How does your distributed team stay in sync?
Hey gang,
I feel like we've tried everything! It's amazing how much harder it is to get a group to align on a decision when everyone isn't co-located.
I'm sure it depends on the team and the decision, but what's worked best for you all?
Here's an example of the steps our team went through to pick a mission statement:
#1 - Our team is in NYC, Prague, and Beijing so we try to avoid meetings. We did an async written brainstorm, a forum-style conversation.
#2 - We mentioned it in planning over Zoom and got some more feedback
#3 - We followed up on that feedback over Slack, someone suggested a meeting
#4 - We hopped into branch.gg to pick final options
#5 - We then sent out a poll where people could rank the final options
#6 - The mission statement with the most votes ended up being the one we aligned on in step #1 🤣
So obviously a lot could've gone differently. One of us could just make the decision - but I'm talking about trying to find consensus, not just a majority vote, or a most powerful voice in the room.
I do wonder if feedback over Zoom made us overly nervous that we missed something in step #1, when we actually had enough information to make the decision. In an office setting, you kind of assume people will mention it to you if they have a real problem with something, whereas in remote it's easier to have doubts on alignment.
Curious everyone's take! What processes or tools work best for you? Included a poll focused on tooling, even though these are mutually exclusive, but I figured it could be interesting to see what other people pick.
Appreciate the question.
What I noticed is that your post is all about processes and tools. How about the core element of a team - People?
Hey Felix - this is a great question! How do you think about managing / influencing people on your team to stay in sync? And how do you think about this in the context of recruiting and hiring?
Here's a post I wrote about some of the values we talk about to try and encourage asynchronous alignment
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/when-remote-work-feels-wonky-remember-autonomy-accountability-and-awareness-509ba4ed28
Hi Harrison,
Collaboration is hard - we spent two years building a tool to help. Even so we also use some of the tools you list. Every little bit helps. I disagree with
I think what actually happens is that office settings tend to suppress innovation. Sitting everyone in a room encourages conformity; there are studies to back this. So the "easier" decisions come at the price of not having really put as much effort into it.
Very cool! Thank you for sharing. I'm really eager to start talking with teams who are hybrid office and hybrid remote. Actually giving people the choice will be a game-changer for teams- vs everyone being forced into an office or forced into remote historically.