Distributed Design: How Stack Overflow builds strong remote teams

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

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

@TedGoas

“ 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

@TedGoas

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

@TedGoas

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

@TedGoas

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

@TedGoas

@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

@TedGoas

Remote-Friendly vs. Remote-First Communicating Remotely Meetings, Critiques, & Sprints User Research Loneliness Work / Life Separation @TedGoas

@TedGoas

illustration from https://www.and.co/anywhere-workers @TedGoas

@TedGoas

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?