At HeroCoders, we're fully remote, and we love it. But once a year, we close our laptops (well, most of them), fly in from across the globe, and spend a week together in person. It's a tradition that started in An Epic Odyssey: HeroCoders Goes to Greece, continued through HeroCoders' Renaissance Retreat and HeroCoders in Gdansk: Team Retreat 2024, and this year brought us to the sun-soaked streets of Lisbon, Portugal.
Twenty-one of us arrived from Poland, Ireland, Croatia, Serbia, Georgia and beyond. For eight of the team, it was their very first HeroCoders retreat, and a chance to put faces to the names they'd been collaborating with on Slack and in Jira for months.
We Landed…
From Saturday to Monday, teammates trickled into Lisbon one by one. Some came early enough to explore the city's tiled alleyways on their own. Others arrived just in time for the first group breakfast. Either way, by Monday morning the conference room was buzzing.
We Reflected…
We kicked off the week by looking back at the past twelve months. Each product team - Checklists, Clockwork, and our newest addition, Portfolio - took the floor to share what they'd shipped, what they'd learned, and where they were headed. It's one of those conversations that's hard to replicate over a video call; there's something about being in the same room that makes achievements feel more real and challenges feel more solvable.
We Built…
Not software this time but something just as important. Our team-building workshop, led by facilitator Zuzanna, stretched across two days and gave us a deeper understanding of how we communicate, collaborate, and complement one another. The "orange exercise" was a big hit, and the picture activity revealed sides of our colleagues we'd never seen before. Zuzanna created the kind of atmosphere where everyone felt comfortable opening up, and the feedback from the team was overwhelmingly positive.
We Planned…
Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to the future. We broke into cross-functional groups for a company-wide SWOT analysis, then came back together to share results and debate priorities. By Thursday afternoon, we had kicked off our strategic planning for 2026 - new products, new markets, new ideas. These are the kinds of honest, high-energy discussions that fuel us for the year ahead.
We Explored…
Of course, it wasn't all whiteboards and sticky notes.
We piled into tuk-tuks and rattled through Lisbon's narrow streets, taking in stunning viewpoints and vibrant street art while tackling more than a few hills - and, of course, stopping to enjoy some delicious pastéis de nata along the way. We visited Sintra and wandered through the enchanting gardens and grottoes of Quinta da Regaleira. We stood at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, and stared out at the Atlantic, windswept and grinning.
We Ate…
Lisbon delivered on the food front. We dined at Zambeze overlooking Praça do Comércio, savoured traditional Portuguese cuisine at Mesa de Frades accompanied by a live Fado performance, explored creative cocktails at Gin Lovers, and treated ourselves to a meal at Cantinho do Avillez, one of Lisbon's most celebrated restaurants. The week closed out at D'Bacalhau because you can't visit Portugal without a proper bacalhau experience.
We Connected…
Ask anyone on the team what the best part of the retreat was, and the answer is almost always the same: simply being together. The informal conversations over coffee, the walks between the hotel and the restaurant, the stories swapped during free afternoons. For a fully remote team, these moments are everything. They're what make remote work actually work.
As one teammate put it: "Having the traditional work activities like strategy sessions and presentations is very good to have in person, because it connects us mentally between this unique retreat space and our daily work."
Another summed it up like this: "It was a meaningful and enjoyable experience that helped us connect, learn, and see the strength of the team in action."
What Makes This Work
HeroCoders has grown from a small startup founded in Poland in 2018 to a team of 20+ people across multiple continents, building apps that thousands of teams rely on in the Atlassian ecosystem. Along the way, we've stayed intentional about culture. Our annual retreat is just one part of it. Throughout the year, we run monthly Personal Growth Days, regular TownHall meetings, quarterly hackathons we call Hackerman, a training budget for professional development, and 33 days of PTO — because we believe that well-rested, continuously learning people do their best work.
We're not perfect — the team had plenty of honest feedback about late dinners and hotel AC — but that's the point. We listen, we improve, and we keep showing up for each other.
Want to Join Us Next Time?
We're growing, and we're always looking for talented, curious people who want to build great products from wherever they are, and fly somewhere wonderful once a year to do it together.
Want to join us on our next retreat? We're hiring.
