It’s been 6 months since I (remotely) began a new job. I was fortunate to have the chance two weeks ago to meet one of my cross-functional partners in person for coffee for the first time, and they said to me “you’re so thoughtful in person!” I laughed...
...because it obviously and perhaps unsurprisingly means I’ve probably been coming across to them as less thoughtful over video, and it kicked off the idea of writing this thread. (2/39)
Tldr; it’s been more difficult than I thought, and while I think I’m doing okay (all things considered), I’m definitely still struggling with it. I want to continue to learn and improve, whether remote work as a % of what I do decreases, increase or stays the same. (3/39)
To get some other input, I asked a few product management friends who started new jobs at a senior leadership level at various tech companies to share some of their thoughts. With their help, I’ve put together a few shared observations. (4/39)
I know many people have started a new job during the last year+ remotely with Covid-related restrictions in place and had greater/more difficult challenges than these, and (5/39)
that some of this probably skews towards senior-level managers (versus individual contributors) working in tech. (6/39)
A. Building relationships is harder: One product leader said “It took way longer than I would have thought to build great rapport and trust with my PM team. I’m good at this. It’s my superpower." (7/39)
"But video makes it really difficult. I imagine a future where technology solves this. We can do better than video, and still let people WFH.” (8/39)
I’ve found myself using chat a lot more to semi-casually connect with people, and other remote starters agreed: “Have spent a lot more time in chat groups with people pre/post meetings. Not just as a sidebar but also just to have that banter you would in the halls.” (9/39)
We need to take time to get to know the people on the other side of the screen. “You don’t have lunches, coffee chats, etc. when you’re not in the same building. These are key elements of creating the human connection that builds trust and empathy." (10/39)
"Remote meetings are inherently more transactional in nature, so you have to be intentional if you want to develop human connections.” (11/39)
B. Body language, showing care and getting feedback: I myself get a lot of energy and excitement from meeting and talking to other people, and there is just no way to replicate that over audio/video systems today. (12/39)
Partial attention is a real thing in these meetings too: I know I am more easily distracted with the equivalent of a laptop AND a full-size desk screen with me in almost every meeting.
While I take better notes (that have proven helpful to share with others), the distraction on both ends of the call are often not ideal. I’ve also found some subtler impacts that come from needing to schedule meetings. (13/39)
The (+) side is you could have a 5 minute video sync to give/get feedback more easily, but there’s enough overhead to setting up something that some of the light+helpful feedback a new person might get from colleagues doesn’t happen walking in/out of rooms, hallways (14/39)
Getting direct and honest feedback as a senior leader is sometimes difficult, and requires intention and triangulation based on what you think you might not be hearing (15/39)
A former colleague encourages making friends outside your direct circle: “You really, really need a guide that can give you real talk, organizational ins and outs, back stories, etc." (16/39)
"Find a peer or two that doesn’t have a lot to lose by being completely transparent, and invest in that relationship." (17/39)
Employees at big companies have always done a lot of work across timezones/offices over video calls. But sometimes if people are just a few buildings over it's helpful as a break and way to connect, to take a little time & walk/cycle across campus to meet in person. (18/39)
C. Observing and learning implicitly: In the movie “A Few Good Men”, Lt Kaffee (Tom Cruise) questions Marine Cpl. Barnes about their Standard Operating Procedures. “Kaffee: Then how did you find the mess hall if it wasn't in this book? (19/39)
Barnes: Well, sir, like everybody else, I just followed the crowd at chow time, sir.” Some stuff you just figure out by watching what other people do, the “in-person ability to observe how people act”. (20/39)
More than one person told me they remotely miss a lot of organizational context. (21/39)
“You already know you’re going to lose the coffee-room experience, but what you may not anticipate is that it takes a much longer time to build a mental map of how the organization works when you don’t have a chance to see who talks to whom." (22/39)
"Alice and Bob meet all the time. That’s probably an important interconnection in the org.”
While it’s possible to figure out a lot of things by reading documents, there’s a lot one misses. (23/39)
While it’s possible to figure out a lot of things by reading documents, there’s a lot one misses. (23/39)
Reading has always been and is important to ramping up, however, although it does sometimes feel that calendars fill up quickly with very little padding inbetween. (24/39)
As one former colleague told me: “with continuous VC meetings I find that I’m not able to absorb the learnings or insights as easily from the org. I need conscious time to go look for posts, strategy docs, quarterly plans." (25/39)
"I can’t get these from casual discussions and honestly that was always inefficient. So especially in a big fast moving culture need to block out “time to learn” and “time to wander”.” (26/39)
D. You need new ways to get (and share) context: In addition to doing it myself, in 2020 I also had the experience of remotely hiring senior people during the pandemic. (27/39)
One described what they were doing in getting going as ’being in the middle of a dark room and walking around shining a flashlight’. (28/39)
Remote work in an information-driven company doesn’t generally change the existing reliance on product review meetings, presentations and shared documents. (29/39)
I’ve felt, however, that without some physical sense of organization or space (like a physical office/set of buildings/meeting rooms) or time (a commute that breaks up the day) I sometimes feel unanchored; the boundaries between work and not-work become fuzzy. (30/39)
Things feel less solid. One person described an element of this to me as “situational mnemonics”. He continued that much of our ability to remember detail is tied to physical context. (31/39)
“I know he said he’d get it done. We were in the 1st floor conference room in the corner by the kitchen”. On the other hand “When everyone is a tile in a video call, you’re always in the same context which starves you of these cues”. (32/39)
Another leader shared that they now post a weekly ‘what’s on my mind’ update that helps to create broader context across their team. “Key things on my mind, what key decisions are upcoming, what key decisions happened last week." (33/39)
"This often just happened in casual connections in the office [and was a] chance for people to talk to you but it now needs to be structured and dependable.” (34/39)
I have always liked @boz's advice on learning a new area. You’ll need to go even further & be more intentional than you would have previously as you ramp up. A friend framed this well: “There are people you’ll obviously need to talk to as part of the onboarding process" (35/39)
"There are also people that in an in-person situation you’d be less intentional about and just organically meet them at lunches, coffee stations, etc. Make time to talk to as many people as you can." (36/39)
"Find people to talk to by asking folks in every 1:1 you have who else you should chat with.” (37/39)
E. This stuff is hard. Ask for help. Be patient: I loved this encapsulation of the issues - “You simply will not be as effective coming up to speed in a remote context as you would in person. Accept that and don’t beat yourself up over it.” (38/39)
It’s important to know that others share in the struggles and things you’re experiencing. I have been and still am, as are the people I quoted here who were kind enough to take the time to share their thoughts. (end!)
Many thanks to all the product folks who weighed in and I quoted including (but not limited to) @shivar and @matharris!
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