Story of a full-remote culture

Transcript

1. Story of a full-remote culture GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019
2. Clément Garcia Tech Lead Android at Heetch GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 @HappyDr0id
3. Story of a full-remote culture GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019
4. What is remote? GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
5. The employee is not working in the main office of the company, or even in an office actually acquired by the company. The place of work can be a coffee place, a coworking place, or home. What is remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture Remote
6. Employees are allowed to work outside of the offices sometimes: - once a week: every Wednesday, - twice a month, ... The major part of the team is usually at the office, and the remote employee is away. Such companies don't necessarily have a proper process in place for people working remotely (video calls, rituals, etc). Or remote people are the only ones to practice it. Remote-friendly What is remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
7. Anybody can work from anywhere they want without impacting their workflow, routine or performance. Tools are important but it mainly comes from the team's decisions and commitments. People work remotely so you can’t assume that: - people will be available when you need them - people are on the same timezone - people have the same schedules → Full flexibility to employees by allowing them to have their own schedule and design their work routine based on their personal routine. Remote-first What is remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
8. When everybody in a team or in a company is working remotely full-time by default, nearly never go to the company offices (when there are) or for some occasions. This can only be done in a remote-first company. At Heetch - ~70 engineers, all remotely working by default - some are working at the Paris office - everybody has different habits: coworking space at Lyon, working at each other’s place from time to time at Rennes, ... Full-remote What is remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
9. But why going full-remote? GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
10. Because all companies start with it! You don't constraint yourself to hire local talents only, you can reach way more persons. → More reachable persons → More potential to grow, which can be very important for a startup Hiring But why going full-remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
11. You'll never be as much effective as when you work when you really want, when you really feel that you're good to work → full focus, full will to dig in your work. Fewer interruptions, and we all know the quality difference between a day full of interruptions and another one without. Work efficiency But why going full-remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
12. It is no longer your life that adapts to your work, but more your work that you can make fit in your life. - The flexibility aspect can be good or bad for the life balance depending on how you deal with it - A good habit could be to have some kind of after-work ritual like going out to do some running, meditation, etc Better life balance But why going full-remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
13. More eco-friendly But why going full-remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
14. Chapter Name FR-DDMM-YYYY Team Presentation Name
15. Chapter Name FR-DDMM-YYYY Team Presentation Name
16. A sustainable answer to the issues of ever-growing cities we are building: - Traffic jam - Transport pollution - Real estate cost - City gentrification Not tied to the place of your work, don’t maintain and increase all drawbacks of packed cities. More eco-friendly But why going full-remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
17. - Get out of the presence prison - Freedom → happier, less turn-over - More inclusive (handicap, introverts) - More diversity Lots of other advantages But why going full-remote? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
18. Ok, but how to achieve that? GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
19. With trust
20. Trust the work done and nothing else Seeing the actual progress of the feature the person is working on is still the best way to actually know if someone is working Give employees autonomy & responsibility Trust Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
21. Open-minded spirit spread in the whole company Opened to work differently, to be able to reconsider existing methods and try alternatives to see if it works better or not. This is the best way to build a culture that will adapt to your remote needs. Open-mind Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
22. Remote coffee machine → Casual calls organized every week with a randomly selected group of 3 people in the company. Discuss about your weekend, your life, your work, any subject. It was on Monday morning when I joined the company, now the schedule is the group’s choice for the best matching. → Good example of staying open minded about a ritual to try to make it better. Rituals Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
23. Really a key subject to work efficiently in a remote context - Need of documentation / organization - Be asynchronous as much as possible: refer systematically to documentation and not systematically to persons, because these persons may have written a document to explain a behavior or the details of a solution Asynchronism Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
24. “It doesn't have to be crazy at work” Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson (Basecamp founders) Asynchronism Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
25. “Calm [at work] is asynchronous first, real-time second.” (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, It doesn't have to be crazy at work) Asynchronism Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
26. “In almost every situation, the expectation of an immediate response is an unreasonable expectation.” (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, It doesn't have to be crazy at work) Asynchronism Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
27. - Avoid to ask for a call within few minutes or even in the current day if it wasn't planned, except for true urgency (crash or impactful bug in production) - Use public communication channels as much as possible instead of private ones → Someone else might be able to answer your question → With this transparency, it is easier for anyone to be aware of what is going on currently on the project Asynchronism Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
28. Super important for your daily work. It is thanks to tools that we are nowadays able to work remotely for a company anywhere in the world. But more importantly, you have to determine which tool for which usage. Communication → Synchronous communication? Asynchronous communication? Documentation → Technical documentation? Product documentation? Tools Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
29. Main communication channel, mainly for synchronous communication → 1 general channel for global announcements → few channels dedicated to each product team → 1 channel per new project Tools Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
30. - Don't expect people to answer you right away. People have different priorities and therefore different expectations and schedules. - Avoid to ping everyone in a channel and chose relevant people to ping instead. - As a rule of thumb, if a Slack thread grows more than a dozen messages, then it's maybe worth considering moving the discussion to either Notion or Zoom. - Try to keep discussions on public channels as much as possible so that decision are available for everyone. Tools - Slack Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
31. Video call software. Used on a daily basis for team meetings, 1:1, and informal discussions. Tools Notion Main documentation tool: product specifications, meeting notes. Asynchronous communication. Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
32. The tools list could last forever, but the main point is Find the tools that suit your way of working The tools aren’t specifically important, but more the usage you’re making of them. We used Dropbox Paper before, now Notion. It can always evolve ‍♂ Tools Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
33. - Occasions for the whole company, or the team your working with, to meet each other IRL and create some bounds in other ways than with the remote rituals. - Company offsite at Heetch every 8 months + Team retreats twice a year At Invision, IRL is the big company offsite that happens annually (700 employees). * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EuGmRC6Eaw Offsite / Team retreats Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
34. "Remote-first companies develop, by necessity, a culture of communication designed to work with distributed team members. They tend to favor written, asynchronous communication, and they value transparency and reinforce team cohesion with regular in-person team reunions." (Forbes) This perception of remote work is mine, but you can also refer to other companies to build your opinion about remote: Basecamp, Doist, Invision, Buffer. Conclusion Ok, but how to achieve that? 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
35. The end. GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
36. “It doesn't have to be crazy at work” Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson References GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
37. - https://obedparla.com/miscellaneous/my-first-week-at-a-remote-first-company/ - https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/10/02/the-shifting-remot e-work-market/ - https://blog.viktorpetersson.com/remote-work/2019/05/18/a-decade-of-remot e.html - https://www.welcometothejungle.co/fr/articles/how-to-work-remote - https://medium.com/slite/how-slite-buffer-and-doist-manage-remote-first-team s-2b90e7c3c0ef - https://medium.com/@_rpiel/7-months-as-a-remote-developer-991ecfc504c4 - https://dev.to/ivancrneto/what-i-have-learned-from-eight-years-of-being-a-rem ote-developer-3eob - https://blog.viacom.tech/2017/04/07/effective-remote-teams/ References GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture
38. Questions ? GDG Rennes Android 21-11-2019 Story of a full-remote culture