What are the challenges of working on a hybrid remote team?
Interview with Scott about working remotely for 20 years
With hybrid teams, for better or worse, you have to recognize that there’s an us vs. them dynamic at play.
I visit the mothership often enough to know what the culture is like. What are people’s commutes like? Where do they lunch? What is their working environment? What’s the setup in the conference room where they’re all huddled for our daily?
Knowing these things helps me be a fuller social participant in our conversations. If there was no onsite contingent, we’d all be on the same plane. I’ve been on hybrid teams my entire career, and have gotten very good at becoming part of the team without physically being there.
Scott is a designer and developer that's been working remotely since 1998, read his interview to learn how he's been successful
Read full interview from Interview with Scott about working remotely for 20 years.
Interview with Ben, a web developer who freelances from home
The biggest single challenge is that I'm not in the room. Conference calls where you're the only one on the phone listening to a room full of people talk about a project are the worst. I've been lucky enough to work with teams where these kinds of things were alleviated by putting everyone on a voice call, and I've been unlucky enough to be on the end of that call where you can only hear every 3rd word in the room.
If the client you work with doesn't prioritize communication via chat, email, voice calls, you can run into a lot of barriers rapidly.
My primary contract has 2 in house developers, a few remote developers, and a few contract coders. Because of this, they learned early on to value these communications, and so the work progresses a lot more smooth.
On the other end of that though, there are some teams that don't value the communication as much and so are challenging to work with. It's hard to get a project moving when the person you need an answer from won't respond to chat messages for hours, if at all.
Learn the tips and tricks Ben uses to stay productive while working remotely on a hybrid team
Read full interview from Interview with Ben, a web developer who freelances from home.
Interview with Laurel about helping companies transition to remote work
Most companies that transition to a remote model assume that only the geographic location of the team will change.
But in reality, all tools, collaboration techniques, workflow processes, and even management styles will be impacted.
If the correct measures are taken, the effect of changing will only be positive, but if not, there seem to be three common "killers" of remote work that appear:
- isolation
- burnout
- micromanagement
You can read more in this article that I wrote for Yonder.
Laurel is an advocate for remote work and helps companies learn how to work remotely through her consulting and writing.
Read full interview from Interview with Laurel about helping companies transition to remote work.
Interview with Katerina, a team collaboration consultant who sees the value of discipline
When I worked for a hybrid team, the constant challenge was to stay integrated and updated. The team had no experience with remote workers. This problem combined with time zone differences made it an awful experience.
However, hybrid teams can also work. It is a matter of people realizing that the complete team counts.
Just because you can't see someone doesn't mean they are not part of the team.
Generally, hybrid teams should use an electronic communication medium that gives equal access to information and opportunities to all team members.
Katerina fell into remote work by accident - she reveals how easy and straightforward it can be to make discipline a daily part of remote work.
Read full interview from Interview with Katerina, a team collaboration consultant who sees the value of discipline.