Name: Shannon Bauman
Role: VP of Products at Pendo
Background: MS in Human-Computer Interaction from Georgia Tech
Fun Fact: Spent the whole time he was in Tibet bedridden because of altitude sickness
1. A few months back we had a quarterly company-wide event in which we built and then played a home-made mini golf course. The blue tape was construction material for that activity. Since then, it has become just something to play with while at the desk.
2. Standard-issue Pendo hardware. Nice piece of computing – I’m a fan.
3. Pictures of the kiddos. Cutest kids on the planet.
4. Yes, I am a grown adult, and I have a fidget spinner on my desk. My mother-in-law got it for me as a stocking stuffer for Christmas, and honestly, I love it. Not sure if my work neighbors love hearing it whirr, but I find myself screwing around with it often when I am thinking.
5. Probably the most useful thing on this desk other than the computer. Gets used a lot when talking to one of my work neighbors trying to explain an idea.
6. Similar idea to a fidget spinner. A small cube with an assortment of buttons, switches, disks and more to play with while thinking. This also gets a lot of use. Partially broken at this point.
7. Nice bottle. Got it as a giveaway for something or other.
8. We have an internal cultural activity that we have blogged publicly about called Panks. These are ways to recognize co-workers and reinforce core values. This is currently done electronically via a Slack bot, but the very first iteration of this was via these physical pank tokens.
9. The blue note cards I use essentially as post-it notes – small reminders of things to do. Other papers are an assortment of other odds and ends that have come across my desk. With that said, we have almost no paper flowing through the office in the product and engineering departments.
10. It turns out I rarely use this. I’m at my desk for such short periods of time usually, that I often don’t bother plugging in. The few times that I need it, though, make it more than worth the real estate it takes up. Oh, and it serves as a mirror for me to see who is walking up behind me 🙂
Bonus! What is under your desk?
Box ‘o stuff. For some reason, I chose not to have a cabinet with drawers, and instead just throw everything else under the desk. Not sure why. This includes notebooks, headphones, whiffle golf balls, and who knows what else.
What is the most useful item on your desk?
The purple paper. Not because it is purple – although that is a nice color – but just because it is super handy having some scrap paper around at all times.
What is the most interesting item on your desk?
My feet.
How would you describe your organization style?
Cyclical. Gets messy, then I do a mass cleaning, and then entropy takes over again.
