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Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#101

Post by szszrk »

em-bee wrote: post #98
szszrk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm afraid we speak of different things completely. I'm referring to personality differences and how to allow each personality to be part of the team. You speak of dealing with bad past experiences or maybe even trauma. My point was that you should not and can not change other people's personality. You should make sure understand reasons of why others might not embrace same methods. And some advice in this thread ign…

i know what you mean. my argument is that a personality difference that is so strong that it prevents you from participating in a group discussion must be caused by trauma. group discussions are a requirement in our industry. if not wanting to talk to people is a mere choice then you should be looking for a job where you don't have to talk to people. in my understanding, having difficulty or even just discomfort to t…

There was nothing that drastic in my original comment. I'm speaking of differences that are present in all of us, not extremes.

See those 16 personalities or character colors tests I referred to. (although I'm not saying these are good, just illustrate well what level of differences I'm speaking of)

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#102

Post by dartos »

dmitrygr wrote: post #71
dartos wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like a joy to have as a coworker… Again… read between the lines. Think a little bit into what i said. Think about it a little critically There are important ad hoc interactions that you have in an office that you don’t when you’re remote. I personally prefer remote, but recognize that it’s easier to collaborate in real time in person.

> I [...] recognize that it’s easier to collaborate in real time in person. Not everyone is you and not everyone agrees with that evidence-free claim

It’s both well known and self evident that communication is richer in person for the vast majority of people.

Not really something worth arguing about.

Water is also wet, but I don’t have a specific source to link for that.

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#103

Post by em-bee »

szszrk wrote: post #101
em-bee wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i know what you mean. my argument is that a personality difference that is so strong that it prevents you from participating in a group discussion must be caused by trauma. group discussions are a requirement in our industry. if not wanting to talk to people is a mere choice then you should be looking for a job where you don't have to talk to people. in my understanding, having difficulty or even just discomfort to t…

There was nothing that drastic in my original comment. I'm speaking of differences that are present in all of us, not extremes. See those 16 personalities or character colors tests I referred to. (although I'm not saying these are good, just illustrate well what level of differences I'm speaking of)

those differences should not prevent you from speaking up in a group. not wanting to speak up when you have something to say is something drastic that needs to be addressed.

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#104

Post by [deleted] »

em-bee wrote: post #87
singleshot_ wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's better if this chat has history which expires in 24 hours. Probably wise to run that by counsel.

it is insane that we can have face to face and even video meetings that are not logged, but we can't have text based chats like that? what if we meet on IRC? should that be illegal without a bot to log the conversation?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#105

Post by 2024user »

great_wubwub wrote: post #18

One thing people miss about remote work is that it's inherently transactional. Show up to a meeting, get or give what's needed, then go back in your hole. This is nice but for many people the lack of genuine social interaction is a killer. A few jobs ago we set up Donut (donut.com) to set up a couple 15- or 30-minute 1:1s per week and tried to stick to the rule that we weren't supposed to talk about work, just chat a…

Please no. This sounds awful tbh.

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#106

Post by travisb »

ziddoap wrote: post #5
travisb wrote: post #4

Video calls. If you aren't having at least one video call a day something is probably wrong. Configure it such that starting a video call takes no more than 4 clicks. Have a company-wide General/Coffee chat where people talk about arbitrary things. It's better if this chat has history which expires in 24 hours. Write lots of short documents -- especially for designs. Review them much like you would review code. This…

Agree with the occasional relaxed "coffee chat", and having a repository full of good documentation, but... > If you aren't having at least one video call a day something is probably wrong. That seems excessive to me, especially if everyone is also staying connected via chat, emails, etc. Weekly meetings are about my limit, considering I also have work to do, meetings with external stakeholders, ad-hoc meetings, etc.

At least one video call a day is more about socialization than work; chat and email doesn't really strengthen psychological feelings of connection to the team. Regularly putting a face to the nickname is important.

I consider small meetings (say <10 people) within the team, ad-hoc or otherwise, to count against the once a day minimum. It doesn't need to be a purely social call to be effective.

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#107

Post by travisb »

bigfatkitten wrote: post #15
travisb wrote: post #4

Video calls. If you aren't having at least one video call a day something is probably wrong. Configure it such that starting a video call takes no more than 4 clicks. Have a company-wide General/Coffee chat where people talk about arbitrary things. It's better if this chat has history which expires in 24 hours. Write lots of short documents -- especially for designs. Review them much like you would review code. This…

> It's better if this chat has history which expires in 24 hours. Your legal and HR departments will be much less enthusiastic about this idea if your org is big enough to have either.

My vague understanding of the related laws is that as long as the company has a consistent retention policy and is under neither a court order to increase retention nor retaining records for specific incidents as part of policy, that a short retention period is fine.

I expect legal would actually be happy about shorter retention periods since it makes their job easier. HR of course wants infinite retention periods because it gives them a bigger stick, but universally longer retention is not the only way to address those desires.

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#108

Post by AbstractH24 »

great_wubwub wrote: post #18

One thing people miss about remote work is that it's inherently transactional. Show up to a meeting, get or give what's needed, then go back in your hole. This is nice but for many people the lack of genuine social interaction is a killer. A few jobs ago we set up Donut (donut.com) to set up a couple 15- or 30-minute 1:1s per week and tried to stick to the rule that we weren't supposed to talk about work, just chat a…

I miss donut. Is it still around?

Feeks like a relic of the early pandemic times (although there are countless other tools like it now).

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#109

Post by AbstractH24 »

em-bee wrote: post #85
dmitrygr wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but you might say hi if you walk past their desk No. I would never interrupt someone's flow for a "hi". What an insane take. Those like you, interrupting us for a "hi" and throwing us off a good thought process when you "walk by", is one of the main things which make us all want to work remotely, far from you, protected by a need to have a purpose for your "hi".

there is a middle ground. if i walk past you and you make eye contact, i say hi. if you are focused on your screen ignoring me, then i remain silent

That doesn’t account for folks who fail to make eye contact (of which there are many in tech)

Re: Ask HN: How do you communicate in a remote startup?

#110

Post by AbstractH24 »

swatcoder wrote: post #14

What becomes apparent very quickly outside the imposed rigidity of a physical office is that different individuals and different roles all have different optimal communication patterns. And people can get really fussy if they aren't getting the structure/tools/freedoms/whatever that they feel they need. And so the answer to your question is ultimately much more idiosyncratic than you're hoping it to be. Whatever answ…

> if you can start getting people feeling connected and collaborative, you'll find that they'll naturally keep that up and build on it.

A great insight

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