New Hire Welcome Packet Template

Fernway

New-hire handbook
Studio & Workshop · Portland, OR

A handbook made for one person

Welcome to Fernway, Maya.

Maya OkaforProduct Designer · Packs & Shelter team
Your manager: Nia Adeyemi

Day one Mon 3 November

Freya Lindqvist, founder. She sewed the first Fernway pack on a kitchen table in 2016 and still fixes the zips herself.

Your start Mon 3 Nov, 9:30

Where 214 Tannery Row

Ask for Priya at the front desk

Dress code Warm layers

Welcome, Maya. Machine 3 is yours now — oil it Fridays. — Walt, stuck to your monitor

01 · A letter from Freya

Hi Maya —

We have been looking forward to Monday for weeks. When you walked us through your tent-pole sketches in the interview, Walt went quiet and then said “she’ll do,” which from Walt is a standing ovation.

Fernway is eighteen people in an old tannery who think gear should last twenty years and be easy to fix when it doesn’t. You are joining at a good moment: the Kestrel pack ships in spring and the new two-person tent is still mostly chalk lines on canvas. Your fingerprints will be on both.

This handbook started as my messy notes. It has the practical stuff — who to ask, where the coffee is, the wifi — and a little of how we think. Read it on the bus. You don’t need to remember any of it. Nobody expects you to know anything in week one except where the kitchen is.

Ask everything. Take the long lunch on Friday. Welcome to the crew.

Freya

Freya Lindqvist · Founder · freya@fernway.co

**P.S.**Bring layers. The warehouse is cold until about ten, and the good blanket in the quiet room is already claimed by the dog.

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 2

Field test · Mount Hood, October

02 · The short version

Fernway, in one page.

We make packs and tents that are light enough to forget about and tough enough to hand down — designed, prototyped and repaired under one roof.

What we make

Eleven products: daypacks, the Kestrel 38 trekking pack, two tents and a small line of repair kits. Every product has a published spare-parts list.

Who it’s for

Weekend walkers and slow travellers, not summit racers. People who camp twice a year and want one tent that just works, for a decade.

How we make it

Designed and prototyped here, sewn by two family-run partners in Portland and Porto. Anything that breaks comes back to our repair bench.

2016 Founded in Freya’s garage with one sewing machine

18 People on the team. You make it nineteen

4,200 Free repairs done at our bench since 2019

20 yr Warranty on every pack and tent we sell

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 3

03 · Monday to Friday

Your first week, day by day.

Light on meetings, heavy on people. Every afternoon has open time so you can wander, read, and sit in on whatever looks interesting.

Mon3 Nov Arrive & settle

09:30

Coffee & building tour

Priya · meet at the front door, Tannery Row

11:00

Laptop, logins, key fob

Priya · your desk in the design studio

12:30

Welcome lunch, on us

Whole team · the long table in the kitchen

Tue4 Nov The product

10:00

1:1 with Nia — your first projects

Nia · quiet room

13:30

Line walk: all 11 products

Samuel · sample library

15:30

Read the repair log

Theo · repair bench, workshop

Wed5 Nov The workshop

09:30

Sew your own stuff sack

Walt · machine 3, workshop. Yes, really.

13:00

Patterns & CAD walkthrough

Daniel · design studio

16:00

Weekly design crit (just listen)

Product team · The Tent meeting room

Thu6 Nov The customer

10:00

Two hours on customer email

Theo · you read, he answers

14:00

Brand, photo & tone of voice

Lucía · photo bay

16:30

Coffee with Freya

Freya · wherever she is. Bring questions.

Fri7 Nov Look back

10:00

Week-one check-in

Nia · quiet room · what surprised you?

12:30

Long Friday lunch

Whole team · someone cooks, everyone eats

15:00

Repair Friday

Workshop · fix something a customer sent in

Heads up → Wear shoes you can stand in all day on Wednesday. The workshop floor is concrete and Walt does not believe in stools.

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 4

04 · Meet the crew

The people you’ll meet.

Nia Adeyemi

Head of Product · your manager

Ask me about: why the Kestrel has six pockets, not seven.

Freya Lindqvist

Founder

Ask me about: the 2017 tent that leaked on the whole team.

Walt Hendricks

Workshop Lead

Ask me about: 34 years of sewing machines, and which one is yours.

Priya Raman

Operations & People

Ask me about: payroll, keys, laptops — and the best dosa in town.

Daniel Cho

Patterns & Prototyping

Ask me about: turning your sketch into a cut file by Thursday.

Samuel Mensah

Materials & Suppliers

Ask me about: recycled nylon, and our mills in Porto and Taipei.

Lucía Ortega

Brand & Photography

Ask me about: the shoot calendar and the field-test trips.

Theo Brandt

Customer Care & Repairs

Ask me about: what customers actually break, in order.

and you! Photo on Friday

Maya Okafor

Product Designer

Ask me about: …we’ll fill this in together at Friday lunch.

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 5

“If we can’t fix it on our own bench, we don’t ship it.”Walt, every design crit

05 · How we work

Five things we believe.

1

Make it repairable

A product isn’t finished until we know how to fix it. Spare parts come before launch dates.

LikeThe Kestrel’s hip belt unscrews, so a broken buckle is a $4 part, not a new pack.

2

Show the sketch early

Pin rough work to the wall on day two, not day twenty. Early feedback is cheap feedback.

LikeWednesday crit only accepts work that is “embarrassingly unfinished.”

3

Test it outside

Opinions are free; a wet night on a ridge is data. Every product spends 30 nights outdoors before it ships.

LikeYou get two paid field days a year to take prototypes camping.

4

Small team, no heroes

Nobody works weekends to save a deadline. If the plan doesn’t fit, we change the plan.

LikeSlack is quiet after 6 pm. Freya schedules her late messages for morning.

5

Write it down

Decisions live in Notion, not in someone’s head. If you asked twice, it should be a page.

LikeThis handbook. It began as Freya’s notes and now it’s yours to edit.

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 6

06 · The first three months

Your first 30 · 60 · 90 days.

A guide, not a test. Nia will adjust it with you at each check-in.

30days

Learn

Know the line, the people and the bench.

• Meet everyone one-on-one for coffee (18 people, about 4 a week).
• Sew a stuff sack and a simple tote with Walt.
• Read the last 12 months of the repair log.
• Shadow two Wednesday crits, then present at the third.
• Redesign one small part: the Kestrel’s lid buckle.

60days

Contribute

Own a piece of the new two-person tent.

• Lead the vestibule and door design with Daniel.
• Build two full-size prototypes in the workshop.
• Run your first field test — one night, one ridge.
• Present findings at the January product review.
• Write your first decision page in Notion.

90days

Own

Take the tent to a sample-ready design.

• Final pattern signed off by Walt and Daniel.
• Spare-parts list and repair guide drafted.
• Materials locked with Samuel and the Porto mill.
• Brief Lucía for the spring launch shoot.
• Tell us one thing we should stop doing.

What a great first 90 days looks like

You know every product well enough to fix it. The tent has your name on its pattern files. And when someone in the workshop has a design question, they walk to your desk first.

Check-ins with Nia Date

Week one Fri 7 Nov

Day 30 Wed 3 Dec

Day 60 Fri 9 Jan

Day 90 Mon 2 Feb

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 7

07 · Tools & access

Your kit, ready on Monday.

Priya set most of this up last week. Tick the rest off with her on Monday at 11:00.

Hardware At your desk

MacBook Pro 14″, M4Asset FW-031 · already enrolled

Ready

27″ monitor & Wacom Intuos ProDesign studio, desk 4 by the window

Ready

Building key fobFront door 7:00–20:00, workshop, bike cage

Mon

Workshop kit: shears, rulers, chalkWalt hands it over on Wednesday

Wed

Day-one to-dos Takes 20 min

Sign the handbook & I-9 in GustoBring your passport or ID

Mon

Pick your health planWindow closes 30 Nov

By 30 Nov

Add a photo and pronouns to SlackLucía takes the photo on Friday

Fri

Accounts Sign in with Google

Google Workspacemaya@fernway.co · mail, calendar, drive

Ready

SlackJoin #studio, #workshop, #repairs, #lunch

Ready

Figma — Product teamEditor seat · start with “Kestrel 38”

Ready

NotionRead “Decisions” and “Line book” first

Ready

Rhino 8 + CLO 3DPattern work · licence moves from Daniel

Mon

1Password — Studio vaultShared logins: suppliers, Shopify (read)

Mon

Linear — Product boardYour first ticket is already waiting

Mon

Workshop access With Walt

Safety induction20 minutes · cutters, irons, the big press

Wed

Machine sign-offMachines 1–3 first, the walking-foot later

Wed

Your first ticket · LIN-482

Redesign the Kestrel 38 lid buckle

Customers snap it in the cold. Theo has 41 returned buckles in a box for you, and Daniel has the old CAD file. No deadline in week one — just look.

small part,
big lesson →

ReadySet up for you MonDone together on day one YouYours to do, no rush

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 8

08 · Around the studio

Finding your way.

Hours

9:30 – 5:30, flexibleCore hours 10–4. The building opens at 7:00 and locks at 20:00.

Coffee

La Marzocco, kitchenBeans from Heart, two blocks away. Last one to empty the hopper refills it.

Bikes

Indoor cage by the dock24 racks, a pump and a stand. Showers are next to the WCs.

Parking

Four spaces out backFirst come. Street parking on Tannery Row is free after 6 pm.

Lunch

Bring, buy, or shareFridays we cook together. Monday’s welcome lunch is on us.

Dogs

Juniper, mostlyOffice dogs are welcome on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Never in the workshop.

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 9

09 · Benefits & time off

Rest is part of the job.

Everything here starts on day one unless it says otherwise. Questions go to Priya.

Benefit	What you get	How it works
Paid time off	25 days a year	Plus your birthday. Book in Gusto two weeks ahead for anything over three days.
Winter close	24 Dec–1 Jan	The whole studio shuts. These days don’t count against your 25.
Sick days	As many as you need	Tell Nia on Slack. No doctor’s note unless it runs past a week.
Health, dental, vision	100% for you, 75% family	Three plans through Kaiser or Regence. Choose by 30 November.
Retirement	4% 401(k) match	Through Guideline. Vests immediately.
Parental leave	16 weeks, full pay	For every parent, after six months with us.
Gear allowance	$600 a year	Any outdoor brand. Plus 50% off Fernway and free repairs for life.
Field days	2 paid days outside	Take a prototype camping. Write one page about what broke.
Learning	$1,000 a year	Courses, books, conferences. Just tell Nia what you picked.
Commute	$50 a month	Bike upkeep or a TriMet pass. Paid with your salary.

Your first payday

We pay on the 15th and the last working day of the month. Your first pay lands on Friday 14 November.

Holidays already booked?

Tell Priya in week one and we’ll honour them, even if you’re short on days.

— no awkwardness, promise

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 10

10 · Who to ask for what

Stuck? Ask these people.

Pay, benefits, keys

Priya · #ops · ext. 101

Laptop & logins

Priya · #help-it

Your work, priorities

Nia · DM, anytime

Patterns & CAD

Daniel · #studio

Sewing & prototypes

Walt · just walk over

Fabric & samples

Samuel · #materials

Photos & brand

Lucía · #brand

Customers & repairs

Theo · #repairs

Anything else

Freya · door’s open

Questions people asked in their first week

Can I work from home?

Yes, on Mondays and Fridays if you like. Tuesday to Thursday we’re all in, because that’s when the workshop needs you.

Do I need to know how to sew?

No. Walt will teach you enough to be dangerous by Wednesday afternoon.

What do I wear?

Whatever you’d wear to a friend’s workshop. Closed shoes on workshop days.

Can I take samples home?

Yes — sign them out in the sample library book and bring them back muddy.

Who books meeting rooms?

You do. The Tent and the quiet room are in Google Calendar. The quiet room is never for calls.

What if I break something?

Tell Walt. We fix things for a living. It has happened to all eighteen of us.

When do I get feedback?

Every Friday 1:1 with Nia, and at the Wednesday crit. Nobody saves it up for a review.

Where do I park ideas?

The cork wall in the design studio, or #ideas on Slack. Both get read every Monday.

Fernway · Welcome handbook for Maya Okafor 11

We’re glad you’re here, Maya.

See you Monday at 9:30. Come hungry — lunch is on us, and there’s a seat saved for you at the long table.

Key contacts

Nia AdeyemiYour manager
(503) 555-0142

Priya RamanOps & People, day one
(503) 555-0117

Freya LindqvistFounder
(503) 555-0100

Studio214 Tannery Row
Portland, OR 97214

Wifi & codes

Network

Fernway-Studio

Password

pitchthetent2016

Bike cage code

4 · 1 · 9 · 7

Guests use Fernway-Guest, password campfire. Please don’t share the studio password.

Fernway · Made to last, made to fix fernway.co