As 2025 came to a close, we find ourselves looking back at how we spent the last few months strengthening our foundations, ensuring that as we grow, we do so with intention, clarity, and a excellence. At Developer Tools Bhutan, 2025 was truly the year of stabilization.

Strengthening the Foundations

Across the organization, we invested in the fundamentals that make sustainable excellence possible. This year, our training programs matured from ad-hoc onboarding into structured learning pathways. A culture of knowledge sharing began to take real shape. We saw the formal establishment of our Documentation Team, the launch of our official company website, and successful internship programs that created a strong pipeline of emerging talent.

Our new joiners have been a fantastic addition to our community. Processes became clearer, governance grew steadier, and collaboration became more intentional through shared protocols and collective accountability. We are grateful that our humble workplace has become an environment our staff recognizes as genuinely conducive to focus, growth, and collaboration.

Meeting Across Borders: C1 in Uzbekistan

One of the defining moments of 2025 happened far from our home base. From November 23 to 27, we brought together our ComponentOne team members on a business trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. For many who had just completed their first year, this was the first time teammates from different offices, cultures, and generations finally met face-to-face.

The agenda was packed with deep-dive knowledge sharing and a formal dinner with our fellow FiiT teams. However, the feedback was unanimous: the bonding session was the highlight. It wasn’t your typical corporate icebreaker. Instead, it was a high-energy fusion of Dungeons & Dragons-style quests, tech quizzes, and pop-culture challenges.

The standout moment was an “out-of-the-box” feature pitch challenge. In a hilarious turn of events, three separate teams proposed a “Barbie Pink Theme” for our ComponentOne (C1) controls. While management might not be adding Barbie Pink to the official roadmap just yet, the pitch evolved into a meaningful conversation about valuing unique preferences and roles in innovation. Seeing our team pivot from a joke to a serious discussion on inclusive design was a testament to the caliber of people we have. Seeing our global team transition from avatars on a screen to friends over a meal reminded us that while we build digital tools, we are powered by human connection.

Parallel Joy: From Bumthang to the Chessboard

While part of the team was in Tashkent, the spirit of celebration was just as high back home. Our Bhutan-based team headed to the picturesque valley of Bumthang for a well-deserved retreat, trading keyboards for fresh air and games in the mountains.

The competitive spirit continued on December 6th with the first-ever DTB Chess Tournament on lichess.org. It was a fierce display of strategy and wit—so successful, we just might make it an annual tradition… (Overseas teammates: consider this your formal invitation to the 2026 board!)

Closing the Year with Gratitude

We closed the year together on December 12 with a company dinner at Zhiwa Ling, Thimphu. This marked a double celebration: the end of a great year and the successful ComponentOne Engineering Release on December 5.

This success was a global effort. It bridged our “OG” champion engineers overseas, whose experience and mentorship continue to raise the bar, with our talented new C1 devs and writers in Bhutan. Amidst the toasts and the laughter, there was a profound sense of gratitude. This goes out to our developers, our DevOps team, our Marketing specialists, and every global collaborator who makes our work possible.

2026: The Year of Elevation

Our theme for the coming year is Elevate. With a stable foundation beneath us, we are moving from building systems to refining them. We are moving from learning basics to sharpening mastery, and from potential to performance.

In 2026, we are focused on:

• Elevating quality and delivery standards.

• Investing deliberately in talent by turning our Professional Development Plans into robust career-pathway engines.

• Formalizing how we learn from one another.

• Strengthening our protocols, workflows, and tools.

• Turning promise into performance.

We aren’t just building tools; we are building a team that spans borders and cultures. From our base in Bhutan to our champion teammates and collaborators across the globe, we are grateful for what we’ve established together and look forward to taking it to the next level in 2026!