Blog
When I emailed Andrew Wilkinson, MetaLab’s founder, for the first time two years ago, it was on a whim: I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was impressed with the beautiful work MetaLab was producing, but I didn’t know much about the company, and they were 3,000 miles away from where I lived in Washington, DC. I didn’t even expect a reply, but as it turned out, a reply was the first of a few surprises: not long after, I joined the company.
Looking back, I’m amazed by how much we’ve done in that short time. I’m singing our own praises, sure, but it’s true: we built a collaboration tool that has changed the way we and a lot of other people work, we created a new digital goods business, and we continued to grow our consulting business. And we did it all with a small team. More than once recently I’ve found myself wondering: what (besides the great people) makes MetaLab such a productive company?
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that we’re not perfect. But I think that’s actually been key to our success: we don’t spend our time trying to be the perfect company. We focus on products instead: we want to make great things that our clients (and the world) can use and enjoy. That might sound facile or even obvious, but I think it’s the reason we’re so productive. It’s why we enjoy sane work hours and autonomy, and it’s what sets us apart.
As you might imagine, we’re constantly examining and improving both what we make and how we make it. As part of that process, we’ve decided to share some of our behind-the-scenes thinking here at MetaLab in a series we’re calling “How We Work.” Over the course of the next few months, we’ll talk about topics like some of the challenges we face as a quickly growing company, the philosophies that guide what we do, and how we manage everything from coding practices to design decisions. With several people contributing from different parts of the company, there should be a pretty diverse range of perspectives and insights, so make sure to stay tuned!
