Domain7

We're hiring a Support Team Developer

[NOTE: We updated this post to include full or part-time candidates, in any of our three office locations: Abbotsford, Vancouver or Washington, DC]

We’re adding a Support Team Developer in one of our Abbotsford, Vancouver or Washington DC offices in either a half-time or full-time capacity. We are looking for a candidate who will assist Dan Barczi and the rest of our Support team in responding to ongoing client needs and deliver quality, efficient solutions for our clients.

The role can be summed up as such:

Help delight our clients through quick, quality support work, helping our team manage multiple requests and conflicting priorities and ensuring these tasks are completed efficiently and accurately.

The Support team at Domain7 is an important piece of the development life-cycle. We are looking for a Support Team Developer experienced in developing and/or supporting web projects and digital marketing campaigns. We are currently looking to fill this position half-time with a potential path to full-time employment.This individual will respond to a broad range of requests coming from clients, including front-end HTML/CSS updates, content and site building, programming requests pertaining to CMS implementation, and server configuration updates.

If this opportunity sounds exciting, we’d love to hear from you. The full job description is available via PDF below. If you are interested in the position, contact us at careers@domain7.com to the attention of Jeremy Penner.

For everyone else, feel free to share this opportunity via your social channels and if you know of anyone who you think may be a great candidate, please send them back to this page.

Developer - Support Team Job Posting - PDF

7 Tips for Applying to Domain7

Want to join our team? We want every candidate to tell us the most compelling story possible, so here are a few tips to help you on your way.

1) Be Human We want to know what makes you different than everyone else. Take the time to show us who you really are and what interests you when you’re away from work. There’s no magic formula to how we hire, but we want to know how your past experiences set you up to be an incredible employee for us. There’s no standard approach—show us something different.

2) Be Social Show us you know the online world and are an active contributor—not just a re-poster. We’ll take the time to look you up online, point us toward your social media channels or blog(s). Don’t be afraid to share more obscure accounts like Pinterest and Instagram.

3) Be Informed It’s refreshing to interview someone who knows a bit about Domain7. Asking specific questions about company structure or our team shows you’re interested in the company and our people. Likewise, every role comes with its own vernacular. If you talk about fresh approaches in your industry, show me how you’re using them. If you’re a contractor, take some extra time to ensure your own site reflects the ideas you bring to the table.

4) Be Specific Tell us what you’re passionate about and clearly define what you’d like to do. If you have a passion in one narrow area, let us know. If you like doing a few different things, that’s fine too. We want people who are a good fit and who can do the work they enjoy. When showing us your work, take the time to describe what extra features or functionality you put in or how you did something different.

5) Be Innovative You really want to be noticed? Do really excellent work. There is no replacement for a standout portfolio. Show us work you’re proud of. Every project you complete should be better than the last. Just bear in mind: creativity and innovation are only great if they serve the needs of your client. We’re looking for employees who are solutions-driven.

6) Be a Thinker (and an implementor) Think we’re missing something? Come with ideas of how we can do better and how you can be part of the solution. It shows you take initiative and can can push our company forward.

7) Be Convincing If you’re going to take the time to reach out to us then take the time to really sell yourself. An in-person meeting is your chance to shine, so show us how you would be a great part of our team. Convince us we’d be crazy to not hire you.

We're hiring a Project Manager

As we continue to grow and adjust to marketplace demands, we’re adding a project manager to our team, in either our Vancouver or Abbotsford offices (or a combination). We are looking for a candidate who will not only assist our team in developing great projects but also deliver top notch communication and satisfaction to our clients.

The role can be summed up as such:

Helping our clients receive the best possible experience and end product while making our designers’ and developers’ jobs as productive and stress-free as possible.

At Domain7 we value team, and the Project Manager plays a critical role in coordinating project teams that produce the high quality results we’re known for. The Project Manager is the main point of contact for our clients during the project process—candidates must be self-motivated and proactive about communicating with our clients. Our goal is always to deliver a project that drives results for our clients, on time & on budget. A Project Manager who focuses on a team mentality and getting the best results from each team member has the best chance for success.

So what do our PMs love about their job?

1. You can be a generalist, and help lead a multidisciplinary team, instead of specializing in just one craft

2. You can be part of the entire process, from start to finish, and see a project go from vision to execution

3. You get to help inspire creative, talented people to do great work at their best

4. You can support clients in achieving their plans on the web

5. You can be a very helpful, humble, useful, busy, productive person

The best project managers we’ve seen:

1. Are able to think a few steps ahead, and set plans in motion long before the last-minute

2. Are good at anticipating risks, and making plans to mitigate them

3. Are clear at setting expectations, and don’t shy away from articulating them to clients and team members

4. Are disciplined at performing routine tasks, such as sending status reports, making plans & booking resources

5. Are friendly folks who really enjoy people

6. Are team players who like working with groups

7. Are people who like surprises but also planning

8. Are good listeners and fast learners; project management is often 25% dealing with projects and 75% dealing with people

9. Are able to prioritize; when everything’s critical, nothing is

If this opportunity sounds exciting, we’d love to hear from you. The full job description is available via PDF below. If you interested in the position contact us at careers@domain7.com to the attention of Jeremy Penner.

For everyone else, feel free to share this opportunity via your social channels and if you know of anyone who you think may be a great candidate, please send them back to this page.

Project Manager Job Posting - PDF

My thoughts: Growing without middle management

Today Domain7 was featured in the Globe and Mail’s “Challenge” series. We presented a team of experts with our current challenge of growing as a company, without introducing middle management.

It was a very cool opportunity to get thoughtful feedback on a relevant challenge. And the more we dig into it, the more we see this challenge as a great opportunity for our team.

I really appreciate the helpful advice from the article—a big thanks to each of the contributors. In the weeks ahead I’ll do a series of posts on our own approach to this challenge, but first I’ll reflect on the advice we were offered:

First, Greg Tricklebank, principal at Delta Partners, Ottawa.

Although I’m not sure I share your faith in the long term future of middle management in its current form (read what HBR has to say about it), I agree that maturing leadership roles will be important.

The distinction we’re hoping to make is that Leadership ≠ Management. We’re trying to keep leadership focused on areas of discipline, rather than on watching over people’s shoulders to see how much time they’re spending on Facebook.

In terms of developing our HR depth, I think that’s an excellent point. In a future post I’ll share our ideas around recruiting, but in short: we want to have great HR practices at Domain7, and the best way to do this is by filling our team with spectacular individuals.

Second, Hugh Arnold, adjunct professor of organizational behaviour at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Your recommendation was focused around creating strong and flexible teams, and focusing on how they work together—rather than on “managers” in a traditional sense. I couldn’t agree with you more! This has become a cornerstone of our evolving plan. Our history and success are built on strong and dynamic teamwork. It’s a paradigm that fits very well with the nature of our work.

Your advice about establishing clarity of purpose and organizational goals is also important and helpful. We want to avoid chaos and confusion particularly with a team-based approach. Sometimes we succeed in this, but we’re regularly learning from mistakes.

Lastly, Leerom Segal, president and CEO of Klick Health, Toronto

Your advice to drop email for internal communication is an interesting idea—one we’ve been discussing here in the past few months. We’re currently using lots of tools that keep communication out of our inboxes: Basecamp, Highrise, Lighthouse, Google+ Hangouts, our Intranet, IM, etc. We’ve seen a significant decline in email for some of the quick and routine communications that used to clog our inboxes. We’re still looking for the email replacement for more long form communication between one or a few individuals—suggestions are welcome!

So in short, this has been really valuable and helpful as we reflect on the opportunity ahead. I’m excited about some of the innovative things our team is doing to tackle this head on. In the weeks ahead I’ll be sharing insights we’re gleaning on our journey. Hopefully we can learn from each other as we share our scars and victories along the way.

Globe & Mail photo

Domain7 as Our Client Day

On Friday we brought together the ENTIRE Domain7 team—across four time zones!—to plan for the future, and treat ourselves to the same strategy process we offer our clients. We used one giant Google Hangout for our large group gathering and then split off into teams to target specific topics.

As a business with offices across the country (a complete office in Washington, DC and team members in Halifax and Texas!) it was pretty amazing to bring everyone together, and to see how well it worked, thanks to some simple, free technology.

Plus, we’re pretty excited to implement all the big plans we dreamed up for Domain7!

Thanks to Kevan Gilbert for capturing some footage from the day.

Business in Vancouver's 100 Fastest Growing Companies

We feel a bit like we’re blogging the same thing over and over again, so bear with us here! But, Business in Vancouver just released their list of BC’s 100 fastest growing companies and, well, we’re #30!

As always it’s a nice little pat on the back to see our name listed among some phenomenal BC companies, but we know listings aren’t a defining feature of our success. At the end of the day, happy clients and a really committed team are what makes Domain7 great.

While we’re on the topic though, big congrats to our fellow Fastest Growers and industry friends!

Techvibes 15 Fastest Growing Companies in BC

Wow, this has been a big year for Domain7. We’ve grown a bit, and people are taking note.

First we found ourselves on PROFIT magazine’s 200 fastest growing companies in Canada, and today we were listed as one of Techvibes’ 15 Fastest Growing Tech Companies in BC.

We’re big Techvibes fans, and it’s pretty darn nice to see our company name among others we really respect in this province and industry. Thanks for the shout out Techvibes!

And while it’s cool to get recognized, what’s even cooler is the way our growth lets us continually offer more to our clients, and serve them better. And they are really what has made our growth possible. So thanks for being awesome, Domain7 clients!

Those of you who are working with us on projects right now will have already seen evidence of how our team is growing. But if you haven’t been around our offices lately, visit our Team page to see some of ournewfaces.

Fashion Meets Function

Today we are pretty darn pleased to launch a brand new site for Vancouver’s luxury mall, Oakridge Shopping Centre.

Oakridge is not only one of Vancouver’s best destinations for designer goods, it also has a long history of engagement with the local community and a really strong brand.

That brand needed to shine through Oakridge’s web properties—solidifying its position as the high fashion hub of Vancouver.

We led Oakridge through a strategy process that identified their core business objectives and broke those objectives down into tactics for the web. These included a fashion blog, social media integration and some seriously user-friendly elements like real-time store hours on the home page and a brand search that not only tells shoppers what brands are available, but exactly which stores carry them.

One objective was to deepen retailer engagement, so we built an intranet where retailers can submit events, promotions and job listings.

Some geekier features we’re proud of: - an interactive store directory that is not Flash-based (so it works on iPhones/iPads etc) but is still really pretty! - a background image that scales to any screen and looks incredible on mobile - a look and feel that is incredibly chic but can be switched up very easily to accommodate a new campaign.

We also developed a microsite to accompany Oakridge’s latest campaign, The Object of Your Desire. We worked with designs by Panzano & Partners and created this fresh, fun site that adheres to the campaign’s sophisticated aesthetic. Then we adapted the site specifically for mobile so it’s truly “prêt-à-porter”!

Shawn Neumann named First West Credit Union chair

Our intrepid leader, Shawn Neumann, was just elected Chair of First West Credit Union—BC’s third largest credit union.

Shawn first joined the board of (what was then) First Heritage Credit Union in 1998 as a green 26-year-old, and has seen it through through two mergers and its eventual iteration as First West (a merger of Envision Financial and Valley First Credit Union).

At the time, the credit union was looking for someone fresh and young with a tech background during the lead up to the then-scary-sounding Y2K. Shawn’s development background and business savvy made him a great candidate. In the end, the year 2000 was not what the doomsdayers predicted, but the First Heritage board was wise to take their fresh approach—since then the financial industry has changed a lot and technology is the driving force behind it.

Though finance and technology may seem like very different fields, Shawn has seen some interesting parallels emerge between Domain7 and First West: both are committed to growing through openness, collaboration and working in partnership to get the best combined value for clients (or members!).

Congratulations Shawn!

Read more about First West and Shawn’s new appointment here.

D7 Labs Launches vancvr.com

Today D7 Labs is happy to launch a brand new open directory for Vancouver’s creative community: vancvr.com.

Inspired by Stumptown’s thriving prtlnd.com, vancvr.com is our attempt to collect all the creative powers of Vancouver into one centralized spot. It’s a clean and simple tool for finding a designer, developer, photographer, writer, videographer or illustrator; connecting with other creatives in Vancity; or just getting inspired about what’s happening in this fine town.

If you fit into one of these categories and you live in Vancouver then go on, add yourself!

Vancvr.com was built in Wordpress by the incredibly talented Miriam Thomas.

If you’d like more information about the site or D7 Labs initiatives, just get in touch.