Here are 6 adjustments we've made to help you get through this unprecedented time.

1 Customer Success

We work tirelessly to ensure that you find rapid solutions to your new requirements. And we won't let up, that much we can promise!

To allow more of our team to actively work on customer projects, we began moving resources from Sales at the beginning of March. We are also fortunate that our Customer Success team will be getting reinforcements as of April 1.

Meanwhile, it's actually superfluous to mention: But all our activities and projects continue as usual, of course. We are still well equipped to maintain our productivity in a virtual environment. If you have any questions, our Customer Success staff is of course still available for daily meetings, calls, emails and chat.  

2 Team

At Purple, we are there for each other. That was particularly important in exceptional situations like these. Although we are physically separated, we have moved even closer together as a team in recent weeks. This was the only way we could adapt to the new situation at such short notice.

Here are some impressions from my colleagues working from home:

"The switch to 100% remote has worked almost seamlessly. The meetings and the scrum process also work well via video chat. Despite everything, I miss the spontaneous conversations at the coffee machine. But here we are already trying out different virtual alternatives."
- Arthur Silber, Software Development Lead

"I'm so glad we have a garden and my kids can play outside. I also look at the clock less often. We can even have a spontaneous barbecue at lunchtime and then go back to work. But I spend most of my time right now next to the toaster in the eat-in kitchen, organizing job interviews."
- Gergana Schumacher, Management Assistant

"I find working from home refreshingly different. I especially like the excellent coffee and the full refrigerator. I also enjoy working on the balcony in the sun. My only challenge is to find a suitable structure and stick to it in a disciplined way."
- Tobias Vecker, Business Development Manager

"For me, not that much has changed. I often do home office in my normal working day and have two screens and a comfortable desk chair for that. But I have to admit that I get more distracted at home compared to the office. However, I compensate for that pretty well by working longer hours."
- Duc Anh Pham, Web Developer

"The fact that I no longer have to travel to work means that I now have more time to practice the piano and do sports, which is a good side effect. Nevertheless, I really miss having varied lunch breaks with my colleagues. I'm also starting to run out of ideas for lunch."
- Esra Celebi, Head of Marketing

3 Communication

Communication has been a huge issue for us in the current situation. "It's better to call or chat too much than too little" is our motto in the home office - whether with our customers, employees or partners.

Incidentally, our favorite collaboration tool at Purple has long been Microsoft Teams. Recently, there has also been a company-wide guideline that all meetings should be conducted via video. On the one hand, this allows us to maintain effective communication (non-verbal communication) and on the other hand, it brings us much closer to a face-to-face meeting.

Another anchor that helps us a lot is our meeting structure. Daily stand-ups and team meetings, as well as our weekly 1:1 conversations, continue to provide focus and team spirit. It is of great importance for us to maintain this habit in the home office as well. To prevent isolation, our other meeting rituals such as Virtual Kitchen Talks, Blind Lunch Dates and the monthly All Hands Breakfast continue to take place as video conferences.

4 Virtual exchange

We have given a lot of thought to how we can best help you during this difficult time. How do we strike the right note? Where is the best place to meet you now that almost all face-to-face meetings and events have been postponed?

We have come to the conclusion that it is particularly helpful in these times to exchange ideas with others and learn from each other. At Purple, for example, we are thinking of more live webinars with Q&A and, above all, more personal videos from our CEO Stephan Heck, in which he shares his personal perspective or tries to help.  

5 Health and hygiene

At Purple, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be able to work entirely from home.

Of course, we have adapted all our business and private hygiene and safety standards to the government's recommendations. In addition, we are trying to protect ourselves and our fellow human beings with some further regulations.

Strict restriction of our physical social contacts, home office and staying at home, regular extensive hand washing and maintaining the minimum distance of 1.5 meters are indispensable for us.

6 Gratitude

Our corporate philosophy is to deal with this situation with empathy, creativity and speed.

I'm speaking mainly for myself now, but I also know that some of my colleagues feel the same way: Because despite the current exceptional situation, I also feel something like gratitude.

I'm thankful for all the people in so-called system-relevant professions who literally keep things running.

And grateful that we work in an industry that is comparatively less severely affected.  

Conclusion

We hope this information is helpful in understanding how we at Purple have responded to the current crisis.

Most importantly, we are keen to ensure that you, as part of our community, can continue to respond quickly to any further change in circumstances.

If you have any questions or concerns, simply get in touch with our support team. You can reach us by email or phone on 030 2362 5895 65.

We look forward to experiencing better days together again. Stay healthy!

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