Welcome to the last issue of the year!
This is a very special edition in that it's dedicated exclusively to a 2021 Community Review. Think of it as The Commons version of Spotify Wrapped :)
Before jumping in, we’d like to say thank you. You’ve probably heard us say before that Skillful is on a long-term journey to build a durable institution. A place for learning + growing online that houses a network of world class Sprints and other learning experiences, a supportive community for business professionals in tech and countless other opportunities for professional development.As you’ll see below, we’ve made a lot of progress towards that goal, none of which would be possible without your support. The best part about this journey? We’re on it together.
Now onto the review!
2021 Year in Review
We’re consistently amazed at how active this community is, even as it continues to grow. Here are just some of the ways our Skillfulers contributed to the community this year:
🏃 Most Sprints completed: Aqeela Somani is our most prolific Sprinter with 4 (!) Sprints and counting. Way to go, Aqeela!
🏆 Most time spent as CEO of Juniper: Many Skillfulers are of course familiar with Project Juniper - the project that underpins the Strategy + Operations Sprint. Hats off to the mentors who spent the most time stepping into the CEO’s shoes at the notorious food delivery “company” - Alex Vinden, Max Nimaroff, Ujwal Bharath, Sean Newman and Si Jia Wen. Together they mentored over 120 mentees across over 4 cohorts in 2021.
📚 Prolific Readers & Sharers: Elliott Fisher, Thiago Silva, Sean Newman, Wafic El Assi, Michael Kalish, Megan Jones, Ali Inay, Bruno Pardo, Maya Demeke and Shane Parkhill, to name only a few. Together you shared over a hundred books and articles this year - and we’re all the smarter for it!
🌱 Recent Skillfuler Evolutions: Hats off to Julia Di Spirito, Carolyn Tang, Neelam Virani and Jan Korevaar - all Skillful alumni who will be joining the mentor team in 2022!
And let’s not forget the inimitable Alex Palmer, one of our most active mentors, who earlier this year joined the Skillful team full time as our first Head of Growth 🚀
🙋 Prolific Skillful Buddies: The buddy program is one of the most important initiatives we have at Skillful since it helps ensure that new Skillfulers have a resource and friend to help them navigate Sprints and our general culture. Big shoutout to Holly Lin, Naomi Chun, Megan Jones, Khaled Eniba and Tristen Cross for being our most active buddies, helping new Sprinters dive into our Strategy + Operations Sprint head first with all the inside tips and tricks to help make them successful :)
🎵 Prolific Listeners: Big thanks to Sarmad Ahmad and Laura Holden for their many contributions to the #tunes channel, supplying us with a steady supply of beats as we worked our way through 2021.
💼 Professional Job Posters: Shoutout to Shane Parkhill, Ali Rohde, Wafic El Assi, Alice Marson, Becca Pariser and Julie-Anne Mendoza for keeping us abreast of all the cool openings across BizOps, Product, Growth and more in 2021. CFJ indeed.
🐶 Prolific Pet Posters: We love pets at Skillful (hence #skillful-pets). Alize Bhatia, Allan Mariano and Angelina Liu consistently reminded us to appreciate our furry friends and family throughout the year.
👋 Skillful Ambassadors: What would Skillful be without the amazing people in it? Thank you to Wafic El Assi, Kaiz Alarakyia, Abhi Shetty, Carmelo Ferlisi, Max Nimaroff, Andrew Yeung, Callum Travaglini, Lucas Solmes, Ali Rohde, Bruno Rodriguez Aramayo, Bruno Pardo, Michael Kalish, Wasi Mesbahuddin, Luis Martinez Moure, Bhag Raichada, Winnie Bang, Marc Blanchette, Kelly Alejos, Jake Bradshaw, Armish Sehar, Raphael Sammut, Luca Castaneda, Angelina Liu and Gurmee Sodhi for being *incredibly* active in bringing both mentors and mentees into our community.
📈 Skillful Superlatives: Strategy + Operations Sprinters who go above and beyond for their teams receive special shoutouts each cohort for the incredible work they’ve done. Some of the most lavish praise was reserved for Charliepat Hart, Janet Wan, Bradford Koenitzer, Megan Jones, Khushbu Shah, Mahira Arif and Becca Pariser.
Last but not least, we also celebrated some broader wins. 2021 was, to say the least, a big year for the Skillful community. In the past twelve months we:
- Grew the community to over 480 members;
- Launched a community Instagram and 2 newsletters;
- Grew our mentor network to over 70 amazing mentors from some of the top companies around;
- Launched a new website;
- Held 3 official IRL community events (Toronto, New York City and Montreal), to say nothing of the half-dozen or so informal meetups held throughout the year;
- Hosted over 20 hours of fireside chats and other community programming;
- Ran over a dozen Sprint cohorts;
- Celebrated countless community #wins; and
- Much, much more...
We're looking forward to seeing you all next year! In the meantime, wishing you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday and all the very best that 2022 has to offer ❤️
Sprint applications are (still) open 🚀
A few weeks ago we opened public applications for three Sprints: Strategy + Operations, Product Strategy and Strategic Finance.
The Strategic Finance Sprints is now full, but you can still apply at the link below to get early access to the next one we run in 2022. There are still spots for Strategy + Operations and Product Strategy, and you can also apply below.
Apply Now - Strategy + Operations
Apply Now - Strategic Finance
That's all for now! Thanks again to EVERYONE for an incredible year. Can't wait to do 2022 even bigger with each and every one of you :)
P.S. please give us a follow on Instagram - we’re bringing the community directly to your feed :)
See anything your friend might find interesting? Feel free to forward this issue! This community grows stronger and more valuable to everyone in it the more smart people - i.e. folks like you - learn about Skillful. Sign-up to receive all things Skillful right here.
.svg){kind=small}
