Tech’ing up the office Waza Wrap Up
At 4pm on Thursday a chant of WAZA WAZA WAZA, could be heard as I rallied the teams to start.
With this Waza (see Ideas, and Team Forming for the lead up) over I can once again say that I am amazed at what the team can achieve, and so proud of the spirit and ingenuity of EndGamers. So proud that this post may have more ! than really necessary.
Each of the teams ended up with a functioning product created in under 24 hours, because they very sensibly went to bed!
At 4pm on Thursday a chant of WAZA WAZA WAZA, could be heard as I rallied the teams to start.
By 6:30 the pizza had been eaten and some beverages consumed, and the products were even then starting to take shape!
As a reminder the teams were:
- A Deploy Button — A button to deploy your code.
- ChurBrew — A system to alert you to an empty coffee pot.
- Hush Panels (formerly Schrodinger Box) — A series of panels to create quiet spaces in the office.
- Emoji jukebox — a Jukebox controlled by emoji.
- Everything in its place — a system to track where everything is
- New office router — just that.
- Mata Rorohiko Whakaako — A Nod screen that teaches you te reo
Starting again in the morning it turned out we had a heavy day of eating ahead of us. One of our team was leaving so we put on a large amount of donuts from Sixes and Sevens, followed closely afterwards by lunch from Winner Winner.
To round out lunch (and because I had promised a competition) we had a team game of scissors paper rock. Winner took the coveted flamingo hat.
Between the gluttony the teams beavered on. Soldering, coding, using heavy woodworking tools, as shown by this montage of photos.
Finally 4pm rolled round and the teams began to pitch.
The idea of pitching at the end of Waza is an important one, we want everyone to have the opportunity to share the the hard work they have put in with the rest of the team. Also it is an important skill to learn how to demo a product that may not do exactly as you expect.
Words don’t really describe these 5ish minute wonders, so we videoed them so you too can watch.
First up was Everything in its Place, they had managed to create a fully functioning inventory system, with label printer. As you can see from the video you can even reassign your books to the fridge!
Next, Chur Brew showed off a IOT scale that alerts you via slack (and an annoying alarm) when the coffee pot has to little coffee in it. This project was “Martin Approved”
Quickly followed by A new Router which is really what it says on the box. An interesting fact on this team is that they made an unboxing video, opening the wrong box.
Hush Pannels — 2 panels of upcycled genius. They are now a permanent fixture of the office being used to silence unwanted coffee grinding noises, and sheilding teams from interruptions.
Deploy Button — deploying with the push of a button with a beautifully crafted box, with so many features. One being a bug meter switch. As featured in a Friday night deploy near you.
Mata Rorohiko Whakaako was next up showing off some impressive Nod assets that will help us all at EndGame practice our te reo maori.
Lastly we kicked off the party with Emoji Jukebox, a slack enabled jukebox that only responds to emoji.
Every year I implore the team not to make me choose between the projects to find a winner. I tried my best “you don’t choose between your children” defence, but they were having none of it, insisting on a cheer based system of deciding, which lead to this final piece of sillyness.
And the winner is — Emoji Jukebox
This had nothing to do with the fact they controlled the sound ;)
If you have made it this far hopefully you have got a good feel for what it is like to do a Waza at EndGame. Some hard work and a lot of fun. Once it was all over it was back home for a good nap.
If this looks like your kind of fun then get in contact with me @ andrew.cox@end-game.com.
