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Build Better Habits With Other LINERs Through 'The 30-Day Challenge' Getting up early every day, reading two books a month, exercising and losing weight — we've all committed to ambitious goals only to lose focus after a few days. That's why at LINE, we've created a program to help LINERs keep to their resolutions, so they don't give up after just a few days. "The 30-Day Challenge” is a monthly program where LINERs encourage each other to stick with their plans to better themselves — for 30 days at a time. The 30-Day Challenge process1) A regular survey asks LINERs what good habits or improvements they want to make in their lives, then recruits leaders2) LINERs sign up for the improvement area of their choice (lasting for an entire month).3) Members in each group join a LINE group chat.4) Over 30 days, members of each group encourage and remind each other by uploading a photo of themselves each day working on developing that good habit.(No one format is required. Any photo is fine. And just typing #done is enough to count each day.)# The 30-Day Bot is an automatic participation recording system, voluntarily made by one of the leaders for other leaders (a symbol of the skills of LINE's developers) # A Small deposit system is used to encourage everyone to kee to their 30-day ChallengeA deposit is collected at the beginning of each month and is returned to each person after successfully participating for 30 days. The amount collected from the days missed is donated to an organization chosen by the members under the name of the group Together rather than alone! The rise of 30-Day in the remote work era Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, LINE already introduced many changes to the office and work system, including extensive use of work-from-home (link). But as COVID-19 continued, many LINERs said they were beginning to feel lonely, only communicating with their colleagues through chat messages and video calls. People said they miss socializing with co-workers and connection that is built from sharing over lunch or during coffee breaks. In addition, many LINERs said they wanted to make better use of their free time and of the time they saved from not commuting to the office. This led to a 25% increase in new participants to the monthly 30-Day Challenge program. In the first half of 2020, about 120 people were participating each month in the program, but that grew to 164 people by September 2021. That's a rise of 36%! Along with the official implementation of LINE's *Hybrid Work system, it’s apparent that the prolonged remote work system implemented because of COVID-19 has led to a great increase in demand for the 30-Day Challenge program.*LINE Hybrid Work 1.0: A mixed work system that lets employees choose whether to work in the office or at home.When we asked for their feedback, participants in 30-Day Challenge were clear about how much they valued the program. “In the remote working era, it’s pleasant to have a common topic to talk about with colleagues every month.” (From a member of Becoming Healthier Every Month One Step At A Time)“Sharing a common goal with colleagues, though online, gives me a sense of belonging and personal motivation!” (A member of Step-by-Step Book Club)“It’s difficult to get to know colleagues outside of meetings while working at home. The 30-Day Challenge program is a good opportunity to meet colleagues outside of work.” (A member of Spend an Aromatic Day With Coffee)“I wouldn’t have been able to stick with a new habit by myself! But I could keep at it by thinking that I made a promise to my colleagues.” (A member of Becoming Usain Bolt)“It’s very pleasant to work together on a habit that can become a daily source of inspiration!” (A member of Daily Doodle) Behind the creation of the 30-Day Challenge! The 30-Day Challenge was introduced as a New Year’s project for LINERs in February 2019 (in Korea, New Year’s resolutions often start on the Lunar New Year). As a chat messaging company, the Organization Culture team pondered how to encourage employees to participate in online networking. They came up with the idea of creating mutual-encouragement groups, beginning with four area: The Live Long Project focused on taking vitamins, No Disposables encouraged the use of reusable objects instead of disposable ones to help the environment, the Upright Project was about walking 10,000 steps every day, and Create a LINE Sticker got participants to develop stickers for the LINE messenger.At first, organizers were unsure how much interest there would be in a program like this. But 66 LINERs joined in the first month, growing to 116 people the second month, as the number of groups grew from four to ten. From there, 30-Day Challenge just kept growing, becoming one of LINE’s most popular in-house networking programs by 2021.Participants made it known how much they appreciated the program: “I feel so proud, as if I finally finished some homework I had been postponing.” “I felt even more fired up and had fun by working together!” “I enjoyed the process of accomplishing my personal goals.” “What encouraged me was seeing actual results for something I had only thought about before joining." Members of the No Disposables group, using reusable objects instead of disposables People in the Create a LINE Sticker group, completing a 20-set sticker by drawing every day Some of the most popular 30-Day Challenge groups After nearly two years, we created a Hall of Fame for some of the records that had been set, like “longest ongoing habit” and “shortest time to close applications." Here are some of the habits that LINERs really love:Daily Coding is the “longest ongoing habit,” having been running since the second month of the program. It is rumored that the best gardeners at LINE are nurturing the gardens of Github every month.Tears Result in Muscle Loss is a group dedicated to working out at least three days a week. However, the passionate members didn’t stop at 3 days a week, and instead went on to achieve a 124% mission participation!The Step-by-Step Book Club aims to get members to read 15 pages every day. Not only did this group get the most participants ever, but it’s also broke recruitments records! Rumor has it that one month, this group got filled up in less than an hour.The Early Bird Project, for waking up at 7 am every day, is also one of the longest groups. Waking up early every single day requires a lot of determination for anyone, so understandably, one leader might be overwhelmed to lead several rounds in a row. Even so, there's always another member ready to take over the leadership role whenever one leader retires. This group joined the Hall of Fame for “Diligence and Persistence.” The secret of its success? LINERs are serious about their 30-Day Challenge! Over the past two years, 30-Day Challenge has been able to maintain a high participation rate every month thanks to the passion and affection of the LINERs who take part in the program. In a recent survey, 94.2% of participants said they were Satisfied or Very Satisfied with the program. Why is that? According to some of the respondents, they find it motivating to see others participating with passion and get reminded of their goals every day, they enjoy sharing information about their goals, it's easy to participate (thanks to the D-30 Bot), and it feels good to achieve your goals. “I’m glad to stick to this Challenge! Even when I forget once in a while, I get pumped seeing everyone else’s participating!” (From a member of Miracle Morning)“When I tried to drink more water by myself, I never lasted long. But 30-Day keeps reminding me, and even if I don't succeed 100% of the time, I'm still happy with my results. Sharing the process of working toward a common goal was very fun, and it encouraged me to work harder.” (A member of The Body Is Made of 1.5L of Water)“I joined on an impulse, but I learned a lot while sharing and looking for information on the topic.” (A member of Cooking 3 Meals a Day at Home)“Even finding a few hours to work on something is difficult by myself. But working together, I could go on for 30 days and even 180 days. I’ve been working on my book report project for six months now. Writing a book report every month felt very helpful. I like our group where we can share each other’s writing and recommend books to each other.” (A member of A Book Report Every Month) One thing that people say makes the 30-Day Challenge so successful is the D-30 Bot, which automatically tracks people's participation using the LINE messenger. It was created by a developer who was one of the early 30-Day participants, who came up with the idea and programmed it by themselves. Truly a "WOW" move. The D-30 Bot is now used for all the 30-Day groups, and has become a proud symbol of the program. And as the program continues, it continues to be improved and upgraded, thanks to the enthusiasm of everyone who takes part. The D-30 Bot and Participation sticker working in each habit group chat. Last, but not least, are the enthusiastic group leaders in each of the 30-Day groups. The leaders come up with programs for all to join, lead the group chats, and encourage everyone to succeed. The 30-Day Challenge wouldn’t have been possible without the group leaders! “The D-30 Bot worked so well, there wasn’t a lot I had to do as a leader. It was great to work on our goal together, something I wouldn’t have been able to achieve on my own!” (The leader of Creating a Refreshing Home Office)“It’s a good experience to continue encouraging members who are working on the same goal. When I see members continuing past a month, and when I see more new members, I feel very proud as the leader.” (The leader of Trend Clipping)“Everyone participated every day, and that felt great because it felt like I was working out with everyone.” (The leader of Walk Together and Be Healthy) A short interview with the person behind 30-Day Challenge Here’s a short interview with the person who has been with 30-Day Challenge from the beginning, helping to shape it into LINE’s major networking program. (1) What do you think was the key to the success of 30-Day Challenge?Our success came from all the leaders and members who participated in the program with such passion! The D-30 Bot was created because of that, and this has led to interesting new habits and the 30-Day culture, which I think has contributed to its success even more.(2) What do you think was the most interesting or helpful group?It’s really hard to pick out just one. I think Recharge With Sunlight Once A Day, which I participated in last year, was really good. After switching to full remote work, I was less active and was barely going outside, so I started to feel very listless. After joining this group, I began working 15 to 30 minutes around my neighborhood each day, which helped me regain my energy. Plus, I really enjoyed the autumn weather and the changing of the season. I took photos of some cool things I spotted during my walks, and I shared a music playlist that went along with the day’s mood. It was very enjoyable.(3) Is there anything you remember in particular while operating 30-Day Challenge?I don't really remember one thing as much as the pride I felt in general while watching how seriously everyone takes their commitments. The D-30 Bot is the coolest element, continually growing thanks to people's feedback, and has become the mascot of the program. Also, the members of the Create A LINE Sticker group made celebratory postcards featuring their drawings and sent them as a gift. And participants in the program have told me about how helpful 30-Day is for them, and how helpful mentally it is to share their daily lives with other people, especially during this time of COVID-19. I do hope that the culture of 30-Day Challenge will continue to grow and become a motivating force that helps LINERs in their lives and work every day! The celebratory postcards made with the drawings of the Create A LINE Sticker members LINERs' commitment to challenging themselves will continue! The 30-Day Challenge Hall of Fame is a place to learn how many of the most popular groups began. The 30-Day Challenge program contributes to the culture of LINE, keeping people passionate and motivated even outside of work. It’s also a great way for LINERs to encourage and challenge each other together. We hope that our small resolutions to better ourselves will lead to great results. The 30-Day Challenge program will keep going! ※The information presented here only applies to certain corporations and other corporations may differ.
How LINE Prepares for the New Year’s Rush: A Developer’s Tale Three midnights on New Year’s Eve at LINE For developers at LINE, there are three major New Year’s Eves each year: First the New Year comes to Japan, then an hour later it’s midnight in Taiwan, and an hour after that the people of Thailand ring in the New Year. For each one, LINE experiences a major surge in traffic, which forces our engineers to be alert and ready to act. To learn first-hand what it’s like to go through those three big surges, we talked to Hyunsu Kim from the LINE PLUS Service Engineering Team, who was the project manager for the 2021 New Year’s Traffic Response Task Force. New Year’s traffic response Q. Please share what exactly entails LINE’s annual New Year’s traffic response. A lot of people send New Year’s greetings to their family, friends and work colleagues right around midnight on New Year’s Eve and early on New Year’s Day, and LINE is one of the most popular ways of doing so. In fact, New Year’s is our biggest traffic surge of the year, in terms of greetings and messages. In fact, in the early days of the LINE messenger, sometimes that surge caused service failures because we could not handle this large volume of traffic. In order to prevent such failures, we inspect the system and fix potential issues starting in September each year. If it is deemed necessary, we expand our infrastructure or adopt other solutions to improve the situation. The chat room and monitoring desks of developers preparing for the New Year Q. How is the New Year’s traffic response task force staffed? Since a lot of people participate in the New Year’s traffic response, we create a task force rather than a team. This year, around 200 developers based in Korea and Japan worked hard to ensure the smooth handling of traffic on New Year’s. First, we select a leader to take charge of the New Year’s traffic response for the year. Then, that person organizes the service components that are required for the New Year’s traffic response and starts preparing for New Year’s Eve together with the teams and service owners who are in charge of each service component. Q. What are some of the tasks and important factors that the New Year’s traffic response requires? The details of what needs to be done varies a lot, depending on a service component’s aspects and features. But, in general terms, each service component needs to estimate the traffic volume it expects to handle that evening and checks whether we have sufficient infrastructure to handle it, such as servers and network.On New Year’s Eve, we come to the office at around 4 p.m. and work until 3 a.m. Because the traffic is usually high between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., we restart the entire Talk-Server, which is the core service of LINE messenger, at around 5 p.m. in order to avoid potential issues. In addition, we continuously check whether everything is being performed correctly, such as adjusting the log level and turning off the push tracking function (which does not have a direct impact on the service operation, but could slightly improve the capacity of the service).The most important factor in the New Year’s traffic response is inspecting whether the LINE Messaging service is handling the traffic without any issues. We pay extra attention to the benchmark test (BMT) process to check whether the anticipated messaging traffic is being handled sufficiently and we make corresponding improvements if necessary. A LINE traffic chart showing midnight on New Year’s Eve, with no signs of error Q. Cooperation with LINE’s other offices must also be crucial. How do you all work together? I focus on keeping communications smooth when working with the other offices. We hold a number of conference calls during the preparation process, and use interpretation services to make sure everything is clear. In addition to the conference calls, we open a separate communication channel where everyone can talk and share. This channel is in English so that everyone can understand what is being said. Screenshot of Slack 40 minutes before midnight showing the current service status Q. The work environment has changed a lot due to COVID-19. What changed about the 2021 New Year's traffic response? Because of COVID-19, most of the 2021 New Year’s traffic response was done from people’s homes, not in the office. In the past, when we were all in the office together, we could do most things verbally because the work mostly involves checking various things over a short period of time. Working from home, however, required us to arrange the means of communication in advance. We created a conference room for each component and a separate conference room for emergency discussions in the event of any failure. We pre-arranged contact methods to ensure a smooth communication environment.As we prepared a lot in advance, this year’s New Year’s traffic response went well, without any issues. Afterward, we had some assessment meetings and made a list of improvements that could be made in the work-from-home environment. Personally, I was pleased to know that many of my colleagues who have been working on the New Year’s traffic response for several years were able to spend this New Year’s Eve with their family, thanks to working from home. A successful New Year’s traffic response meant everyone finished the evening pleased with their work. Developers celebrating a successful evening by photographing their finished work stations (and with ramen and beer, too). Q. Anything else you’d like to share? We were able to finish our New Year’s traffic response smoothly and welcome 2021 thanks to a lot of people who worked hard and did their jobs well. I’d like to thank them and express my sincere gratitude for every LINER who worked hard. I wish you all happiness and good fortune in 2021! (And I hope we will soon be able to live without wearing face masks!) Read the LINE Engineering Blog post related to New Year’s traffic response [Click here] Watch the LINE Development Archive video related to New Year’s traffic response [Click here] ※ Please note that the details described in this article may not apply to all offices.
How LINE Prepares for the New Year’s Eve Rush: Employee Care Team One of the biggest nights of the year is without a doubt New Year’s Eve, as friends and families gather to count down the minutes and seconds until the old year is over and a new one begins. Here at LINE, however, all that holiday joy means a huge surge in traffic, and that’s something that has to be managed carefully. The moment the clock strikes midnight and December 31 turns into the first of January, everyone sends out a flurry of messages. Let’s take a look at how the Employee Care Team helps our developers ensure everything on LINE continues running smoothly at the big moment. Preparing for the New Year At 6 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2020, with just a few hours to go until the New Year, at the LINE office, the Employee Care (EC) Team is busy preparing nutritious dinner boxes, light refreshments, and gift bags for those developers who came to the office to prepare for the New Year’s traffic surge. But this year was a bit different from most, because of the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many of our developers were working from home. For those developers working remotely, the EC Team had refreshments and gift bags delivered to their homes. Notably, the LINE Developer Relations Team prepared beautiful and colorful gift bags for those developers who had to work overnight. Those bags contained a variety of vitamins as well as health juices and eye warmers, along with LINE DEV merchandise and thank-you notes! Refreshments and gift bags were delivered to developers working from home while preparing for the New Year’s day traffic surge Watch the video “[Best wishes for a happy start] Behind the scenes: The New Year’s Greetings” [Click here] Best wishes for a happy start with Employee Care! Q. What is “Best wishes for a happy start?” A. “Best wishes for a happy start” is the last service that the EC Team provides at the end of each year on December 31. We provide warm meals for the developers who work on the last night of December to prepare for the LINE messenger’s traffic surge at midnight on New Year’s Eve. It is a care service that we provide in order to comfort our developers for not being able to spend New Year’s Eve with their loved ones, featuring small gifts that they can later share with their families. We named the service “Best wishes for a happy start” to show our hope that the New Year begins smoothly and the traffic surge doesn’t cause any troubles. Refreshments, gift bags, and meal boxes prepared for the developers who came to the office to prepare for the New Year’s traffic surge on Dec. 31, 2020 Q. What is the most important part of preparing for this event? A. Up until last year, the most important thing was to help the developers feel warm and comfortable even though they were stuck in the office, so we paid extra attention to keeping the food warm when we prepared the meal boxes. This year, however, most of the developers were working from home, so instead we carefully selected some refreshments and things that the developers could share with their families. We also reviewed the delivery schedule and process very thoroughly to make sure the refreshments and gift bags arrived at their home in time. Q. You have been hosting this event for the New Year’s Day Traffic Response task force every year. Any memorable stories? A. One of the most memorable New Year’s Eves happened at the end of 2016. Like in previous years, I had to prepare the meal boxes and refreshments in the office, so I listened to the New Year’s Eve countdown bell with my team members. To celebrate the New Year, we cooked rice cake soup with the ingredients that we had prepared, and delivered the soup to the developers who were in the office. I still cannot forget how delicious that rice cake soup was. The start of a new year with warmth and care Thanks to the support provided by the LINE Employee Care Team and the Developer Relations Team, our developers who worked through the night were able to work with full bellies and hearts! To hear about LINE’s New Year’s Eve preparations from a developer’s point of view, check out our second story. [Click here] ※ Please note that the details described in this article may not apply to all offices.
Starting a New Career While in Pandemic Lockdown? Not a Problem at KASIKORN LINE Despite a pandemic, the KASIKORN LINE team keeps growing In March 2020 when COVID-19 appeared in Thailand, the LINERs of KASIKORN LINE — the company that operates the Thai social banking service LINE BK — started working from home. At first, most people were fine with working from home, but as time went on, we increasingly missed the KASIKORN LINE office, where we used to work, play, and eat together. Collaborating virtually did not seem like a big deal because we didn’t have so many employees back then. But COVID-19 hit us harder than we expected. Working from home was extended again and again, so we decided we could not wait for the pandemic to resolve or to delay growing our team. Despite the pandemic, KASIKORN LINE began hiring new talent aggressively. We doubled our headcount in just a few months. And, although it was challenging, we did our best to do our work and onboard our new personnel virtually. Let’s take a look at the interesting journey of Tayart (Kum), from our Business Strategy team, who was one of those new hires who had his first day with KASIKORN LINE from home! What is it like to start a new job from home? Imagine how you would have felt if you were just about to start an exciting journey with a new company, but because of a public health crisis, the company decided to start a “Work from Home” system on your first day. Well, let me tell you the story of how I did it, and how KASIKORN LINE made it so easy. It was roughly a week before my starting date. I dropped by the KASIKORN LINE office to have lunch with my new boss, our CEO, picked up a new laptop and got the system set up. That day, our HR department introduced me to the other LINERs, all who were still having a good time in the office. Then, one day before I was supposed to begin, I got a LINE message from HR that the company was switching to a Work-from-Home policy and no one would be at the office tomorrow. On my onboarding date! I started to get worried, wondering how I could get to know my fellow LINERs and collaborate effectively. But it turned out, even though starting a new job working from home wasn’t ideal, it went better than I expected. The first few days were chaotic, especially for me because I needed to collaborate with almost every team. Thanks to our employee directory (my best friend during COVID-19), I was able to reach out and introduce myself to other LINERs on each team with no problem. After I started to settle in, working remotely was not an issue anymore. Although it could sometimes be hard to connect with colleagues on a personal level, KASIKORN LINE initiated a lot of activities to make our working-from-home life more engaging and inclusive. How did LINERs stay close while social distancing? Each day started with “Good Morning LINERs,” when each LINER took turns giving a 5-minute morning call talking about anything to light up the day. The contents were entertainingly random, like a morning news update, LINE MAN food reviews, interactive games (free lunch if you win), and even horror stories. LINERs also gathered twice a week for a “Virtual Lunch.” The HR team arranged for all kinds of guests and activities to spice up our lunch time, including live music from a well-known Thai musician, a live session with a celebrity fortune-teller, a personality guru, and countless contents from our own LINERs (like latte art, face yoga, homemade cooking, and ergonomics tips for WFH). In addition to those live activities, we also had a weekly mission in our private chat group, which we called “WFHchallenge #openingthedistance (but close at heart).” Each week, a photo competition was announced with a specific hashtag and for more than 20 challenges, LINERs competed by sharing photos/videos according to the topic. The most popular challenge was #StickerFromHome, with more than half of the LINERs from each team participating! (Fun fact: LINERs spent a lot of company-provided LINE Credits purchasing tons of stickers that week) #StickerFromHome #SkyFromHome #RelaxFromHome #SleepyFromHome And after the pandemic … ? Finally, around July, the COVID-19 situation in Bangkok really improved. There were no new domestic cases reported for a few weeks, malls resumed their business, and our new office space was ready! We welcomed back LINERs to our new office — located in Bangkok's newest co-working space, right in the heart of the city, just next to a BTS Sky train station — with a memorable BIG PARTY!!! Since then, our spacious-but-cozy KASIKORN LINE home has been an excellent HQ. Our office provides all the essential facilities and support to enable LINERs to work at their highest productivity. Whether formal meeting rooms or casual discussions over coffee around our stylish lobby, a peaceful zone for working intensely or a private phone booth for an important call, we do have it all. Our home is even equipped for a full-stream press conference and exclusive blogger events! From time to time, our familiar lobby can be magically transformed into a concert hall, food hall, a playground, or even a beer hall. We are also proud of our very own KASIKORN LINE bands, assembled by talented musicians from every team! Our journey is still getting more and more interesting every single day. New faces become old faces, juniors become seniors, colleagues become friends, coming to work becomes meeting up with friends. We value our differences and unique characteristics. We put ourselves in customers' shoes. We enjoy overcoming challenges. And we believe everything is better when we are together! In addition, we also believe there are a lot more interesting individuals out there. Don't hesitate or doubt yourself. Introduce your uniqueness to us. We can’t wait to get better together with you! ※ Please note that the details described in this article may not apply to all offices.

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