A presentation at Asbury Agile in in Asbury Park, NJ 07712, USA by Ted Goas
Distributed Design How Stack Overflow builds strong remote teams
Ted Goas Sr. Product Designer, Stack Overflow @TedGoas
Distributed Design How Stack Overflow builds strong remote teams
@TedGoas
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Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
“ Yeah! We’re remote friendly! We got Bob in Portland and we’re in New Jersey. We use Slack and Bob dials into meetings. But in reality Bob misses a lot of discussions and is left out of decision making, only to be filled in later. But yeah, you can totally work remotely here! @TedGoas
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“ Just because you use laptops and chat doesn’t mean you’ve suddenly become a glorious haven for remote workers. @TedGoas
Remote-First Remote-Friendly Hiring some workers in a different city or allowing employees to occasionally work from home. vs. Building your whole team around a workflow that embraces the concepts of remote work, whether or not everyone’s remote. @TedGoas
If one person’s remote, everyone’s remote. @TedGoas
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Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
It’s hard to collaborate. “ It’s too difficult to manage complex projects with a remote team. Agile teams need to be co-located to get the work done fast. @TedGoas
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Specs, Ideas, Brainstorming Prototyping UI / Web Design Design Reviews / Socializing Design Code / Design Systems User Research Project Management Real-Time Collaboration @TedGoas
Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
“ We’ll just have a meeting in a conference room and pipe in the remote workers on a big screen. @TedGoas
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Slack is down. “ My headset is aching up. My internet is laggy. Can you see my screen? @TedGoas
! Luboń, Poland @TedGoas
Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
Photos from UX Collective https://uxdesign.cc/asking-the-right-questions-on-user-research-interviews-and-testing-427261742a67 @TedGoas
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@TedGoas image from http://digitalservices.npr.org
Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
illustration from https://www.and.co/anywhere-workers @TedGoas
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Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas
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illustration from https://www.and.co/anywhere-workers @TedGoas
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Wrapping Up… @TedGoas
“Yeah, we tried remote, but it just didn’t work for us.” @TedGoas
If you’re thinking about trying it… ✓ Have a proper infrastructure for remote work. ✓ Encourage folks to dedicate space that’s just for work. ✓ Work as if everyone’s remote. ✓ Hold all meetings over video conference. ✓ Ensure everyone feels equally part of the team. ✓ Ask for feedback. ✓ Trust your team!
Thank You! Any Questions?
Companies are increasingly embracing the idea of “remote” teams. But what does that mean? How different is being remote from a “normal” office environment, and does it actually work? What are the benefits and the downsides? And most importantly: how can a team work well together remotely? In this talk, I’ll discuss what Stack Overflow’s remote team looks like on a day-to-day basis, problems with both remote and non-remote environments, and how to blend both together. Attendees will learn how everyday activities can be modified to fit a remote context, and how to create strong team bonds.
for free. You
can too.