Remote work - Speaker Deck

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@hilton.org.uk http://hilton.org.uk/ Remote work: so ft ware development without boundaries

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Peter Hilton So ft ware developer (1996–2017) and product manager, technical writer, sales consultant, trainer, recruiter, published author, public speaker Product manager (since 2018) based in Rotterdam, working fully-remote since 2015 for companies with no o ff ice in the Netherlands 2 @hilton.org.uk •

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Context Experiences from one company, 2020–2022 Fully-remote VC-funded scale-up product company 75–250 employees, CET ± 4 hours I worked on a large product development team 11 team members, CET ± 1 hour 8 × developers, 1 × QA, 1 × designer, 1 × product manager 3 @hilton.org.uk •

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🇺🇸 🇹🇷 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 🇨🇿 🇲🇽 🇷🇴 🇷🇸 8 developers + 1 QA + 1 designer + 1 product manager

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Meeting team members for the first time, 11 months a ft er joining, was a big anti-climax 5 @hilton.org.uk •

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O ff ice equipment @hilton.org.uk • 6

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In our company, our love language was great audio quality 🎙 7 @hilton.org.uk •

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Sennheiser PC-8 Wired headset €25

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Røde Podmic dynamic microphone €100 Røde PSA1+ microphone stand €120 audio interface €90

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Other equipment Webcam + lighting O ff ice chair + (standing) desk Monitor + second monitor Powerful laptop (location flexibility) Bonus points: wired headset, wired Internet 10 @hilton.org.uk •

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Collaboration so ft ware @hilton.org.uk • 11

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We went all in on Slack: 💙 rich emoji vocabulary 😭 all of the memes 🚀 no internal email https://hilton.org.uk/blog/reaction-emoji 12 @hilton.org.uk •

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Collaboration tools 13 @hilton.org.uk • async synchronous unstructured structured team chat document, task ? virtual whiteboard

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Slack channels 1. Private team channels (semi-private*) 2. Public team channels (with people outside the team) 3. Project-specific channels (short-lived virtual teams) 4. Workflow-specific channels (e.g. a feedback form) 5. Announcements (e.g. company news, new features) 6. Language channels (e.g. German language) 7. Random (e.g. humour, snark) 8. other non-work (kids, pets, puns, music) 14 @hilton.org.uk •

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Wiki culture You need a collaboratively-edited page for every: person, team, project, product, tool, customer, supplier, … This is Notion’s killer application. It’s much harder in Confluence or a wiki. Don’t ask people to read things they can’t edit and improve. 15 @hilton.org.uk •

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@hilton.org.uk • Self-focus Working hours Messaging Interactions with others Management Feedback Motivations Finding common ground ‘I’m happy to talk about…’ 16

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Meetings @hilton.org.uk • 17

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We kept a weekly team meeting we didn’t need because FOMO 18 @hilton.org.uk • Blocked tasks Product update Pairing report Mistake of the week Design update Tech update

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Meetings - the easy parts 25–30 minutes (by default) Written purpose and agenda in advance Join on time Camera on (by default) with good lighting (no backlight) Mute yourself when not talking Raise hand to talk Virtual whiteboard or collaborative doc 19 @hilton.org.uk •

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Meetings – the hard parts a.k.a. advanced mode Review the value of each regular meeting Agree each meeting’s attendance policy Check in – 30 seconds each to say how you’re arriving Check out – like the check-in, when you’re leaving Finish on time Create space for social chat (e.g. virtual co ff ee video calls) 20 @hilton.org.uk •

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Meeting-avoidance for busy teams Prioritise working async, and keep any meetings short Replace recurring meetings with unplanned video calls Try team programming – work together without a meeting: FOMO for non-attendees, fun for attendees, even non coders Don’t use meetings for procedural work, e.g. planning tasks 21 @hilton.org.uk •

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Asynchronous collaboration @hilton.org.uk • 22

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https://nohello.net/

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How to work asynchronously Don’t rely on meetings to get things done Value explicit written communication over showing o ff Learn to communicate honestly in chat Develop team agreements for docs vs response times Don’t assume that everything is better face-to-face 24 @hilton.org.uk •

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Build a habit of working out loud O ff ice environments are never quiet enough; Working at home can be too quiet. Remote presence requires new habits, not more meetings: working out loud = observable work + narrating your work e.g. start new documents and share progress in public 25 @hilton.org.uk •

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working async means ‘less showing off, and more showing up for each other’ Juke Trabold, engineering leader 26

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Psychological safety @hilton.org.uk • 27

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We spent a year on bi-weekly retrospectives without talking about development process 28 @hilton.org.uk •

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🇺🇸 🇹🇷 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇩🇪 🇺🇸 🇨🇿 🇲🇽 🇷🇴 🇷🇸 8 developers + 1 QA + 1 designer + 1 product manager

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🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 🙋 5 female + 5 male + 1 non-binary

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Building trust Remote work neutralises many arsehole behaviours It filters out people who don’t have their shit together Working remote is more humane and more inclusive It allows more space for building trust in a team 31 @hilton.org.uk •

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‘Encourage teams to bond through day-to-day tasks… the very act of being productive— just doing the work together— becomes a feedback loop that can bond a team and help create the conditions for psychological safety’ 32 https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/four-steps-to-build-the-psychological-safety-that-high-performing-teams-need-today

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Experience building ✨ trustful relationships ✨ Leadership in building and sharing trust made a di ff erence Delegated decision-making Team-level work on communication and feedback Budget for quarterly in-person meet-ups There are limits - you’re still not a family (trustful relationships don’t prevent layo ff s) 33 @hilton.org.uk •

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Experience building ✨ psychological safety ✨ Facilitated retrospectives that don’t let the team get lazy O ft en spent a whole retro on a single serious topic Retros about people and relationships, not process ‘Doing the work’ requires actual work People may need help to learn how https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_safety 34 @hilton.org.uk •

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Summary @hilton.org.uk • 35

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A ft er we achieved psychological safety, everything else seemed easy 36 @hilton.org.uk •

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Working remote on hard mode 1. Not having the best tools and equipment 2. In-person team meet-ups < 4 times per year 3. Multiple teams in a value stream, with handovers 4. Working hybrid, especially with leadership in o ff ices 5. Time zone di ff erences > 4 hours 6. Not all native speakers of the same language 37 @hilton.org.uk •

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Things to get right 1. Good audio 2. Cameras + lighting 3. Good collaboration tools (at least for your team) 4. Meeting in person 4 times per year 5. Psychological safety 6. End-to-end so ft ware delivery within the team 7. Fully-remote independent business units 38 @hilton.org.uk •

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@hilton.org.uk • Work Together Anywhere Lisette Sutherland (2018) 40 https://lisettesutherland.com/book/

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@hilton.org.uk • The Culture Code Daniel Coyle (2018) 41 https://danielcoyle.com/the-culture-code/