Dropsuite is a global software platform that enables SMEs in over 100 countries easily backup, recover and protect their digital assets. What’s the secret to Dropsuite’s success so far? One of the main reasons for our rapid growth and credibility within the business backup sector can be attributed to the “engineering-first” culture we’ve fostered within our organization.

1. Dropsuite’s
Engineering-First
Culture

2. 1. We Hire Quality People (aka the Best Engineers)
2. We Have A High Engineering Staff Ratio
3. We Apply Engineer Thinking To Problem Solving
4. We Value Collaboration Over Cutthroat Behavior
5. We Code In A Desirable Workspace
6. We Cultivate & Encourage A Rapid-Response Mindset
7. We Strive For Creativity & Balance
8. We Foster An Open-Learning Environment
9. We Admit Our Mistakes
10.Fast Time-to-Market Is A Core Business Differentiator
10 Ways Dropsuite Aspires to Be
An Engineering First Company

4. Obviously, hiring is the most important process we follow to ensure that the best
and brightest software engineers are writing code for Dropsuite. We love
engineers who are self-motivated and have a willingness to explore, learn and
experiment. But being self-motivated and curious is not enough. We look for
engineers who are team players as well. Creating a solid product isn’t always
led by a single coder. More often, it takes a small team of motivated coders to
put together a winning solution. Being able to communicate and assist our
weakest links is crucial — and people either have that type of compassionate
personality or they don’t. To find such software engineers, we have incorporated
unique ways to analyze prospective hires to better understand their personality
type. We also hire engineers based on recommendations from existing staff, as
well as from referrals from external sources we trust.
We Hire Quality People
(aka the Best Engineers)

5. What better way to prove that we actually are an engineering-first company than
to look at the type of people who are on our payroll. For the first two years of our
existence, the ratio of engineers to non-engineering staff at Dropsuite was about
1 out of very 2. We’re about 1 out of 4 currently, as we have added business
support staff in marketing, sales and service. The reason were are able to keep
our non-engineer staff count low, such as in customer support, is directly
proportionate to the quality of our coding. By hiring exceptional engineers who
write exceptional code, we’ve been able to limit the support team required to run
our business because our code works beautifully. This allows us to scale without
having to play whack-a-mole to a host of bug fixes. In our case, engineering-first
has resulted in support less. We kinda like it this way.
Have A High Engineering Staff Ratio

6. Scale requires us to look at the world a bit differently — and the way software
engineers problem solve is by making decisions based on logic. Be it writing
code for a new program or adding a new feature in the existing solution — or
imagining where the future of cloud backup will take us — we enjoy taking a
methodical approach to problem-solving. We thoroughly gather and analyze all
requirement to better understand and architect to most efficient solution
possible. We try our best to ensure that our software engineers are not
overloaded with too much work by assigning the work in a distributed team.
We Apply Engineer Thinking
To Problem Solving

7. Political infighting and blame games are common amongst employees working
in many organizations. In such companies, employees are looking to stand out
to management and will do almost anything to make themselves look better
than their peers. But, this type of cutthroat working environment can destroy
trust and take the air out of an honorable, high-growth firm. In such a dismissive
culture, engineers might concentrate more on hitting their numbers rather than
writing exceptional code. Or completing their deadlines at the expense of their
peers who may need coaching or a bit of a helping hand. At Dropsuite, we value
personal integrity and positive work ethic. We believe that successful
collaboration ultimately can change Dropsuite’s core business strategy and
social purpose of our business enterprise.
We Value Collaboration
Over Cutthroat Behavior

9. Our experience has taught us that software engineers tend to prefer working in
a quiet workplace with limited sunlight, which is highly-conducive for work — a
place that doesn’t feel like your average office cubicle setup with unpleasant
fluorescent lighting and cookie-cutter surroundings. Instead, Dropsuite
engineers work out of our corporate headquarters at Block 71@ One-North,
Singapore, which is often referred to as Silicon Valley, Singapore — a young,
hip, high-energy location packed full of startups. We provide fresh fruit, free
snacks and expresso coffee in our office kitchen. And if your taste buds crave
something more hearty, Timbre+, the first shipping container & food truck style
food place In Singapore, is located next to our office. The MRT subway station
is one block away and there are ample bus and taxis available to shuttle staff
back and forth from home to work and back. The end result? Dropsuite provides
an ideal environment for our team members to create the best quality code that
our clients expect and admire.
We Code In A Desirable Workspace

10. Dropsuite engineers tend to be very sensitive individuals. They hate bugs and
errors and prefer to fix these issues quickly before they fester and get out of
hand. Whether the problem is related to their own PCs, software they are
coding, or a partner integration, rapidresponses to any issue that might pop up
is a highly desirable outcome. Dropsuite’s work environment encourages and
rewards engineers to resolve issues as quickly as possible, as long as quality is
never sacrificed. This positive mindset is emulated by other Dropsuite
departments as well, including HR, Finance, Customer Support, Marketing,
Sales and User Testing. Whenever issues arise that are not quick-fixes, we will
draft select engineering staff into company solve sessions. We will also work
with external experts if needed, and then share the learnings with our team.
Dropsuite is a company that believes involving our engineers in solving the
problems of the day is the right thing to do. And by doing so, our employees feel
more satisfied and respected, which results in greater company loyalty and less
staff churn.
We Cultivate & Encourage
A Rapid-Response Mindset

11. Let’s face it. Getting engineers to do things they don’t want to do is like herding
cats. It’s not going to happen unless there is an incentive to do so. The
employment contract we have with each employee ensures that 80% of the core
tasks of any job get accomplished. That leaves about 20% of our engineering
time that can be devoted to things that engineers really get excited about — like
creating products or services primarily for the sake of radical innovation.
Dropsuite invites and encourages our engineering staff to share their ideas and
unleash they collective imaginations. Whenever possible, we incorporate the
best of our team’s ideas into our technology stack, or we allow select skunk
works initiatives to develop over time to see where they lead. By rewarding our
engineers with flexibility, time and recognition, we continually shine the spotlight
on our most value assets — our employees — while fostering a culture of
creativity and innovation.
We Strive For Creativity & Balance

12. Engineers love to explore new technologies that are related to their work. We have
noticed that if one engineer is good at a particular skill, they tend to enjoy teaching that
same skill to other engineers. Considering this willingness to teach co-workers for the
betterment and goodwill of the organization, we have encouraged new ways of
learning within our organization. For example, we’ve set up hackathons for our junior
engineers, run by our senior engineers rather than by a professional instructor. We did
it this way to encourage the transfer of practical workplace knowledge from seasoned
staff to new staff in ways a teacher might not be able to do. We also hold weekly team
meetings that are very open and interactive. When we get special requests from our
engineers to learn more about a new technologies, we will take a follow up action,
such as arrange for a guest speaker to address our team, purchase and distribute
books all can read, or schedule a field trip to a customer location so that our team can
see and feel what it’s like to integrate our product from the client end. This helps our
engineers learn new things without having to exert too much effort — and it injects
some fun into the workplace.
We Foster An Open-Learning Environment

14. Every human being — every company — makes mistakes. Be it an engineer or
a well-known CTO, nobody is perfect. At Dropsuite, we’ve created a culture
where accusations, scorn and embarrassment for bugs and mistakes are
shunned. When management is humble, thoughtful and understanding about
the human condition, it’s easier for staff to pony-up and admit mistakes after
they are made. Dropsuite saves valuable coding time that could be wasted by
hiding the mistake. For example, if one of our star engineers makes acoding
error (the horror), instead of avoiding or covering up the error for fear of
retribution, our engineers are more likely to accept the mistake — saving us
countless hours of needless finger-pointing and investigation. A simple, if it’s
broken, fix it, model works. Holding engineers accountable for their work without
publicly highlighting every fault, is just one of the ways Dropsuite’s engineering
first culture leads to a better quality product and a faster time to market.
We Admit Our Mistakes

15. At Dropsuite, an engineering-first, culture means that at our core, we expect faster
reaction times to challenges and opportunities because that’s what engineers like
to do. This enables us to have speedier go-to-market capabilities than many of
our competitors. In fact, Dropsuite’s CEO, Charif Elansari, has a unifying vision for
how to get things done. His focused work style trickles down into everything the
company does, especially on the software development and support side of our
business. Charif expects each engineer to execute accordingly, and to his or her
own ability. We’ve seen that quick reaction times of our engineers can drive better
coding outcomes because when speed of activity is combined with work flexibility
plus enhanced communication, the outcome is a time-to-market ability that is
unrivaled. The business benefits are clear: accelerating time-to-market is a
repeatable activity, which allows Dropsuite get our products to market faster. By
increasing our market opportunities, we increase our odds of growing market
share, brand recognition, and revenue.
Fast Time-to-Market Is
A Core Business Differentiator

16. Creating an engineering-first culture requires much more than the 10 basic steps
we’ve outlined on this page. We thought that by sharing what we’ve done to
embrace an engineering-fist mindset might provide some insight into how we hire,
how we create our products, how we run our company and how we treat our
customers.
Dropsuite isn’t perfect. But we strive each day to live up to the ideals we hold
high. The software engineer mindset is about solving the problem. Roger that.
Conclusion

17. dropsuite.com