Seasons
The product we’re making helps people experience time differently. We don’t think we can build this experience effectively until we too are off autopilot and live more in sync with natural rhythms. That’s why instead of talking about quarters and fiscal years we synchronize our team and production schedules with seasons.
We roadmap our product based on seasons.
We re-tune our small groups every two seasons.
We gather as a whole team on the equinoxes (September and March) and solstices (June and December).
When we gather in person, we share light-touch opening and closing rituals to remind us when we are.
We remember what season we’re in, and try to ground our work in each season’s unique attributes.
Seasons & Natural Cycles Provocations
| Winter | Spring | Summer | Fall | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Themes | Going inward | |||
| Stillness | ||||
| Dormancy | ||||
| Darkness | ||||
| Endings | ||||
| Reflection | ||||
| Recharging | ||||
| New starts | Awakening from slumber | |||
| Fertility | ||||
| Frolicking | ||||
| New/rapid growth | ||||
| Positivity | ||||
| Potential | ||||
| Innocence | Abundance | |||
| Ripening | ||||
| Leisure | ||||
| Warmth | ||||
| Vitality | ||||
| Freedom | ||||
| Play | ||||
| Fulfillment | Harvest time | |||
| Transitions | ||||
| Starting new things | ||||
| Abundance | ||||
| Nature | ||||
| Thanksgiving | ||||
| Color | ||||
| Letting go | ||||
| Archetypes | Death | |||
| Hermit | ||||
| Pentacles | ||||
| The Crone/Wise Old Man | Maiden | |||
| The Fool | ||||
| Eros | ||||
| Persephone's return | Mother | |||
| The Empress | ||||
| The Sun | ||||
| Dionysus/Bacchus | ||||
| Cups | Elder | |||
| Sage | ||||
| Death | ||||
| Swords | ||||
| Associations and metaphors | Energy conservation | |||
| Nest and cocoon | ||||
| Coldness | ||||
| Prepare for future | ||||
| Growth | ||||
| Take stock | Mating/making babies | |||
| Spring cleaning | ||||
| Cleaning house | ||||
| Opening up windows | ||||
| Green things | ||||
| Animal babies being born | ||||
| Planting seeds | ||||
| Hope/optimism | Fruit | |||
| Full blooms | ||||
| Long days | ||||
| Sunlight | ||||
| Relaxation | ||||
| Being outdoors | ||||
| Vacation | Buttoning up the house | |||
| Nesting | ||||
| Planning and preparing | ||||
| Rewards of hard work | ||||
| Gathering resources | ||||
| Changing foliage | ||||
| Leaves dropping | ||||
| Transition times | ||||
| Sweatah weatha | ||||
| Implications West cycles | Planning beyond | |||
| Attending to sacred nos | ||||
| Noticing what's not | ||||
| Working | ||||
| Adapting to harsh | ||||
| Environments | ||||
| Buttoning up systems | ||||
| Reflection | Implementing becoming | |||
| Refreshing stale practices | ||||
| Bringing in new people | ||||
| Letting loose | ||||
| Driving forward | ||||
| Fostering creativity | Accelerating being | |||
| Being outside | ||||
| Playing and fun | ||||
| Attending to family | ||||
| Promoting wellness | ||||
| Taking a break | ||||
| Asynchronicity | Taking stock belonging | |||
| Bringing in elders | ||||
| R&D focus: learning time | ||||
| Re-alignment | ||||
| Discipline | ||||
| Recommitment |