Year
in
Review
2023
Year
in
Review
2023
Another 12 months have come and gone. As the holiday season approaches, we like to take the opportunity to reflect on the year that we are leaving behind us. 2023 was a year filled with new opportunities and big changes that we are so excited about.
Welcome
to
the Team!
2023 wouldn’t be the same without our two exceptional new hires. Jerry and Sarah were invaluable additions to our team and in the short time since they joined us, they have already made an incredible mark on Plank.
Jerry
Jerry joined us as a Back End Developer in May and extended our remote team to a brand new province — Manitoba!
Sarah
Meanwhile, Sarah became our official Strategy Team Lead as well as Senior Business Strategist.
Usually, our Year In Review provides us with an opportunity to talk about some exciting web design projects our team worked on throughout the year. This year is a little different as we also embarked on a website redesign and brand refresh for Plank!
This venture was a reflection of our desire to better embody the values, initiatives, and people that Plank represents. For our brand refresh, we collaborated with the very talented Ray Dak Lam, an illustrator and graphic designer based in Edmonton. The result was a website and branding that will better connect us with our audience and the projects that we want to take on.
For an in-depth look at the entire redesign process, make sure to check out our blog post.
Hi Ray!
Plank Gives Back x Carolyn’s Community
You may have heard that Plank is dedicated to making the web a better place. It’s something we’re very proud of. If you weren’t aware, Plank Gives Back is our pro bono effort in which we offer our digital expertise to organizations that strive for a positive change in their communities.
This year, we embarked upon a project with Carolyn Bouchard-MacNeil, the founder of Carolyn’s Community, to ensure her website and branding truly reflected her amazing work. Over two decades ago, Carolyn established a small toy drive that has since transformed into a massive collaborative effort and one of the largest community projects in Montreal. We are incredibly proud of this effort and we have to give a major shoutout to Stephanie, Maëlle, and Paisley, who contributed their time and expertise to this project!
To us, that looked like two off-site days hosted at La Piscine with a focus on learning, appreciation, and collaboration among our entire team. Using a hybrid approach, we were able to connect local and distant employees either in-person or remotely to participate in two full days of workshops, presentations, and team building activities.
While we appreciate the ability to work together remotely, we also enjoy these opportunities where we can gather outside of the office and focus on growing our team into the best version of ourselves. If you’re interested in PAWCon 2023, you can read more about the event here.
A
reinvented
PAW
Did you know that Plank is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year? It’s a pretty big milestone and we wanted to make sure we recognized it properly. So when it came time to host our annual employee appreciation event, Plank Appreciation Week, we decided to make it bigger and better than ever.
Reorganizing
Our
Teams
Change was in the air this year and nowhere else was that more evident than in the reorganization of our team. In 2023, we decided to make a few modifications to best represent the work we do together and the contributions of individuals within the broader structure.
This culminated in a few minor as well as more substantial changes. Formerly our Marketing Coordinator, Stephanie embarked on a new journey as a Content Strategist. Additionally, four teammates were promoted to new roles — Galit to Front End Developer, Maëlle to Designer, Paisley to Senior Business Strategist, and Luke to Senior People & Operations Coordinator.
Within this new structure, we also saw the formation of two new groups — Client Services & Operations and UX. These groups amalgamated several of our pre-existing teams. Our Client Services & Operations group consists of the Strategy, Operations, and Project Management teams, while the UX group contains the Creative, Content, and Front End teams. In order for these groups to be successful, we needed two talented and dedicated individuals to lead them. That’s why we promoted Jason and Megan to the roles of Director of Client Services & Operations and Director of UX, respectively.
Congratulations to everyone who made major career changes this year!
Reorganizing
Our
Teams
Change was in the air this year and nowhere else was that more evident than in the reorganization of our team. Over the past year and beyond, we’ve seen incredible hard-work, dedication, and passion from our team members. So in 2023, we decided to make a few modifications to best represent the work we do together and the contributions of individuals within the broader structure.
This culminated in a few minor as well as more substantial changes. Formerly our Marketing Coordinator, Stephanie embarked on a new journey as a Content Strategist. Additionally, four teammates were promoted to new roles — Galit to Front End Developer, Maëlle to Designer, Paisley to Senior Business Strategist, and Luke to Senior People & Operations Coordinator.
Within this new structure, we also saw the formation of two new groups — Client Services & Operations and UX. These groups amalgamated several of our pre-existing teams. Our Client Services & Operations group consists of the Strategy, Operations, and Project Management teams, while the UX group contains the Creative, Content, and Front End teams. In order for these groups to be successful, we needed two talented and dedicated individuals to lead them. That’s why we promoted Jason and Megan to the roles of Director of Client Services & Operations and Director of UX, respectively.
Congratulations to everyone who made major career changes this year!
Projects Launched
We’re proud to have worked on incredible projects in 2023
25 Years of Plank
As we mentioned earlier, 2023 marks 25 years of Plank. Do we look our age? The past 25 years have consisted of constant evolution and a passion for building meaningful websites. We have had the opportunity to partner with some incredible organizations and produce work that we are extremely proud of.
For the occasion, we connected with six incredible artists in our network and invited them to reimagine our redesigned Plank logo in their unique artistic style. The results were evidence of their extensive creativity and impressive skills. We want to thank Geoff Gibson, Justine Zimmerman, Daylen Conserve, Tyson Bodnarchuk, Paula Youwakim, and Ali Bruce for collaborating with us on this awe-inspiring project!
Looking to the future, we hope to continue to find ways to work collaboratively as a team, to encourage and promote learning opportunities for each team member, and to continue to act upon our values in each endeavour.
From everyone at Plank, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, and we look forward to another exciting year ahead!
From everyone at Plank, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season, and we look forward to another exciting year ahead!