Emojis for Business

The Modern Art of Working Remotely and Asynchronously

For centuries, work has always been tightly coupled to geography. However, for employers, this has meant a limited talent pool of candidates. For employees, this has meant a limited amount of geographically close opportunities. This is changing. Distributed teams are possible thanks thanks to the Internet. However, there's a right way and a wrong way to set up distributed teams. This talk is part experience report and part guide on how to work remotely. It will cover practical and time tested tools and tips for working more effectively, even if you do work in a traditional colocated workplace.

Transcript

1. Emojis for Business Fred Galoso @wayoutmind
2. The Modern Art of Working Remotely and Asynchronously
3. Roadmap* 1. Me, Remote Worker 2. The Remote Spectrum 3. Distributed Work Principles 4. Case Studies and Situations 5. Q & A * Plenty of emojis
4. 
 Fred Galoso Principal Engineer, Trello Atlassian
5. 2015 Team member moves to Kansas in support of spouse’s career
6. Teams become distributed, accidentally. Now what?
7. Permanent and temporary team distribution is all working remotely.
8. Sound familiar?
 “, gonna WFH” “Will catch up after my flight”
9. 
 “Let’s make it work and reuse what we’ve got”
11. Dedicated Space Finite Resource Technical Woes Asymmetrical Experience, Not an equal experience for all attendees
12. 2016 I join Trello, then a startup.
13. Trello’s remote journey TL;DR We want to keep the best people, regardless of where they want to live. ⬇ We want to find the best people, regardless of where they are.
14. From the banks of the Mississippi River in my hometown
15. 2019 Hiring and expanding distributed teams
16. The Remote Spectrum
17. Part-time remote work Full-time remote work Occasional work from home Split office/home work Road warriors Full-time distributed role
18. Part-time remote work Full-time remote work Flexible to the things that come up. Embraces the potential to remove geography from work.
19. Part-time remote work Full-time remote work Without support, is the worst of all worlds. Requires complete organizational investment to be successful.
20. Benefits 1. Less about infrastructure (offices) more to individuals ⭐ 2. Organizations go to the best people for the job 3. No mandatory commutes 4. Public health
21. Challenges 1. Right tools for the job 2. Culture of autonomy and trust 3. Timezones and logistics 4. Interpersonal and social relationships
22. Distributed Work Principles
23. Applicable concepts across the remote spectrum.
 Practices > specific tools* *full disclosure: I help build products and work at a company that can help
24. Hard to schedule conference rooms. Poor in room audio. Attendees in the room talking over the remote attendee(s).
25. Level the playing field
26. Distributed Meetings Everyone phones in with their own computer
27. Distributed Meetings Lowest common denominator is the individual ✋
28. Distributed Meetings Call forces only person to speak at a time ☝
29. Distributed Meetings Unless every person is in the same room, all meetings are held via video
30. Distributed Meetings 1. Good Headphones 2. Reliable Internet 3. Video Call Etiquette
32. Context in communication
33. Re: Email thread of doom
34. Re:
 Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: … … … … … ……………………Re:
35. What is being discussed ? What is the decision ? What is the immediacy of the conversation ⏰?
 
 Who is missing out on this conversation ?
36. Persistent, available, recorded communication No one is left out since missing folks can find it and consume it, even if they view it after the fact.
37. Medium for the message Length Actionability Persistence
 (Relevance) Producers Consumers Short Two way Minutes 1 Few Medium One way Hours 1 Few to many Medium Two way Days Many Many Long Two way Ongoing Many Many
38. Example mediums Length Actionability Persistence
 (Relevance) Producers Consumers Examples Short Two way Minutes 1 Few Chat, video Medium One way Hours 1 Few to many Email Medium Two way Days Many Many Shared document Long Two way Ongoing Many Many Wiki, intranet
39. Example mediums Length Actionability Persistence
 (Relevance) Producers Consumers Examples Short Two way Minutes 1 Few Chat, video Medium One way Hours 1 Few to many Email Medium Two way Days Many Many Shared document Long Two way Ongoing Many Many Wiki, intranet
40. Chat short messages, in process work specific tasks, work coordination 1:1 collaboration, status updates, “water cooler”
41. Chat is the shared office, the mesh point of conversation.
42. Video meetings with agendas, escalation to sight and sound realtime shared collaboration, formal presenter/audience interaction screen sharing, show and tell, webinars, one on ones, anywhere where high fidelity communication is needed
43. Example mediums Length Actionability Persistence
 (Relevance) Producers Consumers Examples Short Two way Minutes 1 Few Chat, video Medium One way Hours 1 Few to many Email Medium Two way Days Many Many Shared document Long Two way Ongoing Many Many Wiki, intranet
44. Email one to many notifications announcements, setting up other forms of communications out of office notifications, notes, announcements
45. Example mediums Length Actionability Persistence
 (Relevance) Producers Consumers Examples Short Two way Minutes 1 Few Chat, video Medium One way Hours 1 Few to many Email Medium Two way Days Many Many Shared document Long Two way Ongoing Many Many Wiki, intranet
46. Shared document persistent artifacts for presentation or decision making memos, agendas, documents, research longer form announcements, FAQs, polices and procedures, reports
47. Example mediums Length Actionability Persistence
 (Relevance) Producers Consumers Examples Short Two way Minutes 1 Few Chat, video Medium One way Hours 1 Few to many Email Medium Two way Days Many Many Shared document Long Two way Ongoing Many Many Wiki, intranet
48. Wiki/intranet archiving, artifact catalogs, search shared documents over time, team hub about pages, organization wide shared documents
49. Tools can mask intention and humanity Keep in mind that at the end of these is a human being with feelings and reactions. ❤
50. Escalate to other mediums ↔ If it feels awkward, find a different medium.
51. Constructive feedback? Stick to video
52. Assume positive intent Ask one on one if something is not clear.
53. Assume positive intent Resentment builds over time due to underlying issues not being addressed. Digital communication gone rogue can breed misunderstandings and hurt feelings.
54. Annotate emotions Use the full breadth of expression, including .
55. It can wait Assume most interactions are asynchronous. Set and stick with working hours and quiet time.
56. Schedule socialization Relationships matter, schedule it.
57. Distributed Work Principles ⏪
58. Level the playing field ☯
59. Context in communication
60. Assume positive intent ❤
61. Schedule socialization
62. Case studies and situations
63. #remote #realtalk
64. Timezones and working hours
67. Standardize on a timezone
68. No meetings and blocked off time
69. Decide on a team “core hours”
70. Shared calendars
71. Timezone extremes 1. Recorded video 2. Lean into written communication ✏ 3. Design processes to be resilient to latency 4. Rotate overlap hours
72. Project team ⚡
73. Project team What Where How Project specification or artifacts Shared document Written by a few drivers, open for cross functional team commenting Status updates or “stand ups” Chat or video Sent once weekly, daily. Periodic update and risk/ blockers, call for help Research Wiki with shared documents Series of documents with user interviews, data, and/ or findings Retrospective Shared document, video Start/Stop/Continue, , action items coordinated elsewhere
74. Sensitive disclosure
75. Sensitive disclosure What Where How Notify parties Direct message chat, email “I added some time on your calendar to talk about …” Bad news Video The first interaction after notifying party that you have something to share Sensitive disclosure Protected shared document Shared only with need to know parties, but creates audit trail Follow-up and sharing Email, shared document, wiki (depending on persistence) Collaborate on messaging if necessary, publish announcement
76. Emergencies and incidents
77. Emergencies and incidents What Where How Escalation Shared chat or specific incident response tool “@all I think something is going on with…, I am seeing…” Response Video, action items in shared document Swarm in video, action items and status in a timeline document Updates Chat, public shared document with stakeholders/customers Stick with an update schedule, some periodic interval to set exceptions. Delegate this.
78. One on ones
79. One on ones What Where How Currently working together on a task Direct message chat, video “I have a question about how to do …” Manager <> report Video, action items in protected shared document Feedback and discussion in video, outcomes in writing Social time Video, #offtopic chat rooms Scheduled/loose agenda hangout time, interest group or “water cooler” discussion in chat Wins and announcements Chat, wiki, shared document Work together on messaging, but manager responsible for distribution
80. Hallway and one off conversations
81. Put it in writing somewhere, with the right medium for the message, that’s discoverable.
82. Etc, tips and tricks 1. Expire chat messages 2. Have good headphones and microphones 3. Periodic onsite gatherings are still amazing 4. Seek out remote communities 5. Get out of the house
85. Emojis for Business Fred Galoso @wayoutmind