{"id":76,"date":"2020-05-27T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T15:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/employer-blog.arc.dev\/?p=76"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:54:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T04:54:55","slug":"why-remote-work-is-more-than-a-job-perk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/why-remote-work-is-more-than-a-job-perk\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Remote Work is More Than a Job Perk (Jennifer Aldrich of InVision)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>It was an interesting story to share with people who feel like they don\u2019t have a lot of hope right now. That is an environment and a feeling that a lot of people have when they\u2019re battling chronic illness, and it breaks my heart.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Today we have Jennifer Aldrich, Senior Manager of Design Partnerships at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.invisionapp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">InVision<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, we talked about how InVision\u2019s culture has adapted to their rapid growth, how their \u201cdesign-first principle\u201d has impacted their culture, the difference between a community and an audience, and her personal story on how remote work changed her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a review on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/outside-the-valley\/id1481937930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The podcast is also available on your favourite players:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/outside-the-valley\/id1481937930?ign-mpt=uo%3D4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL291dHNpZGUtdGhlLXZhbGxleQ%3D%3D&hl=en-TW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Podcast<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/castro.fm\/podcast\/5a2c6978-e8e7-4f02-a47d-ca3474778329\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Castro<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/overcast.fm\/itunes1481937930\/outside-the-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Overcast<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5qzXgcHzieXIRtXglSmUE8?si=rMPobXZtQwSU0wQ3grTAxA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/outside-the-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/player.fm\/series\/outside-the-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Player.fm<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/podcasts\/Technology-Podcasts\/Outside-The-Valley-p1251704\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tune In<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arcdotdev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0to get updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Looking for top talent fast? See how <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/\">Arc<\/a><em> can help you:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u26a1\ufe0f Find developers, designers, marketers, and more<br>\u26a1\ufe0f Freelance or full-time remote + fully vetted<\/em><em><br>\u26a1\ufe0f Save up to 80% with global hires<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\"><strong>Hire top talent with Arc risk-free \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"topics-also-covered-on-the-podcast-episode%3A\">Topics also covered on the podcast episode:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>How culture and onboarding evolved at InVision as they experienced rapid growth<\/li><li>What companies should know about building a community<\/li><li>Challenges Jennifer faced as a community builder<\/li><li>Why remote work is a life-changer for disabled individuals<\/li><li>Advice for remote job-seekers<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"mentioned-resources%3A\">Mentioned resources:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.invisionapp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">InVision<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/clarkvalberg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Clark Valberg<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jma245\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jennifer\u2019s Twitter<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/swlh\/remote-work-is-more-than-a-job-perk-for-people-with-chronic-illness-its-life-changing-a61d34aead6c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Remote work is more than a job perk\u2014for people with chronic illness, it\u2019s life changing<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.invisionapp.com\/about#jobs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Job openings at InVision<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"full-transcript%3A\">Full transcript:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Welcome to another episode of \u201cOutside the Valley,\u201d a podcast by Arc, the remote hiring platform that helps you hire senior remote software engineers easily. Here we interview remote startup leaders, remote work advocates, and workers of distributed teams who thrive outside of Silicon Valley. I\u2019m your host, Jovian Gautama. Today we are joined by Jennifer Aldrich, Senior Manager of Design Community Partnerships at InVision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So InVision itself is one of the pioneers when it comes to distributed work. And they\u2019re very huge. And I\u2019m super excited to have Jennifer here today on the show to learn more about the company itself and Jennifer\u2019s role, and some things about how remote work helps Jennifer. So without further ado, Jen, welcome to the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you so much. It\u2019s so great to be here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, Jen, InVision itself is a company that I really love. You know, we used it internally. And I\u2019d love to learn about the life and the culture in InVision. But before that, can you share a bit more about your role in InVision as the community partnership manager? What does it entail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. I have an amazing job. I have seriously the best job in the world, I think, to be completely frank. I have the opportunity to go out into the community every single day. I do it online, remotely, of course, and connect with people in our community and learn from them and guide them and then talk to our team and find out where there\u2019s crossovers, where we can help people with content, what they\u2019re most interested in. We take that approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another piece of my job, my favorite part, honestly, is that I get to work with nonprofits. So anytime people are hosting events or they\u2019re having something go on with their groups, I can work with them to set up partnerships for like licensing and things like that to help them as they\u2019re doing their work. And it\u2019s so fulfilling to get to work with these different organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was one that I was working with. It was actually a hackathon, and it was international, that was focused on ways that they could help homeless across the world, people who are without homes, and ideas, and then ways that they could fund those ideas. And then people were taking action on them the day afterward. And being able to help be part of that was just unbelievable. So my job is so much fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yeah, I do community interaction, just with designers all over the world every day, and then I get to do things with nonprofits, and I get to direct educational programs over to the head of education that we have here at InVision when I come across those. So colleges and universities, we get to help them, and it\u2019s just such a fun job. I\u2019m having a great time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. I\u2019d love to dive a bit more into the community aspect of the startup role in InVision, especially when it comes to our current unfortunate situation like where are we are battling a pandemic all around the world, and how does\u2026I think people find some new bond with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/blog\/online-developer-communities-czs8emm24m\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">online communities<\/a>\u00a0nowadays, now that everyone is stuck at home and so on, so I would love to get into that a bit later. But, first, one of the things that kind of makes me, like, in awe with InVision is you guys are huge, like literally huge. You have, like, hundreds of employees. How many employees does InVision have now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0I think we\u2019re up to 700 actually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, it is a lot for a remote company. And we\u2019re fully distributed all over the world. Yeah, we have people from all over the place. And, yeah, it\u2019s been really exciting seeing the growth. When I started with the company, we had, when I interviewed, we had 50 employees. And I\u2019ve only been here for not even 5 years yet, and we\u2019ve grown from 50 to almost 700 in that short span of time. So it\u2019s just been absolutely incredible to see that growth, and experience that from the inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0And that\u2019s actually amazing, like 50 to 700 in less than 5 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Yeah, it\u2019s incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s great. Yeah. So this is the most interesting part, like, with such rapid growth\u2026 You know, in a huge company like InVision now, even though it\u2019s, no matter if it\u2019s co-located or distributed, there\u2019s always a huge risk that a team member\u2019s voice or a team member will feel her voice unheard. It happens in co-located companies, and I feel like it\u2019s even more when it\u2019s you\u2019re fully distributed. So I\u2019m curious, was there any special mechanism or guidelines to prevent this kind of, you know, feeling left out in InVision? Like, is there any particular ritual or culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0The culture is definitely the key. So, one of the things that we do is asynchronous messaging on Slack. So, we don\u2019t have to connect, because as I mentioned, we\u2019re all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So we have a certain set of hours that\u2019s East Coast time that a majority of our employees are online, and that\u2019s from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., which gives us a pretty solid spread across the world of making sure that we have at least a few hours of time where we can all be online simultaneously. But the rest of our communication happens asynchronously through Slack, or through email or that type of a thing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And we use Zoom all day long every day. So all of our meetings are in Zoom. I\u2019m a huge fan. I know other people during the pandemic are probably getting a little bit over it, but I love it. It\u2019s so great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s the mainstream now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0It is. I know. It used to be people would say, \u201cWhat\u2019s Zoom?\u201d And now everyone knows what Zoom is. But, yeah, it\u2019s been perfect for communication for us, because you can just jump into a Slack, or into a Slack, you know, message channel and talk about a project. You can create one for a specialized group. So a few of the ways that we\u2019ve made sure that people\u2019s voices can be heard are we have channels for each team, that are public, of course, to tell people what\u2019s going on. But then we also have private channels for each team. So, we have areas where people on a specific team, like partnerships, we can share pictures of our kids and our pets, and we can talk about what we did over the weekend. And it gives us this really strong sense of community and connection. And then we also have the work stuff going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it\u2019s like having a water cooler all the time all day long, where you can meet and chat. When you start getting stressed, you can leave a message, and then over the course of the day, people are chiming in and responding to that. So it takes away some of the noise. It keeps you from feeling that disconnected feeling like you\u2019re at home by yourself, because everyone is at home by themself. So that\u2019s another key piece to our company, is the reason it works so well, is because every single employee here is remote. It\u2019s not like we have one person who\u2019s far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So over-communication, people have become really good at, everyone has become really good at, and I think that\u2019s extremely important when you\u2019re in a remote environment. Making sure that you communicate clearly, you use the channels that you have available effectively, and you choose which ones are right for each situation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So for example, if we\u2019re working on a project and there\u2019s confusion around it, I personally prefer making a Slack channel to have those discussions with threads, so that we have a paper trail of what\u2019s going on, why decisions were made, as opposed to hopping on to Zoom, where it seems like that would be a better choice, because you have a group of people, you should talk it out. But then you don\u2019t get that paper trail unless people are chatting and you can record. But nobody really wants to go through an hour and a half long recording to find out what\u2019s going on with a project most of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So using those channels effectively is huge for building that communication structure. Making sure that you over-communicate at times that you need to, and making sure that you check in with people for feedback constantly. That\u2019s another piece that\u2019s extremely important, especially in a remote environment, because you can\u2019t see a person\u2019s face when you\u2019re Slacking them to see what their response is, you know? So that\u2019s really important that you give feedback and say, \u201cOh, that\u2019s a great idea,\u201d or, when someone\u2019s talking during a meeting, say, \u201cOh, wow, yeah,\u201d or, \u201cHmm,\u201d just to make sure they know that you\u2019re engaged. Because when you\u2019re in a remote environment you can\u2019t always tell, and it can be tough when you\u2019re on one side, not having a two-way conversation at certain points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. So, I find it interesting, because you\u2019ve joined InVision since it was 50 people, now it\u2019s like 700 people. What\u2019s the biggest change in the internal process when InVision grows from 50 people to 700 people, for example? Do you still onboard people the same way when you\u2019re 50 people versus when you\u2019re 500 people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a great question. And absolutely not. It has changed so much over time. But when I started, the onboarding was basically everybody says hi in Slack, because there were only 50 of us. You get a bunch of messages, they send out an email welcoming you to the team. And then everybody responds back to that email and says, \u201cHello.\u201d And then they send you like a zip file of PDFs full of paperwork that you need to send back. So that\u2019s the early days, and then you get in touch and download the software that you think you should download. And now we have a huge process that\u2019s involved, and it\u2019s incredible. Our HR team is just phenomenal in general. We call them our People Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>They\u2019ve created an entire course that onboards people into InVision. And it includes a guidebook, and it includes classes for\u2026there\u2019s several eight-hour days that people go and they attend for the onboarding. And they learn about not just the company, but remote work. They learn about InVision, they learn how to use our product hands-on, and it\u2019s phenomenal. And they learn about the communication structure and when to use different types of communication.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So they lay that groundwork when people first come in the door, so that they\u2019re comfortable. They understand how the company works, and they can just jump right in immediately after onboarding, and jump in and start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m always curious about a process, because evolving a process is actually quite difficult, especially when you see, I\u2019ve interviewed a couple of remote work distributing consultant in the podcast, and they\u2019re basically helping companies to transition to be a remote company, because there\u2019s lot of internal process that has to change in order for remote work to succeed, right? Before, you only, you know, \u201cHey, can you do this?\u201d \u201cHey, this already shipped.\u201d And if you\u2019re in the same room, it\u2019s easier, right? But when you\u2019re remote, when you\u2019re 50, 100 people, and everything starts to break\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0So, building out the infrastructure is definitely a key piece of making your remote team function properly. And a lot goes into that. And that\u2019s where our people team has come in, just building that out over time and scaling it and making sure that things are working properly. And if something\u2019s not working properly, researching that and finding out how they can fix those things, and it\u2019s definitely a growth process. The more you scale, the more interesting it gets and more intricate, but they\u2019ve done a phenomenal job handling that transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. So, I think this is a good segue to my next question, is about the culture of InVision. So how do you describe InVision\u2019s culture? Do you think there\u2019s any connection between InVision\u2019s design culture\u2026 I think this is one of the official mission statement or vision in InVision. That\u2019s quite like a tongue twister there. So, do you think there\u2019s any connection between InVision\u2019s design culture with its remote culture and core values?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. It\u2019s a huge crossover. And honestly, I think that InVision\u2019s culture and the core values are the reason that we\u2019ve been so successful and able to scale this quickly, and, you know, like, just the whole company and the product, and everything has grown so rapidly. And it\u2019s\u2026 design is the center of the entire company. You know, our two founders actually worked together, and then ended up creating this product because they needed it in-house for the agency that they were working through. They ran the agency. And so they were like, \u201cOh, man, we really wish we had prototyping more quickly. We need this to exist.\u201d So they made it as an internal tool, and it grew rapidly into being so powerful that they ended up going and making it its own product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then it just exploded from there, because it was cutting edge. Nobody had that at the time. And it was incredibly useful. And now we\u2019ve grown into this giant product suite of different tools that teams can use, and just cross-functionally between the development team and the design team. And we have a tool called Freehand, where any team can jump in. So we have product management that\u2019s jumping in to create all these whiteboarding experiences across the company. And it\u2019s just been the coolest experience. The culture, that\u2019s buried deep into the company, is employee care at the center. And that\u2019s something our CEO feel extremely, extremely important from the very beginning. So we\u2019ve had great benefits, we have great care, we have neat perks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But really, where the company culture comes from is making sure that everyone on the team supports one another. We have this whole program where we do donations throughout the year, and it\u2019s, the involvement in it is huge. And so we have this go-giving is what we call it. So you go out and you do charity work or you, you know, donate to charity. And we have a whole program based around that. And you can see the company page where people can add things and come up with ideas for organizations that we want to donate to and areas that we want to support. We had at, one point, an employee\u2019s house burned down, and it was just devastating. And the company jumped in. And people were donating thousands of dollars within an hour of finding out that it happened, just to support the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So, it\u2019s just that kind of an environment where everyone genuinely cares about each other, coming in through the training when you join the team, that onboarding, that\u2019s made extremely apparent. And that way it has just spread throughout the entire company. And people come in the door knowing that that\u2019s how we function here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s great. I want to move on a bit into, to talk more about community. Community is always thing that I\u2019m always interested in, and it\u2019s really correlated to remote work. So, Jennifer, you are really experienced in connecting people and building community and, as far as I know, even before you joined InVision. And again, I always think remote work makes the barrier even lower to start building communities everywhere, because people just have more time and bandwidth to contribute to particular community, because they work from home, you know, time flexibility. So what are your advice for companies or even individuals that want to start building a community?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0I think there are a lot of different facets to it. One thing that I\u2019ve found working through InVision, and this is something that\u2019s helped me a lot in building community, is that our CEO is very open and transparent, and communicates extremely clearly with the team internally. And it helps us when we\u2019re building community to do the same with our audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We do a Q&A where every single member of our team, all 700, have the opportunity to ask questions directly to our CEO. Anything they want to ask. It\u2019s not just like the happy feely things. If they have an issue on their team, they can actually bring it up to the CEO in that environment, or if they have ideas for product enhancements, they can bring it up in that meeting. And it\u2019s been so incredible hearing the things that come out of those meetings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So that clarity and that transparency and that level of communication has helped build a real foundation for us in building our communities out in the design world. And since our CEO was a designer, like that\u2019s his background, he has helped us greatly. And culture and community for him are a key piece of InVision. That\u2019s just huge. Having educational materials for the community that we work with, making sure that we\u2019re giving them resources that are really impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, there are other companies that just, they\u2019re marketing, you know, they just do marketing and that\u2019s all. Here, that\u2019s not the key focus. We actually want to help support the community. And I think that because it\u2019s coming from that place genuinely, it really reflects in the authenticity of us interacting with the community, because we\u2019re here to help, we\u2019re not just here to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>You know, this is our community in addition to being our audience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that\u2019s part of why we\u2019ve been able to build such strong relationships is because people in our company have histories in design, even though they\u2019re not working necessarily right directly on the design team. Like, my background is in product design. That\u2019s where I came from, you know, and I did product design. I worked with the design team when I first came in. I did content strategy. It was a blast. And then as the company grew, we ended up needing more and more specialization over time. So, people who are previous designers, we have a person who works on the people team to help design programs. We have me working in partnerships and community, and I used to be a designer as well. So we\u2019re all part of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s deeply embedded in the company culture, because there are designers all over the place. So when we\u2019re having these conversations, they\u2019re authentic conversations coming from people who actually have done these things. It\u2019s not just random people who have been hired to talk to the community. It\u2019s actual designers who are already part of that community that are having these conversations. And it\u2019s really fun for us, you know, especially for us, getting to interact with our people all day long. We have people on our marketing team who don\u2019t have background in design, but they\u2019re really passionate about design. They\u2019re excited about it. It\u2019s something that they\u2019ve wanted to learn about and that they\u2019re very interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the folks that are on the team that are in that situation, even though they\u2019re not designers, they have that passion and that excitement around the topic. So, for them, they\u2019re becoming part of the community because they\u2019re learning and growing in what they\u2019re doing. And as they\u2019re talking to people, they\u2019re learning more and more about who\u2019s in the community, how the community functions, different ways that they can support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0What do you think is the difference between a community and an audience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0I think the main difference between community and audience is that anyone can be an audience. An audience is something that you throw things at, to me. It\u2019s like you come up with an idea and you toss it at them, and then, they\u2019re people that you want to have buy your product. And that\u2019s really the core focus is having this audience that you\u2019re tossing out these ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Community is where you\u2019re building an area where people who have similar interests can come together. I think that\u2019s the main difference. So the audience is kind of one-facing, and you\u2019re talking at them. And then you\u2019ve got the community, where you\u2019re helping people learn and grow and finding out what will make them most successful, and helping provide those items that they need and the resources that they need and giving them the opportunity to connect with each other, as opposed to you connecting with them directly and that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So, I think that\u2019s the main difference to me, between audience and community, is building an area for people to connect and help each other and for you to help them as well, versus the people that you talk to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that\u2019s the main difference there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I think a lot of companies have it kind of confused between building community and building an audience, and we have lots of, you know, community managers and whatnot. But the main goal probably they just want to build an audience. So I think it\u2019s an interesting topic, because building community is definitely not easy. What are the biggest challenges you faced when it comes to community building since you\u2019ve been doing it for a while now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0When I first came in, at a start up, you wear a million different hats, of course. Everybody does everything. So, like I said, I was working a little with the design team, I was doing some content strategy. I was blogging. I was doing all these things. Then they asked me to revamp the social media strategy, and I had never done that before. Like, I had a following that I had worked up through my blog, and I, like, connected with people in the community, but I had never done, like, a corporate social media account before. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest, trying to figure out the tools and how that was going to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And what I found was, when you\u2019re interacting with people on social media, you talk to them like they\u2019re people, and that\u2019s the key. When you\u2019re having those conversations, you use your own voice, instead of using, like, a professional, creepy, business voice, because nobody wants that when you\u2019re on social media. It\u2019s just awkward and uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So, building an online presence and building a community online, I think the most important part is to maintain your voice as you\u2019re building those relationships. And as a result, you can have real conversations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So instead of people just retweeting or liking your posts, you can actually have conversations in threads all over social media with the individuals, and build your community that way. And that\u2019s personally how I built my entire community. As I\u2019ve written and people have responded to my posts, I connect with them and I have a conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And even as my audience has scaled, my personal audience, I\u2019ve been able to continue with those relationships, because it\u2019s something that\u2019s important to me. And with our community through InVision, it\u2019s the same thing. We\u2019re not just adding them to a mailing list and never talking to them again. You know, we\u2019re inviting people to events, we\u2019re talking to them through surveys, we\u2019re getting research for the people who are interested, asking them to come in and talk to us about what\u2019s most important to them. And we\u2019re communicating on social media and interacting with them as they\u2019re talking to the brand there as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So just being authentic, using your own voice. I think those are two very key pieces in building community. Being kind and helping each other when you can, as well, is incredibly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if someone\u2019s looking for a job, and you can reach out to someone that you know, that might have a job opening, that\u2019s important, too. So I think there\u2019s just a lot of different ways you can build out that community. And then trying to support businesses that are supporting the community as well is really important. And that\u2019s something that we\u2019ve done through partnerships also is, if someone is working on a really incredible project, like if they\u2019re working on something that\u2019s going to help boost the ability for designers to integrate accessible options within their products, that\u2019s something that we want to support as a program, because it\u2019s incredibly important, or an initiative to increase diversity and inclusion in hiring, and a team that\u2019s doing events around that, and educating companies on how they can make that stronger within their organization, that\u2019s something we want to support. So things that are boosting not just the design community, but making the world a better place, you know? Those are things that we want to invest in as a company. And we\u2019ve been given that opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, I feel like there are, for other companies, I feel like determining is this important is probably the biggest challenges in building the community, like the first step itself. Like, \u201cShould I spend effort on this? Is it really worth it?\u201d And even after you go over that hurdle, the next step will be, \u201cHow do I want to engage with this community?\u201d When you\u2019re with a company, doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s, like, it\u2019s a huge 1,000-person company, or like just 50 people company, you have to decide what tone that you want to talk to the community or the audience. And in this case, and it should be, and it should stick, right? It should be consistent. If you want to be known as a fun brand, you should talk like that for the whole time. And if you want to be like a serious brand, you have to be kind of serious. And sometimes people have different opinions. I would guess that\u2019s probably the hardest part when you are in a company and want to build a community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. In the beginning, what our senior leadership did is they put people who had the voice that they wanted already, just that was their voice, in positions where they could build that voice for the brand. And then as that brand was being built, style guides were built, and, so we could have, like, a source of truth for how, like, what type of tone we\u2019re using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that if there\u2019s someone in marketing who\u2019s putting together a newsletter, and they don\u2019t have that natural voice, maybe they\u2019re more serious, they have basically the entire, it\u2019s like a guidebook of how we interact with our customers and make sure that they feel really well taken care of, as opposed to, like you said, like, being really serious and sounding extra professional. That\u2019s not really the goal. Our goal is to connect with people and build community with all the things that we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yeah, it\u2019s been a really interesting experience. So that\u2019s kind of how we did it was bringing in people who already had that voice and tone, having them help build up that style guide, and then being able to distribute that across the company as a source of truth in all the different communications that we have, whether it be social media or newsletters or outgoing messaging or in-product messaging, whatever the case may be, making that consistent across the board. So I think that\u2019s something that other companies, if they\u2019re able to, can definitely go from. And something else was getting buy-in from senior leadership for community, and for the voice and tone and the direction that you want things to go, from the very beginning. Super important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if people in community can find a sponsor and senior leadership as they\u2019re getting things ramped up, and make sure that it\u2019s being passed down through the entire company, that this is a major focus, something that we\u2019re investing in because we think it\u2019s important, that\u2019s really, really helpful. If you\u2019re able to make that happen within your organization, it can make a huge difference in what you\u2019re able to do and the way that you\u2019re able to support your community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Getting buy-ins is also a topic that came up a couple of times in this podcast, especially when it comes to, in fully distributed companies. For example, I talked to Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab. One of the things that really big at GitLab is having things well documented. So, basically you make a case for what you want to do. And that\u2019s where the importance of asynchronous communication and writing kicks in, right? It\u2019s hard to get your CEO into a Zoom call, probably. But if you somehow can make async communication work well, then you can slowly build your case. Like, it\u2019s less than a proposal, but it\u2019s more like just build a case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think the Basecamp people call it like a pitch, which I really like, because it is a pitch, like, if you want to get buy-ins from the executives why community\u2019s important and being a remote team is actually, help you to get into the state of flow and just think through about your case, like, why having community is important for your company, or other cases in that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. And it\u2019s funny, I was having a conversation with someone newer to the company about this recently. And when I started, there were only 50 of us. So it was basically, we tried something, and if it stuck, and did really well, we did it again. And that was our approach to everything pretty much, was just testing things out, seeing how they went. And if they went well, we did it again. If they didn\u2019t, we didn\u2019t do that again, we focused on something else. And as we\u2019ve grown, of course, that\u2019s not possible. You have to have, you know, a little more structure around it, because of resources. So as we\u2019ve grown and spread, we\u2019ve come up with\u2026ours is the same, it\u2019s pitches, you come up with an idea pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And the thing I love most about InVision is that anyone in any department can come up with a pitch for an idea, and then bring it up. And they can say, \u201cHey, what do you think about this?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And we have something called\u2026it\u2019s really cool. We have a #product-bad-version. It\u2019s called channel in Slack, and our entire senior staff, in addition to the rest of the company, monitors that. So if you come up with an idea, anybody, it could be a person in marketing, it could be a person in development, if you come up with an idea for the product or an idea for something you think that could help the community, you toss it into that channel, and then people can have a discussion around it. And it gives it that visibility up through senior level that you were talking about, that can be really hard at other companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So you really do have access all the way up the food chain at all times at our company, and it\u2019s such a cool environment. And it just makes people really creative, being able to share all those ideas and knowing that they have that opportunity. So it\u2019s just a really neat atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what we do now is, since I work in partnerships, I\u2019m not directly on the marketing team, I\u2019m just in partnerships. I have the VP of partnerships that I, and community, that I report to directly. If I need support for something from marketing, for example, I\u2019m working right now on a career conversation series, where we get together a small group of designers, and we have a conversation around a topic that\u2019s really important to them. It\u2019s not a webinar. I\u2019m not talking to them or at them. It\u2019s all 15 people have been given the opportunity to share experiences and talk to each other, including me, about things that they\u2019ve gone through and ideas around how other people have dealt with those issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So the most recent one was imposter syndrome, is the topic that we\u2019re focused on right now. And it\u2019s been the coolest thing. We\u2019ve had people come in who are CEOs, all the way down to people who are students, who were first entering the community, all in the same call, sharing these ideas, talking about things that have worked and talking about issues they\u2019ve come across. And seeing that it\u2019s something that spreads that far across the industry, from the top down, has been so exciting just to have that open, honest conversation. So, yeah, I think there\u2019s a lot of different facets to it and approaches that you can take, but I think open communication is probably the key to unlocking all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it. So I want to switch gears a bit here and talk about remote work as a whole, and how it enables opportunities for everyone. End of last year, November last year, so you wrote a very open, vulnerable piece on Medium, which is titled \u201cRemote work is more than a job perk\u2014for people with chronic illness, it\u2019s life changing.\u201d I want to recite the first paragraph of the piece, if I may?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, quote starts, \u201cRemote work is so much more than just a job perk for digital nomads. Going to an office daily isn\u2019t a possibility for some people. Their minds are fine but their bodies don\u2019t cooperate. Remote work allows people who are chronically ill to have full time jobs and excel in them. Some people don\u2019t understand how empowering that is.\u201d I want to ask, what compelled you to write this piece, your very personal story? And I remember it was it\u2019s been talked a lot and people discuss about this a lot on Twitter and how, like, a couple of thousand claps on Medium. Would love to hear your story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. So, where that piece came from was, I, back in my early 20s, started to have a health decline. And it was while I was a designer on an in-house design team. And it took a really long time for them to figure out what was going on. But my health just declined really, really rapidly. And the company where I was working, of course, had a front row seat to that. They saw the entire thing happen, me going from perfectly healthy, running around traveling all over the place, to hardly being able to walk, you know, and being sick constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I was able to complete my work. Like, no problem, that wasn\u2019t an issue. My mind was fine. But going into an office for me was incredibly difficult, because just navigating around and getting ready and going through and being able to focus 100% of the time, and sometimes I was having seizures that were focal seizures, and it was just a lot. So them having seen that in person, my VP at the time was incredibly supportive, because I was able to keep my work up. It wasn\u2019t a problem. I just needed a little bit of extra time, and my schedule had to be a tiny bit different. So if I had a seizure, needed some time to recover, and then I could crank out my work. It wasn\u2019t a big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in a traditional office setting, of course, that\u2019s not very possible to do. And so they started letting me work part time remote, and it was just life-changing at that level. So as that was happening, our company was acquired, and someone else came in and they were still very supportive of the remote work piece. But then I was offered this opportunity in InVision. Somebody at InVision reached out to me through Twitter, speaking of building communities on social media. They actually got in touch with me because of Twitter and because of some blog posts that I\u2019d been writing. And being a full time remote company, I actually didn\u2019t tell anyone other than my direct manager that I was ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one in the entire company had any idea. It didn\u2019t impact my work. It didn\u2019t impact my relationships, because something I found that, once people find out that you\u2019re battling illness is that sometimes they have a tendency to treat you quite a bit differently, and not give you as many major projects, because they\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t want to stress you out and make you sick,\u201d you know. So I was able to, for four and a half years at InVision, work full time, no issues, nobody could see me being ill. Anytime I was sick, I just went off camera. Nobody could see my face, because that\u2019s something in office, when you come in looking like death, people see that. When you\u2019re in a remote company, people don\u2019t see your face, they don\u2019t know. You just keep it together and then everything is fine. So, four and a half years I hid that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And one of my mentors is Stephen Gates and another is Mike Davidson. And both of them knew what was going on. And they both said, \u201cWhen you\u2019re ready, it would be really impactful if you were comfortable with it, no pressure, to share your experience, because so many other people are going through this, and they\u2019re afraid to talk about it.\u201d I was afraid to talk about it, because I was afraid that it would impact future job prospects. So in the event that InVision, let\u2019s say, InVision was acquired or something, and 5 years or 10 years from now, after that happened, I wanted to make sure that I had lots of job opportunities to move into. And now that I\u2019m really established in my career, after all that time, I finally got to the point that I was comfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And having their support as I shared that was absolutely huge. But the response to sharing that post was absolutely incredible. I had people reaching out to me from all over the world, telling me that they\u2019d been battling chronic illness, they\u2019re going through the same thing. Some of them had the support, some of them didn\u2019t, and just hearing their stories, it just broke my heart and warmed my heart at the same time. And I got so many thank yous for sharing that experience, because it\u2019s not something people talk about very often. And it can be really difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And talking about how I as a person am able to work, no problem. I\u2019ve worked up in my career I\u2019ve built up, you know, worked up the food chain. I\u2019m a senior manager of an entire program now at InVision, and being able to do that while being chronically ill in a remote environment, without anyone knowing, across the entire company was just kind of a\u2026it was an interesting story to share and to share with people who feel like they don\u2019t have a lot of hope right now. And that is an environment and a feeling that a lot of people have when they\u2019re battling chronic illness, and it breaks my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, just kind of sharing that you can overcome that, and you can work past it, and you can get into a full time position and continue living your life. Because most people who are chronically ill do not want to be on disability. It\u2019s not fun to do. Some people are like, \u201cOh, yeah, disability must be great. You can stay home all day.\u201d It\u2019s awful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nobody likes it. It\u2019s a horrible thing to go through. No one is enjoying that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>People want to work, whether they\u2019re sick or they\u2019re healthy, being able to work, it just, is so powerful for people, especially when they\u2019re going through something awful like that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yeah, so that was the article and that\u2019s kind of where it came from. And I had all the support coming in from people in the community as well as from my mentors. And I honestly had a panic attack. I\u2019m not gonna lie, full blown panic attack. My left arm was numb. Like, I was freaking out after I hit Submit on that post and published, but I\u2019m so, so glad in retrospect that I did end up doing it, because it\u2019s really been an incredible experience hearing the stories from people who\u2019ve gone through similar things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I really wish the credit for remote work will catch up even faster. I know that this kind of accelerated because of the unfortunate condition of the pandemic. So, last year, I went to a conference called Running Remote. And in the opening ceremony, they played a video of a young gentleman who is based in Bangladesh. He\u2019s been disabled since he was his birth, and it\u2019s super difficult for him to function normally in the society. He was able to find some freelance design gigs in Fiverr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And seeing the video is just really heartwarming because this is a young gentleman, disabled, living in someplace, some small village in Bangladesh, and he is able to connect with people around the world, delivering creative work through the internet, with people and clients he never met. So I really wish this catch up even faster and to let people around the world know that your opportunity is not limited to where you live, or even in this matter, your physical condition, as long as you can still train your mind and create.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh, that just gives me goosebumps hearing that story. And it\u2019s so true. One of the things that I\u2019ve learned loved about working at InVision is, as I mentioned earlier, I work with people from all over the world, and getting to know more about where they live and their experience and people coming in from every country imaginable, and being able to talk to them about their experience has been huge. And I learned through writing that article that there are other people in InVision who are going through the same thing I am. People that I have worked with for years reached out to me, and they were like, \u201cMan, thank you so much for sharing that article. I\u2019ve been battling chronic illness the entire time I\u2019ve worked here. It really meant so much to me to hear that,\u201d and that gives me goosebumps too, talking about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it was amazing finding out that other people were going through the same things even in my company. And, like you said, people just don\u2019t talk about it often enough. And if we can push that out, you know, around the world, that this is an experience that if you give people the opportunity, as you mentioned, any background, any area of the world, it doesn\u2019t matter where you are or what you\u2019re going through or your health, you can have this experience of working and giving back to the community and giving back to your society. And it\u2019s just incredible. And I really, really hope that that does catch on. It\u2019s such an incredibly powerful experience and opportunity for people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. Do you have any words of advice or encouragement for people who are currently in a position similar to you, back then or even now, people who are probably battling physical illness and feel kind of stuck because they don\u2019t know how they can contribute to society with their work? Any advice for them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0I would say don\u2019t limit yourself, is the first piece of advice. A lot of the time, people have a tendency, myself included, to get in our own way, thinking, \u201cOh, nobody would hire me. I\u2019ve got these issues. You know, it\u2019s awful, and I\u2019m disabled and people are going to know and then they\u2019re not going to let me do this work.\u201d And that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>People are way, and companies are way more open than you would expect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And as a person working remotely, like I said, nobody even knew for four and a half years anyway. It was a complete non-issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So one of the things is don\u2019t limit yourself, don\u2019t trip yourself up right from the get-go. Know that these opportunities exist, and go for them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The next thing is apply, apply, apply, apply, apply for jobs. And there are so many remote jobs available. And I can send you some links to different organizations and different websites that list them after the session. But there are so many that are available right now that a lot of people don\u2019t realize are there. They don\u2019t know that there are legitimate remote jobs. When I first started doing this, my family was like, \u201cOh, so it\u2019s not like a real job.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat are you talking about? Yes, it\u2019s a real job.\u201d They were like, \u201cOh, I figured it was one of those things where you, like, make crafts and send them in.\u201d I was like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m working for a software company again. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, just knowing that those real legitimate jobs are there. And when I posted that article out on a website that is focused on people that are having similar issues, I had a lot of people write back to me and say, \u201cI didn\u2019t even know that was a thing. I didn\u2019t realize that there were remote, legitimate remote jobs out there where I could do things that I had been doing previously, remotely from my house. I had no clue.\u201d And so it\u2019s been a really cool experience in that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So don\u2019t limit yourself. Apply like crazy. And then don\u2019t lose hope if you don\u2019t get those jobs right off the bat. Because I had no idea remote was a thing. I had this whole career path that I was on, and I thought this was the end of it. I thought I would never be able to do it again. And I was just crushed, because I love design and I love this community. And being able to move into this position from that mindset was just, you know, it just opened up the whole world for me. So, don\u2019t lose hope. That is the third piece, is just believe in yourself, believe you can do this, and keep pushing forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s great. I just want to have a quick plug here, just like what Jennifer mentioned. If you are a programmer, a software developer, looking for remote jobs, you can apply to our company, arc.dev, where, there is a vetting process of course. But when you join the community, you will have a chance to be matched with remote jobs all around the world, both full time, or, full time as in permanent, and also freelance full time jobs. And if you like to mentor people, mentor other software developers, the Arc team is on the same team behind the platform Codementor, where you can help other engineers or students one-on-one live on the platform, and make some money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cool. Jennifer, thank you so much for your time today. I really learned a lot about your experience in building community and a lot more about InVision. It seems like an awesome company. So, how can people learn more about you and InVision online?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0We actually have a couple of different places that you can go of course, because we\u2019re focused on community. You can pop out, if you\u2019re interested in applying for a job, I\u2019ll just do a quick plug for that too. It\u2019s invision.com\/jobs. You can go out to that page. It\u2019ll have all of our current listings. We\u2019re always hiring, even during the pandemic right now. We\u2019ve got job listings out there even at this moment. And we\u2019re hiring. I think we just had three new people start Friday. So, or the [inaudible 00:42:18] here. So that\u2019s one option. The other thing is that you can go out to Twitter, and that\u2019s twitter.com\/invisionapp. So you can go out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have our LinkedIn profile up, so you can contact us in a whole variety of ways. We love interacting with people in the community. I would love to hear from you too. You can hit me at twitter.com\/jma245. I would love to talk to you if you\u2019ve heard this and if you have any additional questions about the things that are going on and the experiences that we\u2019ve had. So, lots of ways to connect with us and we would love to hear from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Awesome. Jennifer, thank you again for your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jennifer:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you so much. It was great chatting with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You can also try <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/\">Arc<\/a><em>, your<\/em><em> shortcut to the world\u2019s best remote talent:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u26a1\ufe0f Access 450,000 top developers, designers, and marketers <br>\u26a1\ufe0f <em>Vetted and ready to interview<\/em><br>\u26a1\ufe0f Freelance or full-time<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\"><strong>Try Arc and hire top talent now \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jennifer Aldrich, Sr. Mgr. of Design Partnership at InVision shared about building a community and how remote work changed her life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leadership"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Remote Work is More Than a Job Perk (Jennifer Aldrich of InVision)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jennifer Aldrich, Sr. Mgr. of Design Partnership at InVision shared about building a community and how remote work changed her life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/why-remote-work-is-more-than-a-job-perk\/\" \/>\n<meta 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