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InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

businessinsider.com

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Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#41

Post by manigandham »

beambot wrote: post #10
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've remote worked for decades, and that isn't my experience. Video/screensharing meetings are far more productive in my experience, but only if everybody is using the tool. Its frustrating to hold an in-person meeting at the office, and try to add remote folks. The local ones shut out the 'voice on the phone' and start drawing on boards and paper and it breaks down. I spent 10 years in a company that had all meeting…

> start drawing on boards and paper Sounds like important brainstorming activities. How do you deal with this when you're remote?

Plenty of real-time whiteboarding tools. Something simple like a shared google doc works well for 90% of it.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#42

Post by bryanrasmussen »

peterlk wrote: post #27
klohto wrote: post #4

While this is no doubt great I don't really believe a statement "But most importantly, Frein said, it helps InVision build a better product". Under what metric? I don't believe that people who are forced to cooperate with video and screen sharing options can deliver a better product than these, who can walk up to a colleague and ask them in person or use a whiteboard to explain their problem. In the end, remote worke…

I wrote a full comment and then deleted it because our blog talks a lot about this. At the risk of being downvoted for pushing my employer's blog, I'll leave you with a blog post: https://blog.aha.io/remote-workers-vs-office-workers/ Notable bits: > People get more done when they have autonomy > the office is filled with distractions. This is especially true for those who are in an open-office space, where they are 1…

my problem is:

my home is filled with distractions.

thus if I work remotely I need to go get an office to be as productive as I might be at my best in an non-remote office.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#43

Post by ChristianBundy »

jasode wrote: post #31

I don't do UI design so I never heard of InVision before. I googled around and Crunchbase says they've gotten $235 million in funding[1]. A youtube channel shows some demos[2]. Is InVision considered the best of the design tools compared to competitors? [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/invisionapp#section-... [2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCndfHdRdEiGOyCOgxQ4W9YQ

I'm not working on much front-end these days, but as of 2/3 years ago InVision was the best option I was aware of.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#44

Post by denimnerd »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #37

I think remote works well when the company caters to remote employees as a main priority (maybe through adoption of remote friendly processes). I've worked in teams where i was the only remote employee and everyone else was in the office, suffice to say that i missed out on a lot of important information.

I'm in that situation now. Well kind of. I am in the only team member not colocated with the rest of the team.

At the start it was really hard. They would all be in a room together and I could barely even hear them over the phone, much less speak up and say something over their rapid fire conversations. It's gotten better since I've brought these concerns up I'm only on week 4.

We've setup twice a week cisco telepresence meetings and the plan is I fly out every few months for a week.

I'm not too keen on this long term but at least the team is really experienced so I stand to learn a lot. I hope I can take what I learn to my own team soon.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#45

Post by madcaptenor »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #5
klohto wrote: post #4

While this is no doubt great I don't really believe a statement "But most importantly, Frein said, it helps InVision build a better product". Under what metric? I don't believe that people who are forced to cooperate with video and screen sharing options can deliver a better product than these, who can walk up to a colleague and ask them in person or use a whiteboard to explain their problem. In the end, remote worke…

I've remote worked for decades, and that isn't my experience. Video/screensharing meetings are far more productive in my experience, but only if everybody is using the tool. Its frustrating to hold an in-person meeting at the office, and try to add remote folks. The local ones shut out the 'voice on the phone' and start drawing on boards and paper and it breaks down. I spent 10 years in a company that had all meeting…

"Also with our tool, it took an average of 30 seconds to get a meeting started."

You must have better phone-meeting tools than my company does.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#46

Post by lbriner »

peterlk wrote: post #27
klohto wrote: post #4

While this is no doubt great I don't really believe a statement "But most importantly, Frein said, it helps InVision build a better product". Under what metric? I don't believe that people who are forced to cooperate with video and screen sharing options can deliver a better product than these, who can walk up to a colleague and ask them in person or use a whiteboard to explain their problem. In the end, remote worke…

I wrote a full comment and then deleted it because our blog talks a lot about this. At the risk of being downvoted for pushing my employer's blog, I'll leave you with a blog post: https://blog.aha.io/remote-workers-vs-office-workers/ Notable bits: > People get more done when they have autonomy > the office is filled with distractions. This is especially true for those who are in an open-office space, where they are 1…

I don't agree that your points can be taken universally. I have employed several people who have performed very poorly with autonomy because they didn't have the motivation to own the things they were working on.

Other people working remotely suffer terribly with emotional problems if they don't have enough contact time with real people. Again, some thrive and enjoy the freedom and lack of commute but plenty of people have ditched remote working.

In terms of distractions, some people don't like "distractions" but plenty of companies rely on what might be seen as noise to cause chance encouters, overhearing of conversations and the banter and energy that is much easier to generate in an office.

In terms of work/life balance, remote working sounds great but plenty of people work in offices and still have work life balance. Some of those people's "life" is their co-workers and the time in the pub after work is their social life (not mine but don't judge).

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#47

Post by thfuran »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #7

I moved from the software sales industry to waiting tables in a rural area. I have a 10 minute commute by car or moped, I breathe fresh air, and I make enough money to support myself. My colleagues are my friends and my boss has never once slighted me on anything. There is something to be said about the perks of working remotely, but for once it is nice to work in a supportive, engaging environment that is close to m…

I work in the software industry, have a 10 minute commute, breathe fresh air, make enough money to support myself, my colleagues are my friends, and my boss has never once slighted me. A shit job is a shit job, but you don't have to leave software to find a job that isn't shit.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#48

Post by buboard »

I wonder if there are startups working on this space, helping setup remote companies. People seem to use a basket of various tools, none of which was explicitly made for remote work. My ideal setup would be a virtual space, like a game, where employees can virtually interact. Most communication is written, complemented by voice chat when needed. It gives an understanding that "there are other people out there" and not everyone working alone. It would also enable all kinds of functions that happen on the sidelines of "traditiona" office work. My biased opinion is that remote work is the natural way, and forcing people to go through traffic etc just to "talk" to screens all day is the absurd way. I believe business needs a revolutionary disruption to that direction, and we are now technically in a position where this can happen.

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#49

Post by anoncoward111 »

okmokmz wrote: post #30
anoncoward111 wrote: post #7

I moved from the software sales industry to waiting tables in a rural area. I have a 10 minute commute by car or moped, I breathe fresh air, and I make enough money to support myself. My colleagues are my friends and my boss has never once slighted me on anything. There is something to be said about the perks of working remotely, but for once it is nice to work in a supportive, engaging environment that is close to m…

How much of a hit did you take on salary, and how much did your cost of living decrease? Would you do it again? I've thought about leaving my career to do something that wouldn't require a commute, and would allow me to live in a very remote area, but I'm not brave enough to take the plunge

Thank you so much for your questions.

My high year in sales was 110k W2, 70k post tax, and 35k post expenses like food rent and car.

My low year was 45k, aka just plain old base salary, and after taxes and expenses I broke even. I was living in a pretty expensive part of Boston. I'm sure I could have found a really nasty bedroom for like $650 if I wanted to haha.

Right now as a waiter I'm making about $600 a week pre tax. I just came off of a $400 weekend working only 16 hours!

My rent here is $650 in a very very nice new apartment and I'm 15 mins from the beach, forest, and farms.

I absolutely would do it all over again. I thank my girlfriend every day for basically forcing us to move out here to Eastern Long Island NY for her medical job, because I never would have had the courage to make this move myself. And, I thought it would be really hard to find a job in software out here, so I just applied to literally anything and the restaurant I work at now was the first offer I received. I plunged headfirst and got lucky! Other restaurants are less of a family than we are.

Life isn't perfect and you need a few thousand in savings to get this all started without going insolvent, but so far I'm loving my new location and new industry.

If you do go for it, maintain contacts elsewhere just in case! :)

Re: InVision has no physical headquarters and all 700 employees work remotely

#50

Post by markbnj »

thfuran wrote: post #47
anoncoward111 wrote: post #7

I moved from the software sales industry to waiting tables in a rural area. I have a 10 minute commute by car or moped, I breathe fresh air, and I make enough money to support myself. My colleagues are my friends and my boss has never once slighted me on anything. There is something to be said about the perks of working remotely, but for once it is nice to work in a supportive, engaging environment that is close to m…

I work in the software industry, have a 10 minute commute, breathe fresh air, make enough money to support myself, my colleagues are my friends, and my boss has never once slighted me. A shit job is a shit job, but you don't have to leave software to find a job that isn't shit.

On the other hand a job you enjoy and that pays enough for you isn't shit, is it?
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