Agile development, team spirit, and fun: these were the ingredients of our last company retreat

Day 1: the team enjoying a coffee break in the patio in between sessions. From the left: Yeray, Alicia, Tim, Djuradj, Lorenzo, Bruno, Ling, Nuria, Jamie and Marike

Last month, our team converged in Palmela, Portugal for a week-long retreat to work on our newest offering, Xilva FOREST+ (since re-branded Xilva Forest Portfolio). We were all excited to be working together on a design sprint, a popular and very effective product development process for validating ideas and solving big challenges through prototyping and testing ideas. This process typically lasts five day, but in our case we managed to complete that in just three days.

Our design sprint started with the definition of the problem and the identification of user needs. We then quickly moved to ideation, where we came up with a range of innovative solutions. Using an agile development approach, we were able to challenge, prioritize, combine, test and iterate on our ideas quickly.

Day 2: the team in the large kitchen-turned-workshop room, reviewing proposals (on the walls)

The work was intense, but the team spirit was high. We worked long hours, but we also made sure to have some fun along the way.

We explored the beautiful surroundings, with an informative visit to a local forest estate, where we learned about the unique cork, eucalyptus and pine mosaic plantations which are typical of this region.

Day 2: Yeray and Alicia consulting the forest management documents during the on-site visit

It goes without saying, we took full advantage of the geographical location of our retreat and enjoyed the delicious local food and drinks.

Day 3: enjoying dinner out at the end of a long day of team work - bacalao was the star here!

In our team of ten, each person contributed with their unique background and talents to make the design sprint a success, under the expert stewardship of Marike, our all-round chief facilitator.

The agile development approach we used allowed us to test and iterate on our ideas quickly. We were able to create a high-quality product in a short amount of time. This was made possible by the hard work and dedication of everyone on the team.

Read on to discover the take-aways from some of us:

**Marike, head of product**

"For me it was a new experience as a facilitator to lead the Xilva team through a design sprint in three days. What we built together was super cool. And the customer interviews were eye-opener as always to develop the right customer focus. Let's do it again!"

**Djuradj, lead developer**

*“It’s impressive how agile our development process was. We were able to create a high-quality prototype in a short amount of time."*

**Bruno, UX designer**

*“I loved to see our ideas come to life so quickly. It's satisfying to know we've created an offering that we are ready to test with users.”*

**Yeray, lead forest intelligence**

*“It was fascinating to work with data from real forest projects. I'm excited to see how our platform will help create a positive impact on the environment.”*

**Nuria, forest intelligence data**

*“It's great to see a company like Xilva focus on developing innovative solutions to scale-up forest ecosystems. I'm proud to be part of a team that values science in business.”*

**Alicia, forest project outreach**

*"This process brought the team to work together so well. Looking forward to seeing the impact on regenerative forest projects."*

Overall, our team retreat in Portugal was a success. We were able to define and test our newest offering, Xilva FOREST+, and had a great time doing it. The experience was a testament to the power of collaboration and the benefits of using an agile development approach. We're excited to continue working on Xilva Forest Portfolio and to make a positive impact on the environment.

If you're interested in learning more about Xilva Forest Portfolio, please don't hesitate to contact us. We'd be happy to share more about our project and how it can benefit you and the environment.