On the Move: Jama Heads Downtown

Today is the last day of 2014. Today is also the last day before 137 Jama employees move into our new world headquarters. Moving is exciting and moving is a new beginning and I’d say this is a bittersweet move except that in the last 15 months we’ve been so busy, so bursting at the seams in our two current offices that I didn’t really stop to be nostalgic until yesterday; until yesterday the move (and our new office!) was nothing but sweet (Ample conference rooms! A huge kitchen! A rooftop patio!). When I did stop to think about it, about the fact that this Jama – our original HQ and the annex office we added in 2013 – is the only Jama that I’ve known and the only Jama that over 100 of my fellow Jamanians have known, I guess it is a tiny bit bitter.

In February I’ll have my 3 year Jamanniversary (in startup years I think that’s something like 21 years…) Three years ago Jama was a company of 34, a company that had just moved into fancy new digs in Portland’s Pearl District, a company that was still young enough (and frugal enough) to have a Saturday work party to assemble our new Ikea desks and Costco office chairs. On Monday we’ll show up to a polished new office in Downtown Portland, no Ikea/Costco furniture work party, just 137 incredibly dedicated, supremely talented people taking another step in this journey we’re on together.

On Monday we ring in the New Year in an office that will bring everyone back together under one roof, an office that we started designing 15 months ago, an office that will see Jama grow from 137 to 250+. We will leave behind a headquarters that has treated us well, and an annex office that housed our growing engineering and product teams — both spaces saw thousands of hours of work, play, and collaboration.

Change can be hard. Change can be bitter, but I’d say with our feet firmly planted on the ground and our eyes on the horizon this change is nothing but sweet.

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Subject matter experts from Jama Software provide guidance and best practices on requirements management, test management, compliance and regulation, risk management, and complex product and software development.