How We Roll: Introduction

Say hello to the InsightSquared dev blog! This is where we, the dev team, will give you a peek behind our curtain. We’ll discuss some of the technical things we’ve learned, how we keep the fun flowing, and generally how we get sh*t done.  We’ll also digress into completely random topics. Why? Because that’s who we are.

Welcome to InsightSquared!  It’s your first day.  Where are you going to sit?  Looks like there are 3 options:

1st Floor, South

  • Pros: Ken’s Lounge, proximity to arcade machine.
  • Cons: mood lighting.

1st Floor, North

  • Pros: first to get your daily free lunch.
  • Cons: 20% chance of scattered ping pong balls.

2nd Floor

  • Pros: great natural light, proximity to espresso machine.
  • Cons: upbeat sales people. Just kidding, that’s not a con.

Regardless of where you start, you’ll eventually get to enjoy each neighborhood of the office – we rotate teams and desks quarterly to keep things fresh.

At your new desk, you will find your standard issue dual display setup – dual 24″ LCDs on a flexible mount with 360 degrees range of motion.  Take a seat in your Herman Miller Aeron chair, saddle up to the computer of your choice (Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, CentOS, Atari, Amiga – as long as you can ssh into your dedicated dev box, we don’t care), and get ready to make your first commit.  All engineers commit code on their first day – it’s a core tenet of our culture.

But actually, wait a sec – before you dive in, let’s order your lunch.  Free lunch is delivered via Foodler from a different place each day – you have a $12 limit, enough to get a very filling meal (or some sushi).   If you’d like to join the lunch-picking rotation, just add yourself to ISLunch – it’s in the is_engine repo.


Wow, the day has flown by!  You’ve finished two stories, your pull requests were peer-reviewed and merged, and now it’s time to kick back.  Pull up a stool next to ISKeg and pour yourself a craft brew, or grab a seat in front of our huge TVs for some intense Call of Duty.  Tomorrow we’ll wrap up the current sprint and hold a science fair to demonstrate the new hotness we’ve built.  We hope you’ve enjoyed day[0] – it only gets better from here.