1 day at KnowS


Have you always wanted to take a look behind the scenes and find out what a typical day at work in a startup is like? Silicon Valley as the "Mecca of the scene" has shaped the image with several success stories. Countless Hollywood movies are dedicated to the startup scene and captivate audiences with stories about innovative and courageous founders. Is the daily work in a startup really as adventurous as it is sold to us? And what does it actually look like at KnowS? To answer some of your questions, we'll take you to Nordstrasse 190 in Zurich.

 

Who is Joëlle from KnowS?

How would you describe a typical working day for Joëlle from KnowS? That's not so easy. Because if there's one thing that doesn't exist here, it's "typical days". I'm responsible for marketing and communications, which means that variety is already preprogrammed.

There are a few fixed points in my working day that can easily be counted on one hand: I always start my day at around 08:20, whether from the home office or the office in Zurich. Then I log into the live chat and the mail accounts and comfortably work through the messages with a cup of coffee in my hand. I'm not a particularly early bird and like to take the day at my own pace. For that, it's no surprise to hear from me after the usual closing time. But that's normal because with us you sometimes meet someone at the most unusual times of the day or night. I really enjoy this flexibility. But there's a lot of "movement" here anyway: thanks to short communication channels and intensive teamwork, we're constantly on our toes, jumping back and forth between different threads and trying to exemplify the agility we strive for in our daily work.


Change as the only constant element

Because I like to work with to-do lists, creating them is the next item on the agenda. To do this, I take a thorough look at our social media presence and exchange ideas with Ramin about the latest projects and campaigns. How satisfied are we with the current performance? What conclusions do we draw from it? What do people want to know? What's new to try out? That's where the idea for this blog came from, among other things. Our newsletter strategy is also regularly revamped, as for example this week, in order to adapt it as best as possible to the wishes of the community. In addition, the upcoming video shoot still shows a need for discussion and the advertising gazette wants to be fed with new types of material. Sunday was also Father's Day, the perfect opportunity to surprise you with something special.


Doer mentality

Every day, we tackle things that none of us have seen in this form before - let alone been able to pull a manual out of the drawer. The learning curve at KnowS is quite steep because you often get to contribute to much more than your own area of expertise: When things are going down in one area, we all pitch in. The nice thing is that you get involved in the whole process. But it's also clear that with this variety, missteps are bound to happen. But the important thing is how we deal with it. I would say that we at KnowS have a very healthy culture of making mistakes and openly draw conclusions from them. I have to admit that I first had to grow into this attitude.

 

Almost there: What's your conclusion?

At the risk of going out on a limb, a typical creature of habit won't feel comfortable here. Of course, I too catch myself every now and then falling back on patterns I already know. It's precisely in moments like these that I really appreciate the close exchange, because that's where progress comes from. This variety also doesn't create processes that I would have described as "moderately profitable" in the past - there are simply too many new things that we want to try out and put our energy into. Ideas and suggestions are not simply filed away in drawer x, but are very much appreciated. This also shows in the implementation process: Due to extremely short decision-making processes, the "innovative energy boost" available at that moment can be used directly for implementation, without letting the idea linger on a to-do list for a few days first. Last but not least: If you are still behind the mission of the startup, I can only warmly recommend this experience to you.

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