Kisko Year in Review 2020

Time for another Year in Review! Here’s what has been going on at Kisko for the last 12 months. We also encourage you to make your own list! It’s a nice way to reflect on the previous year 😊

Year started really nice and cozy as we finished our office refurbishment! Anna did a great job with handling this complex project. Now we had more space to work, different kind of rooms for different tasks, more space to relax and enjoy coffee and a podcast studio!

We test drove the new office design with Kisko Music Night!

Another big thing was that we got a new CEO! Our partner, Antti Salonen was chosen as the next CEO. Our founder and now ex-CEO, Antti Akonniemi, is now leading WODconnect venture and marketing for Kisko.

Then shit hit the fan. Covid-19. We started working remotely and so did everyone else. We’ve survived well, but of course this remote life is taking a toll. We’ve had our share of remote coffees, events and meetings, but luckily we’ve also had few chances to meet in real life too during this year. Hopefully we’re back at the office soon!

Really remote board meeting:

Really remote board meeting

In the end of the year we finished a video project about Kisko. It’s a documentary about our employees and it’s called "This is Kisko"

Projects

Puhti is now part of Mehiläinen. Nice story and we are eager to read the next chapter!! They also won FWA award 🥇
Continued UX/UI work on Loupdeck CT
Euruko - Ruby event we were building for August, has now been moved to next year

Started a few new health related projects! Continued our work with our beloved customers and continued developing WODconnect.

Content

“Hattutehtaan ihmiset”, a new podcast from AnttiS and Anna, focusing on people! 13 episodes are out: https://hattutehtaan-ihmiset.simplecast.com/
“ATK-hetki” podcast with Vesa and AnttiA got four new episodes this year: https://atk-hetki.simplecast.com/
Henri Paltemaa MVP Canvas - Priorisoi palvelu tuottamaan paremmin https://blog.kiskolabs.com/mvp-canvas-priorisoi-palvelu-tuottamaan-paremmin
AnttiA puhe THL:n tapahtumassa Sovellus ei ratkaise motivaation puutetta: https://blog.kiskolabs.com/sovellus-ei-ratkaise-motivaation-puutetta
AnttiA Tuoteomistaja ei ole titteli https://blog.kiskolabs.com/tuoteomistaja-ei-ole-titteli

Team

Anna continued hustling with recruitment, office refurbishment project and of course focused on making people happy! Anna also visited Bit Insider podcast and started her own with AnttiS called Hattutehtaan Ihmiset.

AnttiS Took the responsibilities as the company CEO from the beginning of the year, and has been leading the company to new growth this year.

For Antti 2020 was the year for development of our own customer service portal Orbit, of many future business negotiations and of diving into no-code/low-code tools.

A new podcast was started and 2 seasons and 13 episodes got released under the title Hattutehtaan Ihmiset, the podcast which talks about the human side of knowledge work.

Virgil continued his bow hunting hobby, started Brazilian jiu-jitsu and celebrated his 10 years at Kisko:

Virgil 10 years at Kisko

AnttiA started the year by giving talks about recovery for professionals (lessons learned in sport recovery) and then few months later we really had to focus on using those tools to survive remote work.

AnttiA started as CEO for WODconnect and focused on marketing at Kisko. He also re-started his Brazilian jiu-jitsu hobby after a 10 year break. Covid slowed him down a bit, but maybe it was good to have an easy start!

Antti also had some time to visit few podcasts:

Simo continued his work driving Kisko’s sales efforts and supporting the company’s marketing. Simo has kept busy by working as the lead designer for Sitowise’s internal tools platform and dwelling into no-code/low-code solutions. Another highlight of the year was being a part of the team releasing 3D animated content update for Sanoma Pro’s Arttu application for iOS/Android.

Vesa started Brazilian jiu-jitsu with Virgil and Leo. They’ve also joined AnttiA for “rolls”. Vesa has been super busy with work, but also had some to give an interview.

We also had a party for Vesa's 10 years at Kisko 🤠

Vesa 10 years at Kisko

Vesa was so busy that he only read 46 books during 2020. That’s the lowest since 2012 when he read 36 books. If you think that’s a lot, think about this: in 2015 he read 82 books 😳

Our whole team sends a huge thanks to our clients, partners and everyone else involved, and wishes you all a Happy New Year! 🥳