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Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

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Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#61

Post by Tevias »

etripe wrote: post #50
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?

Would rephrase it to not only SW team but also consulting.

The meeting grew organically: When I started in Corona times I had a few meetings a day with my mentor to talk about open points and questions. From there it evolved to a permanent meeting, also with others joining.

Attending the meeting is not mandatory; everybody is free to join and leave whenever they want. Some use it more regularly, some don't. I haven't heard of anybody not being happy with it.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#62

Post by Kaze404 »

kortilla wrote: post #14

> everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries. Waste of time unless you’re an obsessive micromanager. Other team members either don’t read these entirely or just skim them. > record every video conference Don’t do this shit. It’s a great way to have everyone reserved rather than relaxed with free flowing ideas.

> Waste of time unless you’re an obsessive micromanager. Other team members either don’t read these entirely or just skim them.

Try daily summaries, which is what we do. Glad to know this screaming "micromanaging" wasn't paranoia from my part though.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#63

Post by drooby »

kortilla wrote: post #14

> everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries. Waste of time unless you’re an obsessive micromanager. Other team members either don’t read these entirely or just skim them. > record every video conference Don’t do this shit. It’s a great way to have everyone reserved rather than relaxed with free flowing ideas.

> Don’t do this shit. It’s a great way to have everyone reserved rather than relaxed with free flowing ideas.

It’s kind of a shame that this is probably true. My company has some bi-weekly presentations/meetings that are recorded and I get a ton of value out of not attending them, but then pulling them up in my own time and playing them back at 2x speed.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#66

Post by emrah »

All in-person and all remote are much easier to make work than hybrid. Meeting dynamics are in favor of people in the room.

If you have a hybrid work environment, one thing that works is to get everyone on the video call whether they are in the office or not. That puts everyone on equal footing.

> everyone on the team writing up weekly summaries.

We don't do that, what purpose does it serve?

I had one EM who took notes during daily standups but it wasn't helpful for anyone except him.

> record every video conference

This is about timezone diff where not everyone can attend at the same time but would like to watch and keep up. It's also useful when you plan to onboard new people to a project (although it usually requires other supporting material)

> have lots of 1:1 meetings to maintain relationships

Nothing beats being face to face with someone for real. Forcing 1:1's is not effective in my experience.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#67

Post by somberi »

Somethings we do in our weekly meetings in our nascent startup (no claims on the efficacy of the rituals):

Open the meeting with a group clap. This one was started by a much younger and more social member of our team. My immediate reaction was aversion. But over time I have come to like this and it I chalk it up as our gratitude journal. As a startup, there _is indeed_ a lot to clap for each week.

What each member did the last weekend. Again my initial reaction was to get on with the topics at hand. But over the last 20-or-so weekly meetings, it has helped me get a more composite view of a colleague's life.

Ending with two puzzles/riddles (I can be a fruit, person or bird. What am I?).

My meta-learning is rituals are helpful as bookends. They perform the role of normalizing/flattening everyone to the same abstraction, removing the relative seniority or variance in roles performed.

I find them useful.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#68

Post by k__ »

In Developer DAO we have daily vibe sessions.

A group voice chat at 7 pm (my time at least, lol), where members talk about what they did, what they wish to accomplish at the DAO etc.

The DAO is quite big, with thousands of members, hundred of them actively working on dozens of projects. So, it's quite nice for new members to get some guidance in where to start.

We also have regular health and wellbeing calls with an expert in that field. Here members talk about their problems and fears and get some pointers in how to cope with them in a more healthy way or solve them.

Then there are a bunch of open voice rooms, where music plays and some people talk while they each of them do their work of the day.

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#69

Post by amalcon »

Sometimes, especially if you're on the senior side, you need to set up a meeting so that you can answer questions. Junior folks don't always feel that they should be doing this, but being remote increases the friction of the usual solution of "asking when they bump into me at the water cooler" (though text chat is of course still available, in practice there is a class of things that it just isn't used for).

I've been mentoring a new team member hired during the pandemic, and one of the most useful things is that I set up an additional weekly 1-1 for which that new member "owns" the agenda. If they don't have anything to discuss, they just tell me in text chat and we don't have the meeting. On the other hand, it presents a great opportunity to raise those back-of-mind things

Re: Ask HN: Hybrid/Remote software team rituals

#70

Post by eddieroger »

> - record every video conference

This is dumb. My last company didn't allow recording for the most part due to data retention, which is as good a reason as any for me, but my new place does and I don't understand it. Recording a meeting means that the best way for information to be shared is in a meeting, and I fundamentally disagree with that. Most of the meetings I go to could have been an email. Of those, the email could be pretty short. If teams are communicating in smaller, more frequent chunks, meetings, and the recording of them, wouldn't be necessary. Besides, it's not like you can interact with a video, but you can with a Slack thread or email. Don't force recording culture. It's dumb.

I worked remotely for five years before the pandemic, and helped people adjust to being remote since I was seen as an "expert" at doing it when everyone suddenly stayed home. The biggest aspect to my success, I would argue, is that I don't treat it like remote is different. Of course it is, and there is something to be said for being together, in person, but high quality audio and video make for a pretty good replacement for most of the interpersonal interactions from before. So my ritual load didn't change, just the means of participation. We still have daily standup, we still chat a lot, and instead of sitting around a table in the office working, we sit on a Zoom - and we don't record it. It works as well, if not better, than before since people can work the hours they want without the drain of a commute.

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