Balsamiq - Planning mode

The latest news from Balsamiq:
Lessons from our first-ever annual planning sprint

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Ciao friends,

As 2024 winds down, we wanted to share how we’re wrapping up the year—from personal rituals to company milestones, and a few lessons we learned during our first-ever annual planning sprint. We hope our stories spark ideas for how you and your team can close out the year, too.

End of year rituals

We all have personal traditions that help us reset:

Fra escapes into a stack of books.
Marco reorganizes his home office for a fresh start.
Stefano M. powers through paperwork (boring, but satisfying).
Paolo leans into holiday feasting—no holding back!
Michele finds joy in decorating for the season.
Agnese deep cleans her home, making space for what’s next.

As a team, we keep things simple. We send everyone a small year-end gift (Amazon gift cards this year) and share a digital photo album filled with highlights from retreats, meetups, and conferences. Our Italy-based team also gathers for The Nest holiday lunch.

How we’re planning for 2025

You might be surprised, but we’d never done annual planning before this year! We’ve always planned quarter by quarter. This December, we went all in and ran our first-ever annual planning sprint using the EOS framework. It was intense—but completely worth it.

We spent 11 hours across five days, adapting the EOS in-person format to our remote setup. Here’s what worked (and what we’d do again):

Make honest reflection a ritual.
We kicked things off with a “hot seat” feedback exercise where each person got direct feedback on their biggest strength and area for growth. It felt awkward at first—but quickly became a highlight.
What we’d do again: End the session by having each person commit to one improvement goal and check in quarterly. Vulnerable? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.
See your company like an outsider. We ran a full SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). It forced us to look at Balsamiq objectively, spotlighting risks we’d missed.
What we’d do again: Dedicate a full day to the SWOT analysis. No multitasking, no other meetings. It gets intense, but the breakthroughs are worth it.
Define success—then break it down. We built a Three-Year Picture of where Balsamiq should be by 2027—not just numbers but descriptive statements about how our company should feel, operate, and grow. These descriptions made our 2025 goals and Q1 priorities clearer and more inspiring.
What we’d do again: Write your vision as if you’re already there—use “we are” instead of “we will.” It made our goals feel real and motivating.

What's happening now?

After planning week, Peldi shared a “state of the company” video and a written recap so the whole team could align on the same vision. Each department is now turning our five company-wide goals and seven Q1 priorities into specific, measurable “rocks” for the next quarter.

We’re also gearing up for a BIG release next year (likely in February) with a refreshed look and feel—stay tuned!

Happy customer of the month

Today, I want to express my appreciation to Balsamiq, which I've been using for over 15 years more, transitioning from the free version to the paid one. I truly love its simplicity and elegance. I use it daily to visualize my ideas, roadmaps, and architecture. It's an art form that brings me joy.

— Larry C

Product news

If your team builds with Tailwind, wireframing just got easier. We added 138 core components from Tailwind’s Forms and Elements sections to Balsamiq. Now your designs can match how your product gets built—with fewer questions, smoother handoffs, and happier teams.

Find it under Templates >> Design Systems & Frameworks >> Tailwind UI. Try it out and let us know what you think!

Balsamiq Academy

Some highlights from this past month:

Company News

This month, we ran our first full round of performance reviews using updated roles, levels, and a skills-based salary matrix. Clear job-level definitions helped make feedback specific, while self-reflections using emoji ratings kept the process simple.

Everyone walked away with actionable growth goals for the next review cycle.

That's it for this month!

How do you close out your year and plan for the next? We’d love to hear what works for you—hit reply and let us know.

Here’s to wrapping up 2024 with gratitude—and stepping into 2025 with clarity and purpose.

See you next month, with more behind-the-scenes news from your friends at Balsamiq!

Arielle for the Balsamiq Team

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Balsamiq - Planning mode

Got 2 minutes? Help shape next year's newsletter!

End of year rituals

How we’re planning for 2025

What's happening now?

Happy customer of the month

Product news

Balsamiq Academy

Company News

That's it for this month!

Most new customers find Balsamiq via recommendation...

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Why we rebuilt Balsamiq Templates

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