Skip to main content
No items found.
logo dropboxsign
Why Dropbox Sign?
Expand or collapse accordion

What you can do

Sign documents online
Create electronic signatures
Choose or create templates
Fill and sign PDFs
Complete online contracts
Document management
Explore features
icon arrow right

Use cases

Sales and business development
Human resources
Startups
Financial technology
Real estate
On-demand services
Products
Expand or collapse accordion
icon dropbox
Sign
Make it easy to send and sign
icon dropbox
Sign API
Integrate eSign in your workflow
icon dropbox fax
Fax
Send faxes without a fax machine
icon dropbox integrations
Integrations
We meet you where you work
Resources
Expand or collapse accordion
Blog
Workflow expertise & product news
Customer stories
Real-world stories with real results
Help center
In-depth guidance for our products
Resource library
Reports, videos, and info sheets
Developers
Pricing
Expand or collapse accordion
Dropbox Sign pricing
Find the right plan for you
Dropbox Sign API pricing
Real-world stories with real results
Contact sales
Sign up
Contact Sales
Sign in
Expand or collapse accordion
Dropbox Sign
Dropbox Forms
Dropbox Fax
Free trial
Blog
/
Developers

Recharge Your Dev Team with a Bug Squash

by 
Chris Paul
August 24, 2016
3
minute read
Recharge Your Dev Team with a Bug Squash
icon tooltip

New look, same great product! HelloSign is now Dropbox Sign.

icon close

If you’re a developer, you likely spot (and ignore) irksome bits in your code or product regularly. Perhaps it’s an excessively long if-block or a border offset by 1 pixel too many. Maybe you manually run through 5 steps every week to get your test database just right. 

‍

We let these annoyances slide because we might not have time to fix them. We also understand that what seems small isn’t always a quick nip-tuck fix. 

‍

Last year, the Dropbox Sign engineering team started holding a quarterly "Bug Squash" to clean up these exact types of issues. Like the name implies, it’s a two-day event to fix small bugs but we also use the time to make workflow enhancements, perform housekeeping, create developer tooling, fix broken windows, and tinker with small projects. 

‍

It’s had a positive effect on team morale and satisfaction, and resulted in improved product quality and provided useful improvements to the team and our users. 

‍

Some examples of what we’ve squashed:

‍

  • Added a Google Inbox Action to our signature request emails.
  • Fixed the display of apostrophes in team names.
  • Quieted noisy logging and tests.
  • Replaced the JavaScript alert() calls in our internal support tool to use Sweet Alert (because our Support Team is equally sweet!).

‍

Bugs and product improvements aside, the eight days a year we use to re-channel our energy has been time well spent from an emotional and psychological health perspective. We’re a small team and spend the remaining 97% of the year driving product initiatives to our users. A two-day breather mixes the schedule up, allowing us to focus on something new and flex our engineering muscles in a way that feels more like play than work. 

‍

This may not be the first time you’ve heard of a Bug Squash. Some companies even regard them as an anti-pattern that should be avoided because they communicate that quality can be added later. 

‍

At Dropbox Sign, the quality improvements that result from the Bug Squash are expressly secondary. We dedicate a percentage of every release cycle to fixing bugs that are prioritized by our QA, Product, and Customer Care teams and the Bug Squash is just another tool in our belt that gives our engineers freedom to practice their craft and take pride in their product, team, and dev environment. 

‍

If we’ve convinced you to try your own Bug Squash, consider these tips that have worked well for us:

‍

Get Buy-In

‍

The support of your department and company can go a long way towards positioning the Bug Squash for success by eliminating fears of distraction or time wasted. Impress upon stakeholders the importance of pride and high morale that can motivate engineers to take deeper ownership in their work and product the rest of the year.

‍

Create a Wish List

‍

Encourage your teammates to create Bug Squash tickets year-round. We use JIRA and ticketing these items is helpful when prioritizing, coming up with a theme, and ultimately pulling changes into your SDLC and QA process.

‍

Pick a Theme 

‍

Choose a broadly applicable theme like “UI Polish,” “The API,” or “Integrations” to provide direction for new team members or those that have long lists and require a bit of focus.

‍

Celebrate and Share

‍

Schedule a team review at the end of the Bug Squash to talk about accomplishments, challenges, and v2’s or next steps. Snacks and libations highly recommended! Don’t forget to share what you accomplished with the rest of the company and celebrate!

‍

Time to Get Squashing!

‍

Do you conduct events that are great for team morale? Have ideas or suggestions for improving this format? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! 

‍

If you're interested in reading more about how we foster a positive developer environment here at Dropbox Sign, you might enjoy these posts: "5 Tips For Cultivating Psychological Safety" and "APIs for Humans: The Rise of Developer Experience."  

Stay in the loop

Done! Please check your inbox.

Thank you!
Thank you for subscribing!

Lorem ipsum

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Lorem ipsum
icon arrow right
icon close

Up next:

Close-up illustration of a handwritten signature, representing modern digital signing solutions.
Developers
15
minute read

Integrating Dropbox Sign with Ruby on Rails: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Close-up illustration of a handwritten signature, representing modern digital signing solutions.
Developers
15
minute read

Dropbox Sign vs. SignNow for developers

eBook

How eSignatures eliminate transaction complexity for B2B marketplaces

Products
Dropbox SignDropbox Sign APIDropbox FaxIntegrations
Why Dropbox Sign
Electronic signaturesSign documentsSign and Fill PDFsOnline contractsCreate electronic signaturesSignature editorSign word documents
Support
Help centerContact salesContact supportManage cookiesGetting started: Dropbox SignGetting started: Dropbox Sign API
Resources
BlogCustomer storiesResource centerLegality guideTrust center
Partners
Strategic PartnersPartners locator
Company
CareersTermsPrivacy
icon facebookicon youtube

Accepted payment methods

Mastercard logoVisa logoAmerican Express LogoDiscover logo
CPA Compliance BadgeHIPAA compliance badgeSky High Enterprise Ready badgeISO 9001 Certified badge

Dropbox Sign electronic signatures are legally binding in the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and in many countries around the world.
For more information, please view our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy