Long Distance Relationships That Work: Making Remote Design Happen

Long-Distance Relationships That Work

DESIGNING WITH REMOTE TEAMS

@JimKalbachCONSULTING & EDUCATION, Mural.ly

Agenda

REMOTE WORK

4 FACTORS

+ DEMOS

Q&A

TWITTER QUESTION

What are your biggest challenges when trying to do creative design work with remote teams?

#remotedesign@mural

Work Anywhere

REMOTE WORK ISON THE RISE…

...BUT CREATIVE DESIGN MUST GO ON

4 Factors1. PEOPLE

2. WORKSPACE

3. PROCESS

4. RESULTS

THINK: “Digital First”

1. PEOPLE: Remote Team Situations

1. SPLIT TEAM

2. MIXED TEAMS

3. ALL REMOTE

There are three main settings for remote collaboration.

2. Digitally-Defined WORKSPACE

WEBCAMS

AUDIO

SCREENS

FILES

EMAIL

CHAT

The digitally defined workspace consists of an ecosystem of tools.

Typically tools include some combination of audio, webcams, screensharing, chat, email, and file sharing.

What’s missing is a virtual whiteboard...

COLLABORATION ECOSYSTEM

2. Digitally-Defined WORKSPACEAdd a virtual whiteboard to your ecosystem of tools.

3. Digital First PROCESS

Design consists of divergent and convergent thinking.

However, some offline exercises will NOT work well online, e.g., breakout groups. Change your process to be digitial first.

Use multiple devices to involve others, and leverage being online.

3. Digital First PROCESS

Working digitally provides more opportunities for asynchronous collaboration.

Templates let others contribute at any time from any place.

Assign pre-work and post-work to keep the conversation going.

4. RESULTS: Benefit from flexible structure

● You can do the analysis in same place

● Copy notes for alternative clustering

● Use voting for group consensus

Summary1. PEOPLE

2. WORKSPACE

3. PROCESS

4. RESULTS

Be aware of different remote settings and how people will engage

Add a visual whiteboard to the collaboration tool ecosystem

Adjust your process for online and mix sync and async work

Leverage being “digital first” for flexible structure

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Webinar recording: https://vimeo.com/125209267

Thank you