Practice Leads and the Power of Community

In order to cultivate a community of learning, encourage Gorillas to ask questions, and provide quality resources, Gorilla Logic relies on Practice Leads. As Practice Leads, we have several responsibilities including assessing potential candidates, providing technical guidance, and community building. Being a Practice Lead means being intrinsically aligned with our company vision. We handle our work in an agile manner; we improve over time. We embrace all of our successes and adjust where needed.

This mindset combined with our culture is what defines us—what differentiates us as a company. Every single person at Gorilla Logic knows this; we have a responsibility as professionals and teammates to collaborate with each other. We seek innovation through creativity and investigation. We support each other and push for constant and relentless improvement. We encourage everyone to improve on both their technical and soft skills.

If a teammate comes from a different type of work environment, our set of practices will eventually make our culture become natural to them. Once you’ve experienced it, you’ll happily embrace it and you’ll become an agent of change for newcomers as well.

Gorilla’s Practices

Our community is comprised of the following practices: Agile, Architecture, Back-End, DevOps, Mobile, Quality Assurance, Security, UI/UX, Web, Data, and IoT. Each practice consists of a subset of technologies, languages, frameworks, and tools in general. Being in a practice is related to your role. It doesn’t mean you can’t be part of another, on the contrary, you’re more than welcome to participate, get involved, learn, and enjoy this whole other world of technology that you’ll find there.

As technology continues to change, our practices grow. They must keep evolving to adapt to the extent of our technology stack. When Gorillas are working on client projects, they are fully supported by their practice for anything they might need. Both Gorillas and clients benefit from this because Gorillas will then have access to a knowledge base for any possible doubt they might have, and clients will have certainty that they will get the expertise from Gorillas with multiple backgrounds.

Practice Leads

A Practice Lead is someone who helps empower other Gorillas by encouraging them to improve their professional skill sets and offering the necessary tools to do so. We work closely with our practice and exercise Gorilla Logic’s culture at all times. We’re involved in every stage a Gorilla goes through, from the interview process through their ongoing work for a client. They can rely on us for technical skill development and career path guidance.  We also assist them with community outreach, trainings, certifications, and networking inside and outside of Gorilla Logic.

Let’s explore the core responsibilities of a Practice Lead.

Community Outreach

Through collaboration, we become a better version of ourselves. If we work together to share our knowledge we will achieve great success for everyone. Gorilla Logic makes it easy for the Gorillas to gain visibility for themselves as professionals.

Practice Leads are involved in every community outreach project produced by Gorilla. We are available to help them plan their activity, provide ideas, and to participate in them. We make sure Gorillas are equipped with all the resources they need to achieve their goals.

By creating community outreach we create a huge professional network. Networking is a big part of Gorilla, it helps us connect talented people with each other. It strengthens the relationships between individuals and practices. It also adds value to their professional profile as they are now part of a huge network of knowledge that they can rely on to grow.

Gorillas have several channels for joining our community outreach initiatives including open houses, Gorilla Labs, Lunch and Learns, Meetups, Workshops, and Bootcamps.

Let’s explore one in particular which is of high value for every Gorilla.

Workshops

When a Gorilla wants to share their knowledge on a specific topic through a hands-on experience, they can plan a workshop. We have awesome Gorillas who are fluent in multiple technologies and on top of that they’re great at passing down such knowledge. This allows them to effectively communicate their ideas through a planned training. This also helps the attendees get first-hand practical work experience on the topic being discussed.

Workshops are open to anyone who wants to learn something new, even if it’s not directly related to their practice. Practice Leads work with our training coordinator to provide the required materials for a Gorilla to impart a workshop. The idea behind this is to keep innovating through research and development.

For professional growth, Practice Leads can help Gorillas with their career paths, the next section covers how we do it.

Professional Growth

Practice Leads contribute to this part by being advisors. We strive to provide technical guidance based on what our Gorillas are looking to achieve.

Certifications are a great way for Gorillas to advance in their professional growth, it’s a win-win situation for both the company and the client, as they both acquire an improved Gorilla allowing them to benefit from the new skills gained. It enables them to become better at what they do and also gain the recognition they deserve. 

Gorillas can also explore new practices and steer their career towards them. All of this is done carefully through a well-defined process. Practice Leads provide guidance if someone wants to get into a new technology, we’re here to point them in the right direction.  

Conclusion

Practice Leads are part of any technical-related process inside of Gorilla Logic. Our main goal is to serve as a means for Gorillas to become excellent professionals and create a community of knowledge. We provide them the tools required to be empowered and the guidance to spread that empowerment across our company. Through collaboration, we all become a better version of ourselves.