The first commemorative request

This is HOKA from the Manabi-no-Michi-no-Eki (Learning Roadside Station) team.
In February 2024, during our monthly company-wide meeting, we announced the launch of our "Manabi-no-Michi-no-Eki (Learning Roadside Station)" initiative. Following this announcement, Nakaguchi-san from the Mobile App Development Group’s iOS team reached out with a request: "I'm looking for some advice on how to organize my study sessions."

Study Session Consultation for the Mobile App Development Group

This was our first inquiry.
We quickly organized a meeting with the four team leaders of the iOS team and three of us from the Learning Roadside Station team. The iOS team has been holding weekly study sessions since June 2023, aiming to enhance the team’s overall skills. In the first week of each month, they decide together on what topics they want to focus on, and then they spend the second to fourth weeks working on those topics. Facilitators also take turns. They mentioned that they have also conducted various activities like casual conversation, LT (lightning talks), and reading groups, and even presented about HIG (Human Interface Guidelines).
As for myself, my impression was:

"Everything seems so well organized" "What else do they have to worry?"

I thought.
But this is a common way KINTO Technologies employees are perceived.
As a result of this consultation meeting, three members of our administrative office were invited to observe their study sessions!

A Peek into the Study Session Next Door

Self-introduction and casual chat session

So, we decided to do our own "A peek into the study session next door."
The date was March 12, 2024. The iOS team gathered online and in a meeting room to start their study session.
Since there were new members joining that day, the theme was a casual chat session where everyone could introduce themselves. First, everyone introduced themselves, 1 minute x 18 people = about 20 minutes in total.
They shared their names, the products they were in charge of, and recent updates. Although each introduction was only one minute, we made use of Slack chat comments to react, which made it an efficient introduction time for those who were participating for the first time to get to know the members’ personalities.
The Learning Roadside Station team also took the opportunity to introduce ourselves.

In the second half, the casual chat began.

One member mentioned that Awata-san, who visited the Muromachi office yesterday, said that deploying from Slack was reaching its limit, and he suggested creating a mobile app that could integrate without needing to sign in.
Then, another member proposed,

“Why not develop it in our spare time? Our Mobile App Development Group has producers a火曜nd backend developers. If you're interested, we've created a Slack channel so let's talk about it there."

Wow!
Then, assistant manager Hinomori-san suggested,

“How about developing a Learning Roadside Station app? It would be great to create an internal app. Maybe we could integrate NFTs and KTC tokens.”

Yajima-san added,

"How about giving points for attending study sessions?"

Hinomori-san said,

"What if those who accumulate points by the end of the year get some kind of reward? It sounds fun and could be a good way to work on projects that are not yet ready to be released externally. "

Nakano-san added,

"It might be great for internal members to develop for internal use!"

A surprising positive turn for our Learning Roadside Station!!! I'm so pleased.
"There's likely more we can learn from this activity beyond just writing source code." Comments flew around during the casual chat, providing hints for growth as engineers. This study session is going great, isn't it?
The chat continued, and our March study session’s excitement centered around the "try! Swift Tokyo” event which will be April’s study session topic.
With their assignments in hand for the next week, the iOS engineers returned to their own paths.