Becoming remote in times of COVID-19

COVID-19 quarantine initially stranded our team. We consider ourselves a big family and, as such, spending time with each other is a core value. During normal circumstances, we invest several hours a week in leisure collocated activities with other Badizens (that’s what we call our fellow badi employees). Hence, this forced distancing threatened to make a dent in our close relationships.

Initially we fought it fiercely with the passion that characterises our team: we developed guidelines to keep connected constantly, we promoted impromptu video-calls, and we purposely increased synchronous interactions to keep reminding each other that we weren’t alone. It was a success, for two straight weeks the team felt nothing had changed. And then, week three.

It might have been that the government extended the quarantine indefinitely, or the newscasts announcements about similar measures taken around the world, or maybe simply that the measures we initially implemented were meant for a “remote sprint”, not a “remote epic” — at Badi we work in cross-functional squads that follow two-week sprints, hence the Agile terms — . It was clear by week three that a few team-members had made big efforts during those early first weeks. They were now suffering unexpected consequences: parents had their energy and available hours shifting frequently, the same for team members with partners in the health workforce and/or those that have families abroad. On top of that, we were rushing on delivering features that would make the difference to our users, and we were paying a toll. In short, we weren’t prepared for a remote marathon, we thought a short burst of energy would solve the issue.

Our management team worked hard those days to figure out a plan that would keep us centred and positive reflecting the Badi spirit. We came up with two golden rules: Strive For Async, and Keep The Candor.

Strive for async

If you ever worked on a remote first company, you probably know what I’m going to say: We try to heavily rely on offline, asynchronous, communication mechanisms that ensure our efforts don’t get lost in isolated conversations. For that, we have a well-defined tool set, that assigns a clear scope and responsibility, with a response time expectation associated for each. This company-wide working agreements and separation of concerns allows us to keep focus, and provides an opportunity to structure our day (e.g. “I check emails early morning, read till noon, and code is what happens while not in meetings”). So, what’s the toolset?

At Engineering, we have:

1. Tickets when we need to code
   We create them early and they work as logs for the issues. Helpful to prioritise, only the highest priority requires immediate attention, and it rarely happens. We remind everyone that a chat message won’t make it happen faster, in fact it will result in someone creating a ticket for you.
2. Email more, chat less.
   We use emails for important critical communications that are not time sensitive. This should be the tool of choice if you have specific questions to ask, and other tasks at hand while waiting.
3. Documents and Spreadsheets
   When collaborating in more long-term projects we usually write one-pagers or design documents. Those foster async and sync team collaboration: you can comment, edit, suggest, chat, see history.
4. Instant messaging is instant, hence avoid it :)
   We have some team channels that are mostly fun, and we chat a lot… however we avoid handlers :).
   If they include your handler, we ask you to please acknowledge messages. You are expected to respond shortly. Before including a handler, we also ask the sender to gracefully challenge themselves three times:
   — Do I really need the answer to this now?
   — Really?
   — Really? Really?
5. Video-calls are majorly scheduled in advance
   We have written a meeting manifesto in the past. We shared it broadly, and at certain point-in-time we had a printed copy in most of our meeting rooms. Nowadays, we simply link it in most meeting invitations.

It is out of respect for our colleagues that we avoid meetings, so they can have breakfast with their children, go to the supermarket when no-one is there, or maybe phone their parents across the world at 3am to make sure they are also taken care of. Because we love our team, our main principle is actually…

Keep the candor

We are in quarantine, we are isolated and we are prevented from doing our usual leisure activities. To fight this auto-imposed social distancing, we are making these efforts

1. Shorter & Frequent 1<>1s
   We have a minimum 10 minutes check-point weekly. It’s a simple “how’s everything going” chitchat. They are optional, and shop-talk is not allowed. Once every month, we still have our traditional 1<>1s.
2. Encourage prompt escalation
   We make sure to escalate promptly any challenges we are facing. No-one will see your face staring worried at a monitor, let your manager know!
3. Plan a team video-call once a day
   It could be the daily stand-up, sprint planning, or a “tea o’clock”. It’s good to see each other’s faces for a change; there’s a good chance this will be the only time in the day you will all see each other.
4. Trivia nights, lunch roulette, and more
   We have many activities guided by our amazing team aimed to keep us connected. From a beer o’clock to groups to share parental tips, these have helped us keep our beloved sense of community.

Hope this helps you better understand how to improve remote work during this quarantine period. Let us know your advice too, we are all together in this fight for survival!