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Working remotely with 150+ people

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Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#31

Post by andrey-p »

neebz wrote: post #9

We focussed a lot on async collaboration and unfortunately we get issues of team associations. You just miss out on any water cooler talk and struggle to build relationships with individual employees. This impacted our employee turnover massively even though we gave competitive salaries, flexible work hours and work-from-home.

I'm working for a small (Stuff we've got:

- weekly all hands meetings where people talk about what makes them excited - lots of non-work-related chat rooms - 2-3 meetup opportunities per year - culture of quick ad-hoc synchronous meetings

We also had a board game night via Tabletop Simulator (http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/)

It also helps massively if the company is remote-first. We've got a central office where several employees are based but you never feel like you're missing out if you're based elsewhere.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#32

Post by Vraxx »

andrey-p wrote: post #31
neebz wrote: post #9

We focussed a lot on async collaboration and unfortunately we get issues of team associations. You just miss out on any water cooler talk and struggle to build relationships with individual employees. This impacted our employee turnover massively even though we gave competitive salaries, flexible work hours and work-from-home.

I'm working for a small ( Stuff we've got: - weekly all hands meetings where people talk about what makes them excited - lots of non-work-related chat rooms - 2-3 meetup opportunities per year - culture of quick ad-hoc synchronous meetings We also had a board game night via Tabletop Simulator ( http://berserk-games.com/tabletop-simulator/ ) It also helps massively if the company is remote-first. We've got a central o…

That is pretty awesome. I've only worked remotely from a place where everybody is based in the same office, but I think your place addresses the big lack of social interactions that usually accompanies remote work.

On a side note, I'm also tangentially interested to see how VR can affect the remote workspace. I've used Bigscreen Beta (shared multiplayer lounge with virtual screens) with the Vive to work on a mutual side project with some friends and being able to see each other's screens by turning your head rather than by sharing with some program has also made the experience feel closer to in person work.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#34

Post by brilliantcode »

nradov wrote: post #30
huherto wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generalizing this idea. Interdependences are big source of problems and delays in projects. Many people don't realize it, but you have to actively work on eliminating them. You see it in the form people waiting for other people. Every team should be organized in a way that they can we do their work without waiting for other teams.

Yes this is one reason why with large software development programs it's generally best to organize around feature teams instead of component teams . In other words, a single agile team should be able to build an entire feature on their own through the full stack instead of having one team for the database, one team for the back end, one team for the service layer, one team for the UI, etc.

This is very interesting. Can you elaborate more on such organizational structure or know of anyone implementing in real life?

To me it totally makes sense. Instead of the inevitable interdependency that arises through the component model, I can see that if teams were building features on their own than it could be completed at their leisure (in the budget & time affordable) without the multi-directional multi-disciplinary communication shitshow.

I wonder if there is an official name for this feature teams model or more guide on how to implement it.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#35

Post by jahaja »

neebz wrote: post #9

We focussed a lot on async collaboration and unfortunately we get issues of team associations. You just miss out on any water cooler talk and struggle to build relationships with individual employees. This impacted our employee turnover massively even though we gave competitive salaries, flexible work hours and work-from-home.

I'm curious about how much the need for social interaction through work differs between Europe and the US.

In Scandinavia I feel that there's a pretty distinct border between work and friends/social life. Socialising with colleagues is usually pretty superficial like afterwork and such.

Maybe this is the reason I find these "water-cooler moments" so vague and overrated. Personally I think I derive a good and rewarding working relationship by basically just working together, even if that would be mainly through text. I do however realise that there's a lot of people - in my current on-site job as well - that really avoids communicating through text if it's possible to talk face-to-face. I'd assume these persons would probably not enjoy working remotely.

I hope remote-only companies make sure that new hires actually can, and like to, communicate through text.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#36

Post by nradov »

brilliantcode wrote: post #34
nradov wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this is one reason why with large software development programs it's generally best to organize around feature teams instead of component teams . In other words, a single agile team should be able to build an entire feature on their own through the full stack instead of having one team for the database, one team for the back end, one team for the service layer, one team for the UI, etc.

This is very interesting . Can you elaborate more on such organizational structure or know of anyone implementing in real life? To me it totally makes sense. Instead of the inevitable interdependency that arises through the component model, I can see that if teams were building features on their own than it could be completed at their leisure (in the budget & time affordable) without the multi-directional multi-disci…

Scaled Agile Framework features and components: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/features-and-components/

"Scaling with Feature vs. Component Teams" by Ken Rubin: http://www.innolution.com/resources/presentations/svaln-2015...

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#37

Post by weatherstorme »

k__ wrote: post #29
weatherstorme wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Water-cooler talk is a way to bond with others. Some of my greatest friends were made at work, and this talk happens when we want a break. Usually getting food, coffee, or going to work out. Water-cooler talk isn't only there to bad mouth management, but to make connections/friends.

Hm, okay. Maybe I'm special, in a bad way? I don't know. I never really got along with people that I was "forced" to be together with. School, University, Work. I mean, people liked to work with me and I'm mostly really polite and inclusive and all. But I didn't find many people I considered interesting at these places. I got all my friends from meetups, online communities, parties, etc.

That's perfectly fine. Some people prefer to keep work at work. It is good to do though if you want to climb up and understand the politics at your office (which sucks). I'm also just a super social person, and kind of an outlier.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#38

Post by brilliantcode »

nradov wrote: post #36
brilliantcode wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very interesting . Can you elaborate more on such organizational structure or know of anyone implementing in real life? To me it totally makes sense. Instead of the inevitable interdependency that arises through the component model, I can see that if teams were building features on their own than it could be completed at their leisure (in the budget & time affordable) without the multi-directional multi-disci…

Scaled Agile Framework features and components: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/features-and-components/ "Scaling with Feature vs. Component Teams" by Ken Rubin: http://www.innolution.com/resources/presentations/svaln-2015...

This is gold. Thank you for posting that.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#39

Post by dhd415 »

codingvelocity wrote: post #8

While i'm not 100% remote (i'm part of a small regional office that has a massive head office in another part of the country, but I can work from home). Something i've found incredibly important is jumping on video chat. There's something about seeing someone in a video while you talk to them that reminds you "hey i'm working with other humans, i should respond with a level of empathy i'd expect in return"

Beyond that, I'd say the ease with which a video chat can be initiated is important so that the annoyance of starting one does not become an impediment to using them when they are appropriate. My team uses Sococo which, while not without its problems, does allow for one-click video chats and screen sharing with 1 or more co-workers. It's really nice to have the option to jump into a 5-minute video chat/screen share with the click of a button to work through something that would otherwise be a 25-minute chat conversation.

Re: Working remotely with 150+ people

#40

Post by wott »

jobvandervoort wrote: post #10
neebz wrote: post #9

We focussed a lot on async collaboration and unfortunately we get issues of team associations. You just miss out on any water cooler talk and struggle to build relationships with individual employees. This impacted our employee turnover massively even though we gave competitive salaries, flexible work hours and work-from-home.

We do a few things to alleviate this, I'm not sure if they are enough for scale: 1. Daily call with everyone where we talk about our private lives for the most part (30m call, 28m private life talk: everyone has to tell something they did for fun last week) 2. Very active chat, with many non-work channels 3. A 'watercooler' hangout, where people join to just casually talk over video chat

You're describing everything I hate, and which made me love remote to get rid of it. And you even increase the amount of time lost in those useless and horrible things.
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