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Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

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Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#41

Post by Falkon1313 »

> - everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries.

What do you write in them that you didn't already mention during the daily standing meetings, the biweekly retrospective, the team meetings, the company meetings, or the Slack channels at the time they were relevant?

I've worked with people who wanted more status updates, but all too often those updates just became "No news to report since I've been in status update meetings or other meetings since my last status update." and nothing was actually getting done. So we trimmed some of those rituals back (and could trim more.)

If anything, all those rituals and forced chats not only get in the way of getting work done, they also get in the way of the natural spontaneous development of working relationships. The sort of banter that happens when people are actually getting things done and feeling good and want to chat. Instead of being stressed because they're getting nothing done and constantly interrupted with all of the forced chat and rituals.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#42

Post by CraigJPerry »

kh_hk wrote: post #13

Having worked remote for more than 10 years I feel most of these rituals as imposed after the pandemic by the managing layers and people obsessed with work culture. I accept any non mandatory activity and might participate sometimes. But boy, I hate that my week is filled with meetings. At previous full remote positions meetings were the exception and all communication happened either on IRC or hipchat/slack. And tha…

>> but I prefer to fill my social needs outside of work

This doesn’t get enough airtime in the whole remote vs in-office debate IMO. I wish this topic was brought up more often because a diverse network of friends is a very special thing in life.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#43

Post by maxehmookau »

sokoloff wrote: post #32
mulander wrote: post #4

- Meetings are remote first. If at least one person is remote then the whole team video calls in. There is nothing worse than being a person on the virtual end trying to understand a mic grabbing voice from a room full of people. - Schedule peer programming sessions, especially with less senior staff. Without the office environment they have less opportunities to grow. - All meetings should have a note listing all de…

If someone sends me just “Hi” in slack, they’re still waiting to this day.

Or "Hey, quick question."

Ask the damn question then.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#44

Post by loloquwowndueo »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #27

> rituals have been helpful for your software development teams An interesting choice of word worth exploring. One could have said "activity" or "procedure", but ritual carries some connotations about the state of remote/hybrid working. What I think you're asking is - what ways we can connect/bond in human ways? Group dynamics, team identity, loyalty, non-monetary reward, focus and satisfaction, and much more, are de…

What would you recommend over zoom?

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#45

Post by azangru »

Our team is just doing a regular scrum. Two-week sprints; daily scrums to synchronise and plan the work for the day; regular backlog refinements and sprint plannings to determine which tasks should be worked on next; a sprint review; and a retrospective to find out the pain points from the last sprint.

Also, meetings to make collective decisions about ongoing work as needed.

This and a Slack channel has been working well for us. We don't record zoom calls, but write down the minutes with concrete action points. I don't think we had many more 1:1's.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#46

Post by Tevias »

Not directly a software development team but also consulting grouped by location and/or project.

We have a permant meeting open the whole day where everybody is free to join. Normally, it is started in the morning and a few people will join. After initial chit-chat everbody is doing their work either with the microphone off or on. When there are short topics to be discussed or questions arise it is directly done in the meeting and for bigger topics a new meeting/call is setup with the people involved. So most of the time it is quiet but you only hear the typing of your colleagues.

It basically mimics an open space office and direct human interaction where you can ask questions and overhear interesting topics with the advantage of being able to simply leave (or lower the volume) when you have a meeting or need absolute silence.

Additionally, we have a coffee break meeting in the afternoon for half an hour, that is also not obligatory, in which you can small-talk with your colleagues.

So, in total we have lots of opportunities to interact with colleagues but nothing is mandatory.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#47

Post by axiomsEnd »

diegoezperez wrote: post #33

I believe 1:1s are counterproductive Why wouldn't be anyone invited to a productive conversation? Or is it to keep secrets or extinguish promises? Not everyone will be in every open meeting, but things closed doors isn't great.

Depends on team size and topics. If the whole meeting is to clarify or explain some topic about the task one person is doing, inviting a whole team and spamming calendars with niche discussion is also counterproductive.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#48

Post by jordanbeiber »

sdoering wrote: post #40
jordanbeiber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Waste of time unless you’re an obsessive micromanager. Other team members either don’t read these entirely or just skim them. This is probably true if you work in complete isolation. If, however, you are a part of a larger team or organization a lot of value can come out of this type of transparency - it removes the need for a lot of meetings and is a great tool in an asynchronous work environment. Just two minutes…

I am one of the most senior members of the team I am in. I receive around 50 to 70 mails per day (on a slow day). Most of them corporate noise from the mother ship. I still need to at least skim them as sometimes parts or single mails are relevant. Also there is a barrage of mails from the different projects I am onboarded onto as an expert for specific topics. So I need to take a close look at these and see if there…

Seems like your place of employment have a bunch of cultural and work process issues to sort out, to be honest.

The diary entries are supposed to replace other forms of communication - not be an addition.

My place of work strive for autonomous teams within specific business domains. You describe yourself as kind of a bottleneck, as things are expected from you in various projects, via email no less.

We’re facing completely different work environments, and as such you see a daily or weekly log as an additional burden. I see it as replacing tones of emails and meetings.

Again - it’s not required here, but as people have noticed the use and asynchronous discussions arising from these log entries, it’s taken a hold. I do them myself as a manager, as my team deserves to know what I’m up to.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#49

Post by bsenftner »

I've been working full remote for over a decade, at multiple companies, many of whom have tried many things. What seems to be less obtrusive is daily sync meetings, where the only purpose of the meeting is learning if anyone is stuck and needs help. Beyond that we are in constant communication via discord (internally) and slack (clients).. Using discord audio channels to simulate people in the same room helps with onboarding too, because the new person can just speak as if the experienced staff is in their room with them. One company wanted a daily "what did you do" email, which was just a waste of time, as nobody read them, they require real time to write, and they became a joke people knew nobody read.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#50

Post by etripe »

Tevias wrote: post #46

Not directly a software development team but also consulting grouped by location and/or project. We have a permant meeting open the whole day where everybody is free to join. Normally, it is started in the morning and a few people will join. After initial chit-chat everbody is doing their work either with the microphone off or on. When there are short topics to be discussed or questions arise it is directly done in t…

You said you weren't a software development team. What kind of functions do you have?

For me, and most people I've worked with, having an all-day meeting specifically to mimic the open office is not something we'd ever propose ourselves. Was it a bottom-up or a top-down decision? Is everyone happy with it?

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