200 pounds of dry ice, 143 pints, 31 boxes, 10 states, and one custom company themed flavor later, every Groove employee received their Miss Neeta's pints in time to celebrate the company's 7th Anniversary. Well, everyone except the OOO's and our guy in Kenya - sorry Oti!
Before we get to the celebrations though, let’s rewind and enjoy the journey. We're honored to have served Groove (the company that the MNICP founder works for) in our first company-wide ice cream party. Each step of the way personified what both Miss Neeta's and Groove are all about: optimizing our time and resources, and having a ton of fun getting the job done.
Step 1: Crafting the perfect custom flavor
First things first, getting Groovy with the ice cream - the new flavor had to be blue, and it needed a name. For the blue part, we started with Cookie Monster ice cream (nom-nom), and fused that with Birthday Cake ice cream for Groove's birthday. The end result? A sweet, crunchy combo that starts a party in your mouth.
Next up: naming the flavor.
We held a company wide vote with 3 strong choices, but DaScoopComposer took the cake easily. The name goes back a long way in Groove's history and it fit too perfectly to pass up! DaScoopComposer, which many of our customers will recognize from the Groove Managed Package, is now also the newest addition to the MNICP Menu. The name doesn't exactly make sense in either context; but at the same time, it matches perfectly.
Step 2: The Grind
Once we finalized the flavor, the Miss Neeta’s team got to work. Getting one DaScoopComposer and one pint of choice to each Groover was the most demanding challenge Miss Neeta's has faced so far, but also the most gratifying. In a wild 2 week sprint, we crushed hundreds of Oreos, a ton of chocolate chip cookies, and our own pint production records.
The bigger challenges, though, came from packaging and shipping frozen goodies across the country. Projects with this many variables rarely go perfectly to plan, and this one fell smack dab in the middle of that category. Our plan was to execute as closely as possible to the plays we had drawn up, with the expectation that we'd be forced to call some audibles. And man, did we have to.
Due to a couple of logistical hiccups beyond our control, the ice cream for three employees didn’t make it to their destinations intact. But of course, no Groover goes without a pint. We quickly shipped them more and through some persistence, adaptation, and just enough luck, we successfully delivered to the entire company by Friday, April 9th - just in time for the anniversary.
Step 3: The Pint Party
On the morning of Wednesday April 7th, the first shipments started rolling in around 9:45 am. Over the next two days, the rest of the packages reached their destinations. As the Pint Party expanded to Southern California, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix, Chicago, New York, and of course, all around the Bay Area, watching our teammates enjoying Miss Neeta's Ice Cream together was easily the most fulfilling part of the process.
And the icing on the cake was the virtual Ice Cream Social on Friday afternoon, where we hung out, ate some ice cream, told some stories, and celebrated 7 great years for the company.
The Miss Neeta's team is proud and extremely honored to have served the Groove team and brought everyone together with our ice cream; we thank you all for the incredible support. And a very special thanks to the team members who were involved in the process - we couldn’t have done it without you.
The unforgettable anniversary experience, and the beginning of the Groove <> Miss Neeta's partnership are now etched in our menu, as the story of DaScoopComposer continues.
