Signal Culture
Signal was created with a passion and vision to build great technology that changes the digital marketing industry through innovation, leadership, partnership and world-class service and support. Our technology helps marketers solve problems and take their customer experiences to the next level — and beyond. The viability of Signal and the products we are building is directly tied to the software we develop, so we’re very protective of the quality of our codebase. We also recognize that the frameworks and infrastructure components we incorporate into our solution are just as impactful as the code we write ourselves.
Around Our Office
Think that art and commerce make strange bedfellows? Think again. Signal’s downtown Chicago office isn’t just a hub of technology innovation; it’s also home to The Spotlight, a gallery installation featuring the work of area artists.
From Our Engineers
Signal is dedicated to creating the infrastructure powering the next 20 years of digital marketing. We’ve assembled a great team of engineers in Chicago and Brooklyn to make that a reality. We’ve been working on a lot of cool stuff, and we’d like to share what we’ve learned.
Hack Week
“My favorite part is the energy and sense of renewal that comes with taking a fresh look at things that excite you, and trying to implement them,” says Andrew Violette, Senior Engineering Manager at Signal.
A Code to Code By
We’ve come up with a credo that helps us articulate our values while writing code, and lets us be considerate of our future selves. We call it our “Code to Code By.”
- Quality Over Quantity
Code quality is more important than code quantity. Sustainable code is more important than “good enough” code.
- Peer Review
Code must be peer-reviewed before it is committed.
- Test, Test, & Test Again
If the code isn’t tested, it isn’t finished.
- Iterate & Communicate
We believe in short iterations and frequent communication.
- No Territories
“Leave this code a little better than you found it.”
- Formatting Standards
There’s a reason for code formatting standards (hint: git diff).
- Open Source Tools
Just about everything you need to create and deploy a web-based application is best served by a free, open-source offering.
- Start With Scale
Design for scale and geographical distribution from the very beginning.
- Be Prepared
Any (network i/o call | machine | disk | developer) can, and will, fail.
- At Least Two of Everything
Your development environment should mirror your production environment.