Remote Nation

Audio / Voice

We do a lot of voice calls all day long, every day. For a long time, we used Skype exclusively. More recently, we’ve switched to Google Hangout for our smaller team calls and Skype for our larger calls (more on that later). And like you, we also talk with clients who use a variety different audio tools to communicate without being in the same room.

Here is what not to do:

• Do not use the built-in speaker and mic in your laptop. The problem here is that the mic in your laptop is far away from your mouth and is designed to pick up audio from the entire room. It’s better to use a headset with a boom that places the mic directly in front of your mouth.
• Do not use a wireless headset. We’ve found that these things last about 3 – 4 months tops before they break. They are also prone to interference or dying batteries. This is the last thing you want to worry about while you’re in the middle of a call with people. These are not things we have to deal with when we’re interacting person to person, so it’s best to just eliminate the possibility of problems by going direct with a cable.
• Do not use a USB headset. We’ve found that USB headsets will produce garbled Darth Vader like sound or interference from time to time. Usually, you can remedy this by disconnecting and reconnecting your USB headset, but this is not something you want to have to mess with in the middle of a call with people. If you stay away from USB headsets and go direct into your computer’s sound input jack, you’ll eliminate another potential cause for problems.
• Avoid phone based conference call bridges whenever possible. The main problem here is that most phone bridges are low fidelity audio. Computer audio like Skype and Google Hangouts leverage HD Audio, which we’ve found to make an enormous difference when communicating as a team. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes to pick up the subtle nuances and tones of voice that you can with HD Audio.

Our recommended audio gear for the Solo Road Warrior:

• A headset with passive noise canceling boom mic (like this Sennheiser). By the way, I have used the one linked for almost 2 years without fail. Removing all the wireless, USB, active noise canceling, complicated nonsense, just leaves a solid performing and reliable headset.
• If you use a mac, you’ll need to get one of these to plug directly into your Macbook Pro or other Mac computer. This will also let you use the headset with your mobile phone if you want.

Conference room audio setup on a budget:

• I’ve done a lot of research into the ideal conference room mic. I’ve tried the Blue Snowball Mic, this Audio Technica Condenser Mic (which will make you sound like a radio DJ), and others. We’ve found that this MXL AC404 does the best job of picking up audio from throughout the conference room, while canceling out sound generated from the speakers. We recently replaced another conference room mic with the MXL AC404 in 2018 and the difference was night and day. Amazing product!
• For speakers, we’ve used these simple Bose Multimedia speakers. If the person on the other end is using one of the headsets above, it basically sounds like they are right in the room with you.

Video Calls

Video is still remarkably hard to get right, but current state video has reached the point where it adds significant value to interactions. We’ve used Skype, Google Hangouts, Google Meet, Zoom, Slack, and other solutions for video calls. Almost all of these solutions work pretty good and some have their quirks. We’ve found that the most important thing to consider when doing video calls is to have good internet upload bandwidth and a good camera. Unfortunately, the cameras built into most laptop computers are middle of the road. They’ll work and add value, but there are several after market cameras that you can get to make you look more clear and to push highre resolution, like this HD Logitech camera.

For conference room setups, a newer entrant into this space is the innovative Meeting Owl 360 degree camera. This camera has 360 degree audio and video coverage and auto focuses the camera on whoever is talking. It is a little pricey, but if you want the best possible experience blended with a conference room setting, it is worth considering.

We’ve also tested the LG UltraFine 5K Monitor. People have a love/hate relationship with this particular monitor, but the camera built into this monitor is superb. I personally, have appreciated the video clarity on this monitor as well and have not really had any issues with it paired with my Macbook Pro.

Feedback: Admiring From Afar

Environmental factors will likely influence your decision. For example, we follow a lean / agile workflow so we tend to favor methods that provide an ‘early and often’ feedback loop. Certain projects and clients may be okay with quick-and-dirty methods, while others may necessitate the need for more formal and organized approaches.

In an office setting, it is common to have somebody take a peek over your shoulder (whether you invite them or not). The randomness of that occurrence cannot be re-created and the physical cues are hard to capture over video, but there is so much more we can do in collecting feedback.

Other than the unscheduled drive-by, most everything else can be replicated remotely. You can share photos of sketches, send screenshots via chat and email, share your screen and even allow tunneling to your local host. Heck, with Google Hangouts you could practically get the drive-by effect described above (if you really want that).

The Quick and Dirty Methods

When working on sketches we typically snap a picture of our sketchbook using either a smart phone or a built in laptop camera (if you’re on a Mac, Photo Booth is super handy for this). Lately, I have also been using the entry level Wacom Bamboo tablet for quick sketches in Illustrator.

If you are beyond sketching and are dealing with a wireframe, prototype, or Illustrator/Photoshop file then a simple screenshot will likely do the trick (Command-Shift-4 on mac will become your favorite shortcut).

The trick is getting that screenshot in front of your teammates quickly without too much fiddling. With an app like TinyGrab you can simultaneously turn your screenshot into a url for sharing. With the TinyGrab app running (along with Dropbox), each time you take a screenshot it will upload it to your Dropbox account, create a tiny url and copy it to your clipboard–paste that in your IM chat (we use Skype), and you’re done. As an added bonus, TinyGrab also allows for some basic feedback notes on the screenshot once it is opened.

The Slow and Clean Methods

The quick-and-dirty method works great when dealing with a couple of peers or smaller project teams that follow a Lean UX workflow, but if you are seeking more formal feedback from a larger set of people (often involving clients) then you may need a more structured feedback loop.

There are many apps out there geared toward collecting feedback remotely. Some of our personal favorites in this category would be InVisionApp, Notable and InfluenceApp. The last two were built by Zurb who, as I was typing this, launched a third app in this category, ReelApp. There are many more, all of which do essentially the same thing.

In the end, things are not much different when using apps to collect feedback from home or the office. There is something to be said about in-person feedback, and I will be the first to admit that I miss it on occasion. However, there are so many tools available (many at no cost) that allow us to collect valuable feedback and get the job done without sacrificing quality. And hey, if you really want to see their physical reaction then use your built-in video cameras!

Collaboration: Gaze Into My Eyes

The other obstacle to overcome while designing remotely is collaboration. Let’s be honest, getting together in a room and whiteboarding as a team can be fun. On the flip side it can also be incredibly inefficient when the conversation wanders off topic or certain people commandeer the ship. Either way, if collaboration is what you are after, then collaboration you shall get.

Nowadays, we all live on some variation of chat client. Most of them also offer video call capability and its fairly safe to assume people have a built-in video camera within reach (laptop, phone, etc.). Fire up an app and check each other out (that sounded creepy, keep your cool).

Skype and Google Hangouts are great options and free for a decent number of participants. (side note: you might also want to check out the WebRTC project)

Maybe you don’t need to lay eyes on each other, but just want to share your screen? Sure, no problem. Again Skype or the free join.me version will do the trick in almost every situation. If you want the whiteboard experience, then fire up Illustrator or Adobe and sketch it out. Wireframing? Same approach, open your favorite tool and share away–something like Balsamiq does the trick.

At Fullstack, our team gets together once or twice a year. Clearly this is a great opportunity for getting to know earch other, but it also lends itself to some fruitful collaboration. Have an internal or side project you’ve been wanting to crank out? Put together a little hackathon and get it shipped in the course of your meetup!

The good news is that there are plenty of apps out that can help us overcome the remote collaboration issue. The experience is close enough to the real thing in most circumstances enabling you to get the job done. If you are feeling lonely, or just want to see a face then get out and hit a local Meetup or make video call, the future is here McFly!

Make It Work

Topics like this will certainly come up when teams or companies are considering a remote working arrangement (and you’ll probably endure hour long meetings with everybody offering their opinion on why it will or won’t work). My advice is to just give it a shot! Almost all of these tools are free, so just take a day and work from home. Carry on with business as usual and in the end, I am confident that you find a solution that works for everybody. Oh, and as an added bonus, you’ll likely find yourself happier and more productive living outside of that sad cubicle!

Setting The Stage

I think we all can agree that, on a high level, a product manager’s role is to “manage the lifecycle of a product” and to “analyze the market conditions to define features and requirements of a product.” But what does that actually mean and how does it play out on a daily basis? This is the first post in a series to explore the ins and outs of the guiding principles I try to follow on a daily basis as a remote product manager pushing to create and deliver successful, extraordinary products to market.

As I’ve pondered product management, I keep coming back to the memory of working as a saute line cook in a fine dining restaurant during my college years. If you’ve never witnessed the awe-inspiring harmony of a well-run kitchen firing on all cylinders, I highly recommend it. In most professional kitchens, you have a line of cooks each with a different station such as saute, grill, middle, salads, and desserts. Running the kitchen is the executive chef or chef de cuisine. This person, also referred to as the expediter, is responsible for controlling the “board,” which houses all the tickets and orders placed by customers in the restaurant. During busy nights, we would have upwards of 30 to 40 tickets on the board at the same time. That’s roughly the equivalent to 120 dishes that need cooking all at the same time.

The expediter has to tell each specific station what to cook, how much, when to cook it, and when to bring it to the window. The idea is that each station puts their dishes in the window at the same time for any given table so the food could be delivered together at the correct time. If the food was cooked too early before the table had finished their previous course, it would go bad. If food was fired too late, restaurant patrons quickly became disgruntled at the sound of their rumbling belly. In addition to timing the delivery of every ticket perfectly, the expediter inspects each and every finished dish to make sure that it adheres to the quality standards of the restaurant.

They have to be able to jump onto the line to help out when needed, run out and talk to a customer who wants face time with the chef, and manage the food inventory to make sure there are sufficient supplies for the night’s dinner service. The expediter also interfaces with the servers running in and out of the kitchen asking questions, educates them on the dishes being served that night, and communicates with the front of the house management to handle out of the ordinary requests, allergies, and special situations the kitchen can and cannot handle.

For an expediter to do his job well, he has to manage chaos and turn it into a harmonious dance where everyone understands their roles and has the information they need to perform their job so that the end result is impecable service and extraordinary food delivered to each and every customer that walks through the door. Watching an experienced expediter run a kitchen is very similar to watching a true product manager exercise his craft. A good product is the aggregate of the team’s ability to create and deliver something that truly solves your needs with a touch of wow.

The List

As a product manager, you need people to succeed at their individual roles and you need to understand your customer, what they need, and when they need it. Being a remote product manager adds a whole additional layer of complexity to the process because so many of the things needed for your team to succeed require spot on communication. I’ve put together a list of 10 guiding principles that I follow as a remote product manager:

1. Be the air traffic controller
2. Know your team
3. Understand your customers
4. Make decisions on the fly
5. Remove blockers
6. Take responsibility and do whatever it takes
7. Bridge the gap
8. Embrace the unknown
9. Address risks head on
10. Keep it simple

This is in no way exhaustive, but these ten things represent what I’ve found to be the most important qualities, characteristics, and actions that a product manager has and does. Over the next several posts in this series, I want to break down each of the items in more detail and explore the processes and solutions I’ve found to accomplishing them just as effectively (if not more so) than traditional, office based product managers.

Sitting while working, The Statistics Are Grim

Sitting. Sitting. Sitting. It’s no wonder we have the healthcare crisis that we do in this nation. If we paid better attention to ourselves and our daily routines, what kind of revolution might happen? Our dependent-on-keeping-our-butts-planted culture is not helping the situation.

• The typical American averages 9.3 hr/day of sedentary activity
• Being sedentary 6+ hr/day increases risk of death 40%
• Being sedentary increases risk of various cardiovascular/musculoskeletal diseases and some cancers

“Sitting is Killing You” by Medical Billing and Coding Staff

Our Culture Doesn’t Help

• Drive to and from work? Sitting.
• Have an office Job? Sitting.
• Drive a few miles to the grocery store? Sitting. (Thank goodness we have to walk through the store to get our items… for now)
• Watch TV? Sitting.

Be the Change You Wish to See

Getting your daily intake of strenuous activity is a good thing. But those sessions typically last thirty minutes to an hour for most. Even with daily exercise, staying put for the majority of the day still wrecks a body good. We need to engage our bodies and minds as much as possible through the entire day. Following are three of the most popular alternatives to the regular, old sitting desk.

Standing Room Only

Standing desks are a strong step in the right direction. You’re engaging more of your body in hours-long daily activity. If this is your only option, however, standing all day isn’t exactly good for you either. Standing desks come with:

Advantages

• Increased physical and mental activity
• Potential increase in concentration and focus

Disadvantages

• Risk of Carotid atherosclerosis due to higher load on the circulatory system
• Varicose veins
• Sore legs and feet
• Lower back pain
• Increased fatigue

Krause N., Lynch J.W., Kaplan G.A., Cohen R.D., Salonen R., Salonen J.T. (2000) Standing at work and progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Scand J Work Environ Health, 26(3):227-236
Tüchsen F., Krause N., Hannerz H., Burr H., Kristensen T.S. (2000) Standing at work and varicose veins. Scand J Work Environ Health, 26(5):414-420.

Walking Your Way to Health

Another trendy option is the elusive treadmill desk, prized for its ability to allow the user to casually stride their work day away. While this goes one step further than a standing-only desk in that you can walk while you work, there are some disadvantages. However, the advantages of a treadmill desk may outweigh these disadvantages. It’s a good option to consider. Walking all day comes with:

Advantages

• Big increase in physical activity. Walk miles per day while you work.

Disadvantages

• Cost – Most treadmill desk solutions are relatively costly compared to standing-only and some adjustable desk setups.
• Potential difficulty in concentrating or typing – Unless you walk as smooth as a marching band member, you might find it difficult to type.

The Adjustable Desk: Best of Both Worlds

That leaves us with the holy grail of desk environments: the fully adjustable desk. Adjustable desks allow you to balance out your desk activity time by raising and lowering the desk surface either through a hand crank or push-button electric motors.

Manual Crank

Manual cranks will save you some coin over their electric brethren. And you might get a smidgen more of physical activity while cranking the desk up or down.

Electric

Ah, the lazy man’s adjustable desk. I kid, I kid. These are great for automated raising and lowering of your desk, especially if you adjust yours multiple times through the day. Some even come with memory presets. Hit a button and your desk adjusts to your desired position.

Take Action Now!

Setting the Stage

I work on the design team for Fullstack, which employs a full staff of remote workers. We create sites and apps that range from WordPress to Rails and iOS.

At the time, there are 14 members of the team whose titles include Project Manager, Product Manager, Software Developer, Office Manager and Product Designer. I work alongside three other Product Designers from my home in Iowa City, Iowa (soon to be Kansas City!).

How It Goes Down

Once I punch the clock, time flies. Our agile workflow is fast paced and the next thing I know I will have spent 8-plus hours in a chair.

Knowing this, I like to get up a little before 7:00, head downstairs to my desk (without waking everybody up) and put in some ‘Ryan’ time. I typically spend 30-45 minutes either sketching, painting, reading RSS feeds or working on a Dribbble shot. Prior to working here, this little bit of free time would have been consumed commuting downtown and circling the streets for a parking spot.

After this mental cleansing is through, I make my presence known on Skype where we interact through a variety of group chats–one for each project I’m on, a designer chat, an entire Fullstack team chat and other miscellaneous topical workgroups (UX, writing, agile, etc.).

We are not a large team, yet we span the U.S. from coast to coast with people representing three of the four time zones. This means there is occasionally some activity after I sign off in the evening, but nothing that a quick five minute scan can’t absorb.

Getting Down to Business

At that point I turn on my Harvest timer and begin working on my assignments (aka stories) in Pivotal Tracker. This makes up the bulk of my day and its really no different than if I were working in an office. Same tools, same meetings, occasional chats with coworkers… pretty routine stuff less the unwanted office chatter about your favorite style of cottage cheese.

I typically peek upstairs at some point during the morning, spending just enough time to say ‘hi’ to the family and inhale a piece of peanut butter and jelly toast. Then I’m right back at it.

After a few hours of grinding in Coda, Xcode or Photoshop its time to grab a quick bite with the family (homecooking #ftw!). Lunch for me used to be an escape from a dreadful cubicle, taking the long way to lunch and eating too much in order to relieve the environmental stress. Now I get to see my family and eat real food, what a concept!

The afternoon moves quick. I’ll share progress shots with my teammates via Skype, process feedback and push code to our company github account. If I need more info or get stuck, help is only a quick chat or call away.

Feeling like I need a change of pace, I may bounce to a coffee shop or simply stand and work at a taller surface in the house… better yet, if the weather is nice I can grab a seat on the porch!

Between 4:30 and 5:00 I let everybody know I’m signing off, scratch down a few notes, walk upstairs and catch up with the family.

The Payoff

After writing this post, it is even more apparent to me where exactly remote working is paying off. Time spent driving and parking is now spent with my family and on personal projects.

It’s also more apparent to me that there are some aspects I could improve upon. For starters, I should get out of the house (or chair*) more–work in a regular run, poach wireless from a local coffee joint, or attend a Meetup.

From a career perspective, I’m happier than ever largely because I work remotely with a great group of people. Communication is more efficient, I am more productive and my quality of life has improved. How can you argue with that?

My advice: Just say ‘no’ to cubicle life.

* Do you sit all day too? You should stop that–Sitting Down Infographic

The Beginning

I like to start my days at 7:00 PST. I’m on the west coast, so starting early helps me feel like I haven’t missed out on too much.

We use Skype to keep in touch, so firing up Skype and catching up on the various conversations that’ve been happening is my first order of business. After that’s done, I catch up on email and any feedback I’ve been given on the stuff I got done yesterday.

We follow an agile methodology at Fullstack, so we have daily standup meetings (via Skype). Usually within an hour of starting work, I have my first standup of the day. There could be more than one of these, depending on how many projects I’m assigned to at any given time. Standups are usually pretty brief, and once they’re done, I have a full list of things to accomplish for the day.

The Middle

After meetings are over, the actual work starts. This part is pretty typical of any engineering job. I have stories assigned to me in Pivotal Tracker, and I keep track of what I’m spending time on using Harvest. Once I get rolling, the day goes by pretty fast.

And The End

Afternoons are occasionally punctuated by random calls from co-workers, or other ad-hoc discussions. Around 4:00, I sign off Skype and pack up my things.

Roll Credits

Sound similar to an ‘office’ job? It is! Other than my physical location, not much has changed and that is kind of the point. Working remotely as a developer is fundamentally the same as if my location were in an office.

Still not convinced? Give a try some time, ask for a single day of working from home. The odds are that most of your coworkers won’t even realize you are ‘away’.