How We Celebrate Perfect Moments at Aha!

Dozens of support articles. 58 marketing activities completed. And hundreds of screenshots. This is just a sampling of the work that went into the launch of Aha! for Marketing. Our team felt an enormous sense of accomplishment on the morning of the launch. And despite the fact that we all work remotely, folks still got together to celebrate — hopping on a video meeting to cheer as the new product went live.

It was a perfect moment — a time when the team worked extremely hard to reach an ideal state.

Perfect moments at Aha! are not rare. And we believe they can be found in all organizations. While we are not perfect (and never will be), we think it is important to strive to be exceptional in all that we do.

In fact, we see perfect moments achieved every day. Our team sets bold goals and pursues extraordinary outcomes — whether it be a major launch or the simple act of giving a customer a demo of new functionality that they really need.

However, it is important to slow down and celebrate the major events as well as the small perfections. When we acknowledge these as a team, it proves to us that ideal states are not impossible. Even better, each person’s perfect moments belong to us all. For a high-performing team like ours, this is what fuels us.

And yes, we are able to take in these moments together — even though our team is 100 percent distributed, with teammates located all over the world. I like to think that we continue to work hard to master the art of the remote celebration.

Here is how we celebrate perfect moments with our remote team:

Daily recognition We have a dedicated space in our group messaging tool called (you guessed it) “perfect-moments.” The idea is to share these stories when they happen — right away and with the whole company. An engineer might post about the seemingly insurmountable bug that she was able to solve in minutes, while a member of our marketing team might write about a piece of content that came together with powerful new insights. The broader team then acknowledges these moments with dozens of celebratory emojis. 🙌

Video parties Sometimes the moment calls for a live celebration. Our team likes to hop on video meetings for really big moments, like when we published our bestselling book Lovability or when we won a prestigious company award. We all gather on camera to share our stories of how we reached the milestone — with laughter, joy, and relief. There is often even applause and we have been known to partake in a virtual toast.

Graduations Every person who joins Aha! goes through a comprehensive onboarding program that lasts five to eight weeks, depending on the role. The teammate “graduates” by giving a live demo of one of our products to a potential customer. It is hard work (and nerve-wracking for many), so we make graduations festive. We announce the news during our weekly all-company meeting and ask the new grad to share their own perfect moments from the experience.

Bi-annual celebrations There is no better place to celebrate our most perfect moments than at our company onsites. Twice a year, our entire company gets together in person for a week at a destination travel location. Recent trips have included Laguna Beach, California, and Punta Mita, Mexico. Yes, we spend a lot of this time talking about our goals and plans — but we also make room to celebrate. We hand out company awards during the meetings, recognizing those who made above-and-beyond contributions. And we gather to enjoy great meals and to toast our achievements.

Perfect moments can happen every day on a remote team — you just need to believe they are possible and work hard to realize your best.

This is why we make celebrating a priority — even though we are not usually together in the same room. (Or even the same country.) But does location even matter? Not for us.

The point of any company celebration should be to honor the work of the individuals and the team — proving that enormous effort can lead to tremendous results. You can make a party out of that from anywhere.

How do you celebrate your team’s accomplishments?

Want a two-minute commute? Aha! is fully distributed and hiring.