Name.com Blog
August 05, 2016

The Name office transmogrified into Hogwarts for a day, and it was magical

Our office manager, Kristen, really likes Harry Potter. I mean, she really likes Harry Potter. So in celebration of Harry’s 36th birthday and just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Kristen threw us an epic Harry Potter party.


Our office manager, Kristen, really likes Harry Potter. I mean, she really likes Harry Potter. So in celebration of Harry’s 36th birthday and just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Kristen threw us an epic Harry Potter party.

Harry Potter party invitation
Invitation sent to Name.com employees

Obviously, everyone had to be sorted into the appropriate houses prior to the party to compete for the house cup. Things got a little heated as people were sorted.

All chat
Our Sr. Director, Software Engineering is outed as a Slytherin

The product team was nearly divided forever after some hurtful things were said about Hufflepuffs. One employee, after discovering he was in Ravenclaw, was reduced to occasionally muttering “intelligence and wit” for three straight days. But on the day of the party, everyone rallied together and had a great time competing for the house cup and participating in other Harry Potter themed games. As I stood sipping my butterbeer and watching the camaraderie, it struck me that it would be interesting to evaluate what the distribution of the different houses said about Name.com as a company (being the Hufflepuff product team nerd that I am).

As a whole, the company is pretty evenly divided amongst the four houses. Our house diversity is a large part of why we work so well together and produce work we are all proud of. Can you imagine a company run solely by one house? All of the products and functionality would be geared towards one goal without any consideration for other perspectives. The fact that we have so many different types of personalities working together means that we are continually pushing each other to consider new ideas and collaborate to find the best solutions.

Hour distribution pie chart

Next, I decided to look more granularly at the data. The development team is overrun with Ravenclaws, which makes sense given their interest in the pursuit of knowledge and how things work. Marketing and support, who work closely with our amazing customers, are majority Gryffindor. Gryffindors espouse bravery, daring, and chivalry and are exactly the people we want communicating with and advocating for our customers. Finally, it was a pleasant surprise to discover the product team is chock full of Hufflepuffs. A Hufflepuff values hard work, loyalty, and patience. These are necessary qualities in user experience design and planning, which is a highly collaborative and iterative process.

bar graph harry potter houses

In the end, after the house cup was won (cough, by the Hufflepuffs, cough cough) and the scar was pinned on Harry, we all went back to our muggle realities. I’d like to think that a little part of our office still holds the secrets of Hogwarts, though. In celebrating the joys of Harry Potter, our company came together and discovered there is magic in our differences.

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