Remote-first teams work better: productivity lessons for co-located and remote-friendly teams

Slides from Lead Developer NYC 2019 conference.

Your team has communication problems. You just can't see them because you all sit in the same room. Techniques that work well for co-located teams break down once remote workers join a team. The local team dials-in the remote to make them feel part of the team, yet remotes still feel disconnected. They don't feel like they have an equal voice in meetings. They feel like they're missing key conversations from the hallway track. And having an ad-hoc, impromptu conversation usually requires booking a meeting room.

What if we are approaching this problem the wrong way? What if the issues are not about remotes but rather latent issues exacerbated by being remotes?

An environment with everyone in close proximity encourages synchronous communication. You will learn how asynchronous communication and systematic documentation offers a far more inclusive environment and more accountability.

An open office makes it easy to break into impromptu brainstorming sessions. You will understand why fostering the distraction-free environment that remotes enjoy can also benefit your co-located team and let them get into the zone.

This talk will uncover how to improve your team’s productivity by learning from remote team best practices. By approaching team collaboration from a remote-first perspective, you can gain insight into your co-located teams’ inefficiencies.

Transcript

1. 1 remote-first teams work better
2. 2 Poll a. co-located b. fully distributed c. same time zone d. frustrating collaboration experience
3. 3 CO-LOCATED single location
4. 4 FULLY DISTRIBUTED no office
5. 5 same TIME ZONE ?
6. 6 FRUSTRATING collaboration
7. 7 this talk, remotes = multi-sites satellite workers bit.ly/fowler-remotes
8. 8 remotes == FRICTION
9. 9 LATENT COLLABORATION ISSUES ?
10. 10 1. GIVE UP on remotes
11. 11 2. go ALL REMOTES
12. 12 3. REMOTE-FIRST collaboration
13. 13 Atlanta Vancouver Nassim Kammah @kepioo Oakland Brooklyn
14. 14 meetings enabling deep work maintaining common ground situation analysis optimize? an approach
15. 15 1. inclusive meetings
16. 16 situation
17. 17 caucus meeting analysis bit.ly/chelsea-troy-meetings
18. 18 no rules on who talks in what order for how long analysis
19. “ 19 analysis The first person to utter something gets the floor. Chelsea Troy bit.ly/chelsea-troy-caucus
20. 20 impromptu speakers high influence / position think as they speak high caucus score analysis
21. 21 low caucus score word thoughts carefully get interrupted attract “devil’s advocate” analysis
22. 22 caucus rewards folks who “jump in” bit.ly/reward-A-hope-B
23. 23 ?? ??
24. 24 similar attendee experience optimize for
25. 25 levels up the playing field space constraints everyone suffers one remote - all remotes an approach
26. 26 video dialed in , room audio
27. “ 27 analysis give people the opportunity to listen by safeguarding their opportunities to speak Chelsea Troy
28. 28 prevent meeting hijackings read body language moderator + video dialed-in a better approach
29. 29 2. time zones + deep work
30. 30 we spend our time communicating about work “ Cal Newport bit.ly/newport-deep-work
31. 31 situation
32. 32 situation
33. 33 situation
34. 34 analysis
35. “ 35 optimize for shield the development team from any work that interferes with progress Steve Maguire bit.ly/debug-dev-process
36. 36 an approach bit.ly/quiet-hours
37. 37 results
38. 38 addressed timezone friction increased happiness results
39. 39 3. maintaining common ground bit.ly/dan-slimmon
40. 40 analysis
41. 41 analysis bit.ly/lara-desks bit.ly/paloma-biceps
42. 42 mutual knowledge mutual beliefs mutual assumptions
43. 43 important info in- person wut? PTO analysis Didn’t see { }
44. 44 maintaining common ground optimize for
45. 45 /reacji-channeler #changelog reacji channeler plugin an approach
46. 46 identify common ground an approach 1.
47. 47 summarize + context an approach 2.
48. 48 48
49. 49 “reacji” the message an approach 3.
50. 50 50
51. 51 51 game changer for PTO catch-up takes a lot of behavior modeling results
52. 52 call to action
53. 53 call to action 1. “laptop video, room audio” meetings
54. 54 call to action 1. “laptop video, room audio” meetings 2. try out a moderated meeting
55. 55 call to action 1. “laptop video, room audio” meetings 2. try out a moderated meeting 3. experiment with quiet hours
56. 56 call to action 1. “laptop video, room audio” meetings 2. try out a moderated meeting 3. experiment with quiet hours 4. assess common ground in #your-team
57. 57 1. “laptop video, room audio” meetings 2. try out a moderated meeting 3. experiment with quiet hours 4. assess common ground in #your-team
58. 58 remote-first practices benefit everyone
59. 59 THANKS! office hours at 3:10pm Nassim Kammah - @kepioo mailchimp.com/jobs
60. 60 Presentation template by SlidesCarnival Photographs by Adobe Stock and Pexels [7] bit.ly/fowler-remotes [17] bit.ly/chelsea-troy-meetings [19] bit.ly/chelsea-troy-caucus [22] bit.ly/reward-A-hope-B [30] bit.ly/newport-deep-work [35] bit.ly/debug-dev-process [36] bit.ly/quiet-hours [39] bit.ly/dan-slimmon [41] bit.ly/paloma-biceps [41] bit.ly/lara-desks