It’s the most wonderful time of year this week at 352: The Race to 3:52, a week-long sabbatical from client work where we can only work on internal projects that inspire us.
This year, we have 15 project teams each working their own project that must be completely finished by Saturday at 3:52 p.m. when everyone unveils their work. Then, we celebrate (after all, what’s a good race without a victory lap?).
We’re just wrapping up Day 2 of Race Week and figured it just wasn’t fair to keep all of this goodness behind closed doors, so here’s a sneak peek of just some of the projects our teams are working on. Remember to follow @352inc and #raceto352 all this week to see just what we’ve got brewing over here.
1 – Digital Paws
Is there anything better than free knowledge and puppies? Nope. Nothing. Team Puppies is working with the Humane Society of Tampa Bay on a video series that answers all your burning questions about the digital industry while at the same time helping get some much needed pups adopted.
2 – How Real People Use Search Engines
My boyfriend once called it “The Google.” While I cringed and scolded him, he reminded me that he was my target audience. I don’t like to admit this a lot, but he was so right. Team Search Engine is doing research into how real people use search engines. The results are not only fascinating but will help us do our jobs better.
3 – Marinara: Time Management For Teams
The Pomodoro Technique is a life-saving time management technique, but its rigid structure and standardized breaks don’t bode well for some people. We’re building a variation of the Pomodoro Technique called Marinara that allows teams to customize their workflow and break periods to best suit them.
4 – Web Development: Choose Your Own Adventure
Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books you read when you were a kid? We’re taking that same concept and applying it to the web development process and paying homage to some of our favorite childhood video and computer games.
5 – Noodles & Doodles
We love Moz’s Whiteboard Friday. It’s one of the few things we always catch. We put our own spin on SEO’s favorite video series and incorporating overarching web development and digital knowledge.
6 – 352Speakers.com
This may come as something of a shock, but we’ve got a lot to say. The first of a series of 352 spin-off websites under development this week, 352Speakers.com will showcase members of our talented staff who want to share their knowledge as conference speakers and discussion leaders.
7 – The Lead Mobile App
Let’s face it: We all miss Google Reader dearly, but instead of mourning, we started looking for an alternative but focused solely on the top digital marketing knowledge of the day. We couldn’t find one, so naturally, we built it ourselves. You’re welcome.
8 – Dungeons and Developers
As certified geeks, we love role-playing games. And we love web development. Naturally, we wondered what a character talent tree for a web developer might look like. So, we decided to build one.
9 – Hex Invaders
Most developers rely on hexadecimal code throughout their workday, but so few truly know how to decipher what color they represent. Can you? Our new game will separate the men from boys when it comes to these mysterious 6-digit codes.
And that’s just half of what we’re working on! Stay tuned all this week to #raceto352 to see how these projects and more are progressing. See the finished products in Race Week Part 1 and Part 2.
