Takahiro Fujii, Matteo Carella Remote Trust RSGT 2022 TOkyo, 5/Jan/2022

Note! From From Taka Matteo 🇯🇵 🇮🇹

Taka started his career as a software engineer at Rakuten. He was in charge of travel services and eventually engaged in organizational development as an engineering manager. In 2020, Taka joined WealthPark because he shared the company's mission to bring investment opportunities in alternative assets to everyone. In April, he became VP of Engineering, leading an international engineering team of more than 40 members from over 10 countries. Takahiro Fujii, VPoE About us

Matteo Carella, Agile Coach About us Matteo is an Agile Coach, Trainer and facilitator, passionate about Complexity Science and human system dynamics. During his career he has worked in a wide range of fields: from code development to user experience, product and business development, digital transformation and HR. He has coached teams, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Executives and C-​ level Leaders in different business contexts such as IT, advertising, banking and TELCO.

Introduction MTGs Tools Communications Trust Formula Tuckman modal Case study Wrap up Agenda

Timeline Partial remote work Full remote work 2020/3 2020/4 VPoE (1 or 2 times / week)

WealthPark Over 80% of the engineers are from overseas( 🇧🇷🇨🇦🇵🇱🇵🇭🇻🇳🇨🇳🇷🇺🇮🇹🇯🇵etc..) About 20% are offshore, or always work remotely 40+ Engineering organization FrontEnd, BackEnd, EM, Mobile, QA, Agile Coach, Security, SRE etc Tech focused (Go, React, Ruby, DevOps, etc.) Changing from Business Driven to Product Driven Small cross functional teams able to develop independently and fast(Squad, inspired by Spotify model) About the organization

Information sharing was largely ensured not through MTGs, but through interactive conversations among the members of the company (also during the coffee time) Before COVID19

The engineering organization at WealthPark is very communicative. One of my very favorite habits is that usually around 3:00 PM, a "Coffee ☕️?" to the engineering channel on Slack. We all go for a walk to the nearby Family Mart, buy coffee, and talk about it on the way office. Not all of us go, but those who want to and those who can go. Coffee Culture at WealthPark

Then the COVID19 started to hit...

Remote Trust

COMMUNICATION We started having a lot of remote meetings...

COMMUNICATION But face to face communication is different... http://agilemodeling.com/essays/communication.htm

Whiteboard discussions are the first thing to be lost when moving to remote work. You can report via text or MTG, but you can't have interactive discussions. You can't put up stickies and make kanban. We were very fortunate to have online whiteboards such as Miro, Figjam, Strap, etc. that we could use without stress. (If you're not using them, I don't think you have a choice not to.) Without Miro we could not survive

Without Miro we could not survive

Without Miro we could not survive

Without Miro we could not survive

As for coding, pair programming and mob programming can be continued through VS Code Live Share and Code with me (Jetbrains). These have been around as concepts for a long time, but it is only relatively recently that they have become available for use on a practical level. It was really good. Live share supports pair and mob programming

COMMUNICATION In the beginning, we think that frequent checking will complement the missing parts, but this is not true. The result is often just MTGs with no active discussion and more uninspiring huddles. A : "I did A,B,C." B : "I did C,D. So far it's good. C : "I did E." Facilitator : "Something to discuss or talk?" A&B&C : "No." About meetings & communication

COMMUNICATION Asynchronous communication Also, the amount of conversations on Slack increased. While this is a good thing, it can be very difficult to find the information you need, or find it again, if there is a discussion on Slack that you need to look back on later, or if you are not sure how to use the slack channels. Covid # of slack messages at WealthPark

COMMUNICATION Always online In a remote environment we are in an "always online" mode. For this reason this kind of fatigue can led to poor focus on the long run.

COMMUNICATION Reading facial expressions "Reading the room" along with people facial expressions and emotions it's something that comes easy and natural in a physical environment. In a remote setting we suffer this lack of "presence" (turned off cameras, split screens, small screens).

COMMUNICATION Reading facial expressions(TIPS) Tried to be more proactive in expressing "Like" and "Good" in Online mtg. (This is not limited to Retrospective). Just a little too much! Matteo is amazing!

COMMUNICATION "Zoom fatigue" Moreover to properly "smell" or read the mood in a room we not only need to read facial expressions but also body language. Interacting with people without having access to their body language it's an huge cognitive load for our brains.

TAKEAWAYS What can help Meetings = quality over quantity Video calls > Slack messages Visualize with collaborative tools Express your emotions as much as possible Pair work sessions Camera on Record short videos for a better async communication Proper onboarding new members

COMMUNICATION Create a place to mumble #times(Working out Loud) Create a place to tweet, not report. (If you like Twitter, you know what I mean.) If you mumble, others will help you (sometimes). This feeling can make helping each other less stressful. Note : Some people don't like Twitter.

Trust formula

TRUST The Trust formula R = (n-1)n 2

TRUST The Trust formula R = (n-1)n 2 Days needed to build a one-​ way trust relationship Number of the team members

TRUST The Trust formula 1 = (2-1)2 2 According to the formula it will take 2 days to establish a trust relationship between 2 people

TRUST The Trust formula 3 = (3-1)3 2 In this case it will take 3 days for each connection, so 9days for a team of 3! Imagine this for a team of 9!

TRUST Performance can only be reached with trust https://www.softed.com/us/news/exploring-​ the-​ stages-​ of-​ team-​ development/

TRUST Performance can only be reached with trust https://www.softed.com/us/news/exploring-​ the-​ stages-​ of-​ team-​ development/

After Evaluation feedbacks Boss Member ”I've been following your work closely on an ongoing basis..." "Oh, I see. I didn't notice, but I'm glad you're watching.." Boss Member ”I've been following your work closely on an ongoing basis..." "No, no, no, you never see it, and you don't know what kind of code I'm modifying." Before

TRUST Evaluation feedbacks identified complaints and questions about the evaluation and feedback Seems low for the market value. Feel uneasy about relative evaluations (not know what other people's evaluations are) Not satisfied with the feedback I receive. From there, the criteria can be clarified, and the content and duration of the feedback can be changed.

Information Gap Onsite Members Remote Workers Could you please confirm our conclusion..?? MTG "We are having great discussion 🔥" "We think it's a conclusion based on discussion, but we don't see the context, you know?"

Information Gap Now both of them are the Remote Workers When I joined the company, the company didn't have full remote work. I've been working full remote since I joined the company.

Conclusion Remote Trust Remote work reveals what's missing in building true trust.

Wrap up

TAKEAWAYS Takeaways as VPoE Be able to run on your own, but be able to consult and report easily. Don't make assumptions. If you have an assumption, make it known in the conversation ("I was wondering if this might be the case...") - this doesn't mean don't make a decision. Be honest about what I don't know. Kudos Support in non-​ technical matters as a company

TAKEAWAYS Takeaways as Agile Coach 1:1 meetings are useful to gather context Gemba "walk" is not possible, but shadowing meetings helps a lot Missing the "watercooler" conversations full of insights Build and gather trust, then focus on processes

TAKEAWAYS What can foster trust Admit your mistakes (it's part of human nature) Ask help without hesitation Give feedbacks, ask for feedbacks Clarify roles and responsibilites Keep expectations real Practice active listening "Start with why" Acknowledge others for their good work Be transparent and genuine Talk about yourself

TAKEAWAYS Trust 9.723 km far 2 different languages 8 hours of timezone 1 talk All of this would not have been possibile without trust Milan, Italy Tokyo, Japan 9.723 km 8hours of timezone

Takahiro Fujii, Matteo Carella Thank you for joining!