What happens when you invite fifty people into a room and ask them to form four new teams? And with the twist, that everyone can decide themself. Will the gloves come off? Will chaos ensue? Not at Strawberry! It was a pretty magical experience for us, we felt the power of self-organization where people discussed and took responsibility for decisions and engaged in finding solutions. Read on to find out more about this incredible journey!
After some tough years during the pandemic, Nordic Choice Hotels was gearing up for growth. 2023 was the time to fuel that journey by evolving into Strawberry. In addition to continuing to provide fabulous hotel stays, we would expand into the realm of experiences. In order to be able to do so, the newly formed Customer Journey & Product Team met up to discuss the new company growth strategy for 2030. By exploring our strategy, we were able to understand important areas to win going forward.
“To reach our new strategy, it is important to continuously improve our digital products for our customers, guests, and members. So we created four product areas to help us focus on developing features that truly define what Strawberry is all about” -Evelina Thunell Williams, Head of Product
Then we needed to figure out how to organize Tech, Product, and design according to this new approach. Our combined management teams formed a change group, leading workshops on how to restructure our organization, and including everyone in the process. The solution? In short, we identified all competencies needed across the company to build autonomous cross-functional teams in these new product areas and then ran a self-selection workshop for everyone to find their best match. Over fifty people from different departments (where half of them had only joined us during the last year) were involved in this major process, and it truly worked!
“We believe that the key is fostering a culture of trust among our employees. We encourage everyone to take responsibility and grow, both in a personal and professional manner.” - Mathias Althin, Head of Technology
So, what’s next? Well, the teams are in place. And now they will proceed to develop Strawberry and an entire universe of experiences. We have high ambitions of providing our customers with the best possible digital experiences in both existing and new areas. We remain committed and agile, and we will continue to grow and learn to enable us to deliver on our 2030 strategy. Curious to find out more?
