Remote Work Is The New Black – Part III

We’re considering how remote work tends to slow us down, and how we can pick up the pace without losing quality, or steam. Last time, we’ve talked about the lack of availability of information with remote work. Let’s dive into that for a bit.

As we all know, things change all the time. A lot. Remember when we used to laugh at Corona beer jokes a couple of weeks ago? Who’s laughing now?

The toilet paper manufacturers. But that’s another story. Anyway.

The way we interact in the office, the culture, the process of delivering and receiving information – we’ve grown accustomed to how things work, when everyone’s around. That changes a lot when we do remote work.

Say for example, you’re really good with visualizing data in your team. You have dashboards all around you, and you can’t miss an update, even if you try. Things are not like that now.

Or, let’s say you’re really lousy with visualizing data, but depend on people documenting everything. Whenever you go to Jira (after saying a short prayer), you always find your tasks prioritized.
Things are not like that now.

Or, say your team is really lousy with communicating. You always need to dig and investigate for more data. You file a bug, but is it really a bug? You expect some answers within a reasonable time period.
Even those things are not like that now.

When you remote work, and miss out on information, or work on tasks based on wrong information, you’ll make mistakes and then go back to fix them. Or just wait for the right information, then do something with it. That slows you down.

So what can you do? Set some ground rules:

• Set communication time slots, where people are available for questions.
• Assert roles in the team, so people know exactly who to turn to for answers.
• Pair online, so you know better, get answers quicker and more people have answers.
• Agree on where and how to document stuff – requirements, bugs, anything of importance.
• Review every couple of days if the rules work, and adapt.

Next time – more about how lack of information slows us down.

But you don’t have to wait: Get your remote team working again . Check out my First Aid Kit plan.