{"id":87,"date":"2020-04-22T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/employer-blog.arc.dev\/?p=87"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:55:53","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T04:55:53","slug":"arc-remote-roundtable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/arc-remote-roundtable\/","title":{"rendered":"Arc Team: Remote Work FAQ Roundtable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Overall, it\u2019s forced me to think about, \u201cHey, like, how can I use writing to clarify things without having to just jump on a call?\u201d So I think that my default has changed to writing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This week we have a special episode on the podcast! In this episode, we have our very first roundtable chat with other Arc team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During this chat, we talk about our recently-launched Remote Work FAQs. We created this resource hoping to help companies who need to go remote because of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This episode\u2019s guests are members of different teams at Arc. We get their perspective on how the current remote work transition has been affecting their team, processes, and more. Joining us in this episode are our Head of Marketing Christine Orchard, Hiring Consultant Emiliano Rodriguez-Wyler, and Front-end Engineer Ting Chang!<\/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 our communication style and processes have evolved<\/li><li>How we designed our workspaces at home<\/li><li>Handling criticism and feedback in remote teams<\/li><li>How remote work affected our routines and daily life<\/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=\"http:\/\/zoom.us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Zoom<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/notion.so\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Notion<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/airtable.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Airtable<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/getkap.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kap<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/loom.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Loom<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/blog\/podcast-ep13-time-doctor-liam-martin-8aldhrbcb7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Liam Martin of Time Doctor: How to Be a Remote Executive<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/lifehacker.com\/work-more-productively-on-your-own-by-playing-workstat-1522908803\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Workstation Popcorn method<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moft.us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MOFT stand<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/tuple.app\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tuple<\/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 our 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 distribute team who thrive outside of Silicon Valley. I\u2019m your host, Jovian Gautama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This episode is quite unique because it\u2019s the first time I have more than one guest in an episode, and also the first time I interviewed my coworkers. We recently launched a remote work FAQs, frequently asked questions, and today we\u2019re going to discuss about how we think about all of these questions internally, both on the team level, such as meetings, collaborations, communications, and on the personal level such, as how to be productive, dealing with isolation, and more. So without further ado, let\u2019s introduce ourselves first to the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Hi, everyone. I\u2019m Christine. I\u2019m the Head of Marketing at Arc and I\u2019m based in Taipei, Taiwan. And I\u2019ve been working remotely for about a year, I would say, on and off. We do have an office, so I do go in there occasionally. But since end of January, I\u2019ve been fully remote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Hi, this is Emiliano Rodriguez-Wyler. I\u2019m a Hiring Consultant at Arc. I\u2019ve been working remotely for two years and nine months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Hello, everyone. So I\u2019m Ting, Ting Chang. And I recently joined Arc as a Front-end Developer around mid-January, and the company went fully remote end of January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, we recently launched these Remote Work FAQs because we see that, unfortunately, because of the coronavirus pandemic a lot of companies need to go full remote and abruptly, so-to-speak. So, first question will be for all of you. So, how has this COVID-19 pandemic affect you in your daily life and work life so far?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0I think that, for me, I\u2019ve gone through all stages of grief. At first, it was, I mean, I don\u2019t know the stages off the top of my head, but you go from sadness to anger, like, \u201cWhy is this happening?\u201d to, like, finally at the end you kind of accept it. I mean, since I\u2019m in Taiwan we\u2019ve actually\u2026we\u2019ve faced the kind of self-quarantine a bit earlier in February compared to the rest of the world. So I think I\u2019ve already gotten used to it. But I think I\u2019ve kind of turned all of the challenges I faced into an opportunity. I see working from home completely, you know, I\u2019m full-time working from home now. Yeah, it sucked at first because I didn\u2019t have all the ducks in a row, but I\u2019ve been able to figure out a schedule that works for me and figure out the best way to support the team as well. So I\u2019ve kind of gone through the good and the bad and then turned out I\u2019m pretty happy. And I think the team is also getting more efficient at working from home as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0So, on my end, I actually, recently\u2026 I wasn\u2019t a developer before I came to Arc. I was in investor relations. And I did a career change because I was interested in getting into a profession that would allow remote work. So it was actually really cool coming into Arc, and then having the whole pandemic, which is unfortunate, but it served as an opportunity to provide a chance to be fully remote within the company. So I thought that was pretty cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, working from home every day, the biggest impact I\u2019ve felt is not being able to step outside and do regular activities that I\u2019m used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I tell people that now are joining remote to take it with a grain of salt. It\u2019s not the same as it usually feels for me, but I\u2019ve been doing this for a long time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I can think of, \u201cHey, man, we\u2019re gonna have a beer Friday night. I\u2019m gonna do groceries. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m going to go to the cinema.\u201d I had to cancel some plans to travel. So it\u2019s a different dynamics mentally. And I\u2019ve spoken with other members that have done this before, and they agreed that it\u2019s not the same feeling entirely. So take it with a grain of salt. Just getting focused in working from home, pretty much the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0As you guys know, I\u2019ve started working remotely full time since last year. But these couple of months, a couple of weeks just feel different because, like Emiliano mentioned, it\u2019s not about that you\u2019re working from home. It\u2019s because you have less option to do other stuff, to unwind or something like this. So it kind of feels\u2026 it\u2019s been harder in these couple of weeks. And also mentally you are on a different state than the normal remote work situation, so to speak. It\u2019s very important to mention that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>This is not the normal remote work experience. This is pandemic remote work experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. I mean, I think that remote work and work from home is not exactly the same. I think a lot of people have already said that. Other people, from what I\u2019ve heard and what I\u2019ve read, it\u2019s true, but it\u2019s also kind of forcing you to get\u2026 I don\u2019t know. I would say it forces you to really think about your daily routine because you can\u2019t leave or you can\u2019t leave for very long. So I think it just forces you to be even more clear about what you\u2019re doing within the time, and how do you, within your house, make space for work-life balance if you can\u2019t leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Absolutely. So, like I mentioned before we started recording, let\u2019s go through the questions on remote work FAQs and then see how we can dive deep into it and to discuss it more thoroughly. So, the very first question here is, what remote work essentials do I need to know? So this is the very basic question. It mostly revolves around communication, actually, when I think about this question. So, was there any change in the way you communicate with the team?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0I think it\u2019s a delicate balance of knowing when to jump on a call to solve something and knowing when to write it down. So writing things down is known as a best practice for remote teams. You need documentation. But even when you think of smaller examples, like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cHey, someone has a question and they\u2019re asking you to jump on a call for five minutes,\u201d my response, by default, would be, \u201cHey, can you just write it down first?\u201d Because I think it helps clarify your own thoughts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So I used to be the kind of person, if I was in an office I would just be like, \u201cSure.\u201d I\u2019ll sit and talk to you for those five minutes. But I think, overall, it\u2019s forced me to think about, \u201cHey, like, how can I use writing to clarify things without having to just jump on a call?\u201d So I think that my default has changed to writing. Try to write it down for myself or my teammates, ask them to write it down, and then have a meeting if it\u2019s needed, or jump on a call. And then, again, write down the conclusions or what were the takeaways, what were the action items. So I think, in an office, this should be the best practice anyway but it kind of just\u2026it makes it more clear that you need this when you\u2019re working from home or working remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0I agree on what Christine said. In an office setting, it\u2019s so much easier to kind of look over and kind of wave someone down and ask them if they can help you look over something. Whereas when you\u2019re working from home, you kind of wanna get into that best practice of writing everything down, as opposed to, \u201cHey, can we get hop on a call?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because if you look back into your Slack history or whatnot, it\u2019s just you\u2019re hopping on calls and you don\u2019t really have that transcript of what may have happened that you wanna look back into. And I guess, especially for when you\u2019re asking questions about code-based related stuff, it really forces you to be really clear about what you have to write. And in that aspect, sometimes the question you originally had, you found, by thinking it out, typing it out, you actually solved it yourself and you don\u2019t really need to hop on that 5-minute call or 10-minute call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I actually mentioned and discussed this with some of the interviewees and the guests. So, I personally think in Arc, before, our documentation wasn\u2019t that good because everyone in the same office, why not? So, I think we\u2019re leaning towards to a more documented approach. So everything should not be on slight by default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Even something recently, we didn\u2019t even have a description of the Slack channels, and, you know, if you use Slack there\u2019s 1,000 channels. We probably have 200. But we just recently made those descriptions. And that\u2019s something that\u2019s super helpful for even if you\u2019re new or even if you\u2019ve been here, sometimes you wonder, \u201cHey, what was that channel originally for?\u201d So something like that, I think, is really helpful. It\u2019s something that like..little steps like that to document those are really helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. It takes time, though, because this is not a natural reaction. It\u2019s not natural to write down stuff every time. So this is something yet humans need to deliberately train, in my opinion. Emiliano, so you have been working remotely since day one, since you were in Arc a couple of years ago. I feel like your communication style or how you think about communication with teammates definitely evolved from the first joint until now. So has your communication style evolved in this couple of years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, it has. And a lot of it also has to do with my interactions with the organization, how things have changed, and also learning from clients. Well, when I first joined, I was the first remote employee. We had the office. There were many situations that were distant to me, topics or documents that I didn\u2019t know. We had a GitHub with content for onboarding. You even wrote some of that, I don\u2019t know if you recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Wait, really?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0So we were all over the place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I totally forgot about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0You sent me an invite. I\u2019m pretty sure I can\u2026 And so I was just sometimes not sure where things were written. And then, we started to mature. We started to hire other team members in sales work remotely, our COO coming to San Francisco, and then being able to just sync without having a meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, Slack is like the matrix. There are threads that I store and I hold dear because I know there\u2019s important intel there that I sometimes need to look back. There\u2019s maybe some team members, even if you\u2019re in an office, on-site, you didn\u2019t really shooting track. Maybe you drink coffee together, but, \u201cHi, bye-bye.\u201d And when it\u2019s remote as well it\u2019s very different. So I sometimes say stuff to people randomly. Like, \u201cHey, how are you? Do you remember me? We used to joke around.\u201d So they know there\u2019s this guy, he\u2019s not in an island, he exists, he\u2019s got a face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So, I guess, that interaction of trying to also come across more approachable to other team members, that has grown in me because at the beginning there was just people in the team that I wouldn\u2019t have a reason to speak with and I wouldn\u2019t try. And nowadays it\u2019s more of a conscious effort.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Emiliano had it tough because he is our very first remote hire at that time. And then, it was really tough for you. So props to you for getting through that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0You haven\u2019t [inaudible 00:10:56], but this was my first remote job, so I was also learning on the job, I think, we all were. It\u2019s not as if I was an OG, you know, guys have been doing this for a decade. You don\u2019t know anything about it. No, I didn\u2019t know anything back then. So it\u2019s been learning for everyone. It\u2019s been quite interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. So, I want to move on to the next question in regards to tools. What are the must-have tools for remote work? So, in your opinion, what are the main tools that you think is the most useful for working remotely? It can be on the personal level or even on the team level?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0This might sound clich\u00e9 but Zoom has really shaped the world. You would think that in a sky was lying around before but just hop into a Zoom call. It is very fast. It is very easy. So I think definitely Zoom is a life-changing tool that they have managed to put in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Slack, it might sound cliche as well, but the one-on-ones we have there, these might sound old school, but also always personally having notebook, paper, somewhere to write is really important because everything that\u2026 I used to use Grammarly and drive a lot, but then you can type faster than you can write. So you\u2019re not even thinking, you\u2019re driving, you don\u2019t know how you get home. It\u2019s the same problem. So trying to elaborate more and then transcribe, it\u2019s been really useful for me to have meaningful notes when I speak with people or have one-on-ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I would definitely agree with Emiliano. I have this little handwritten planner. I use a lot of tools, which I\u2019ll talk about in a minute. But it\u2019s really helpful to me to think\u2026to force yourself. We\u2019d said writing things down is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>But actually physically writing down what are my three goals for the week, the three things I must get done, I think, really focuses my energy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>You can do it daily, I think. I guess I do have a daily must-do, but my weekly must-dos are things that kind of span obviously the entire week, but that\u2019s been really helpful. I usually separate into work and life as well. So my life goals, maybe this week my goal is to get a good night\u2019s sleep every single week, every single day of the week. I think that really helps. So I do, I really handwritten things as well. I definitely agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think Notion is essential for project planning. We use a mix of Notion and Airtable actually. So I use Notion for anything that\u2019s text-heavy. Anything that\u2019s really idea-building or thinking about ad copy or anything that is all done in Notion. That\u2019s really our go-to tool. And then Airtable, I use more for project planning, like detailed task lists and connection between if you use OKRs, we connect things between objectives, KRs, and then tasks. So I think those two would be go-to tools that maybe other people haven\u2019t used yet. And obviously Google docs or Google sheets, all of those definitely need to have those. I think those are just default, for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Also find a really easy to use screen recording or screen capturing tool is also very easy, especially when you\u2019re communicating with teammates about certain things to really just show you what you have on your screen. If you\u2019re just talking through, something like Slack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0What do you use for that, Ting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0I use Kap, K-A-P.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I use Loom. So I think this is also a thing that we can try more because it\u2019s basically like you have the best of both worlds, lf you use screen recordings or even a voice recordings with tools like Loom. Because at the same time you can work as synchronously. I can just throw a videos out there, but it\u2019s also\u2026it\u2019s high fidelity stuff. So instead of writing it down, of course, writing it down is important, but sometimes it\u2019s better when you have visual aids. So starting or tried to experiment using Loom from time to time when I feel, \u201cOh this is too hard to write.\u201d So I just record a screen and then I\u2019ll record, \u201cThis is how you do it,\u201d blah, blah, blah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0I wanna try it. I actually haven\u2019t used Loom yet. I\u2019ve seen that you do, but I wanna start trying to use it. Especially when teaching other teammates how to do things, it seems really useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. I think for me it\u2019s more\u2026it depends on what you try to convey and how dense the information is. \u201cHey, here\u2019s a one-minute video that you can just watch,\u201d and they literally just emulate it at the same time. So, in terms of home work space, so what is the best way to set up my home work space? So what\u2019s your workspace setup like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a great question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0A monitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Ask the pro. Ask Emiliano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0You know, when I started, I was like, \u201cOkay. I have a chair. I have a desk. I have a room, that\u2019s not where I sleep, I\u2019m gonna use that.\u201d And that\u2019s how I started. But this room has changed completely. We\u2019d start\u2026is the chair I had was the cheapest Costco chair. You would lean back and they would [inaudible 00:15:54]. I feel you\u2019ve had to\u2026 If I was still in that chair probably, I would be in a hospital bed right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, get something with lumbar support. Your lower back is gonna be thankful. I think this is really important. If you can\u2019t have a chair, just put a pillow and it\u2019s gonna be equally as good. But I like to lean back. So, that was important for me. I have a desk lamp, but when it\u2019s nighttime, because we\u2019re across multiple time zones, you don\u2019t want to burn your eyes because you see people getting closer to the screen. I used to do that a lot. Sometimes I still do. So now I have a desk lamp. I have blue light glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t need to get prescription glasses. But I noticed that if I don\u2019t wear the glasses and I\u2019m having cold slate, I need to put something in my eyes like drops because I\u2019m starting to feel the burn. And that\u2019s also really important. Get a comfortable keyboard, that\u2019s a good investment. You might think it\u2019s not important, but that you\u2019re gonna be thankful as well. Somewhere you can rest your palms, sometimes depending on the height of the keyboard, you\u2019ve got to experiment. Having a different mouse than the Mac Book Pro, I love the Mac Book Pro mouse, but something that\u2019s more ergonomic, it\u2019s gonna be also really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many great to have that are not mandatory, especially when you go and travel on the road, and then I don\u2019t have any of this. I can\u2019t shave my second screen. I love my dog. He can\u2019t be there in my Herman Miller chair and whatnot, and I\u2019m back to basics and it\u2019s like, \u201cYeah, okay. I can still pull it off.\u201d But I look back at thinking of my home office and I\u2019m like, \u201cYeah, damn. I using a second screen or I\u2019m using the chair right now.\u201d And so find those little details. And I guess, when you\u2019re working from home and you look at the set of somebody, you can tell they\u2019ve put some work into these. The guys that have the microphone that comes out and the crazy backgrounds that look amazingly artistic, you\u2019ve just got to do something about it because you\u2019re staring at it through Zoom 24\/7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0I like that you focus on those little details because I think\u2026 I mean, I don\u2019t know what chair you should buy or what computer accessories you need. But I think the little things really make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I just have this light up here that makes me look more a human. I think you take for granted how you appear on the screen really impacts just how your team feels or the energy level that you need look you have.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you do it\u2026like in my role I do a lot of meetings. I\u2019m in meetings all day, and those things, it\u2019s not for me necessarily, but it\u2019s for making sure that I\u2019m\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/blog\/cross-cultural-communication-cs7kf7syp6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">communicating in the best way with the rest of the team<\/a>. So I would say invest in a light. I know another team member also uses the selfie light. You just have a lamp though, right? I mean, I know you don\u2019t have the ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. No, no, I don\u2019t have the ring. I only have a lamp, but you probably can see it in the reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0But consider it. Yeah, I think it makes a difference if you do a lot of calls. So think about how you\u2019re spending your time. You might not need it, but I think that\u2019s something that I decided that I needed, good lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, because somebody once told me, I was having a call the other day and he\u2019s like, \u201cAre you in a cave or what?\u201d And I realized, yeah, it was looking kind of dark. And I was like, \u201cYeah. No, lighting looks good to me. It doesn\u2019t look good to you.\u201d And, if you look as if you\u2019re in the witness protection program during a call, you look like shadows, that\u2019s the right time to check the lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0It really forces you to empathize with what people are experiencing, not what you\u2019re experiencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. I remember Emiliano used to\u2026 I remember in the early days we used to record some of our sales calls with, of course, with the client\u2019s permission. I remember Emiliano used to do the video calls in his living room, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s when the lighting was terrible. Yeah, we\u2019ll go to my\u2026 I wanted to just chill in the sofa and nobody could hear me. It was awful. Yeah. You remember those? You saw the recordings when\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, exactly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Back in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So I think, for me, and probably also for Ting, I don\u2019t have a really good setting. My work from home setting was really bad just because I prefer to work at coffee shops or sometimes co-working space. I have really small space in my house to focus on work. So what I do to make things less uncomfortable is sometimes I switch from my room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So my desk is in my room. And sometimes when I feel like unmotivated or you feel tired, I just move to the living room. So this change of environment, even though it\u2019s from an non-ideal environment to another non-ideal environment, actually still kind of help, you know?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0No. That reminds me of one interesting thing that I read. I haven\u2019t personally tried it, but it\u2019s called the popcorn method. If you feel you can\u2019t work from home very well, they suggest that you every two or three hours you change position, or you go to the kitchen, or you go to the living room, or you go to\u2026 Do not go to your bedroom. But other than that, just go around your house and change spots, that\u2019s supposed to be a really good tip for helping you focus because you can focus on a task for those two hours, and when you switch tasks you\u2019re also switching location. So I don\u2019t know if anyone has ever tried that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I\u2019ve tried that. I think it actually helps because back when I was in Taiwan, it\u2019s like I live with my grandma so there isn\u2019t that much space. And sometimes I\u2019m in the living room. Sometimes I have to go into my room. Just switching back and forth kind of keeps it fresh. Another thing is because, if there\u2019s not that much space, I don\u2019t have that big of a setup. I\u2019ve noticed at the MOFT stance, I found that it\u2019s really helpful because if I\u2019m just working, just tilted angle, it helps so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0How do you call it? The MOFT stance. There\u2019s should be a name for it, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Is it called the MOFT?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I don\u2019t know. By the way, for the listeners, we\u2019re going to put this on the show notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0This is what you mean? I use this type of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0I had something like that. I lost it. I get a cheap version of it, and I may saved too much because I cannot adjust the height.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yes. This is a laptop stand that can change the angle of your laptop when you\u2019re typing. So, another question here is, how do we share knowledge and processes within the team? So, Christine already mentioned that we use tools like Notion or even sometimes Google Docs, but I\u2019m curious, what do you guys think about the current knowledge transfer process in our team internally? Do you feel like it\u2019s good enough or do you feel like there are things that can be better? I think it\u2019s probably different from the sales team, from the marketing team, and the engineering team. So I\u2019m just curious what you guys think about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Okay. From the marketing team, I would say we never have enough documentation as like when you have a new hire, you realize\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I agree, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026you realize, \u201cOh you know what? That was obvious to me but I didn\u2019t actually have it written down anywhere.\u201d And so, I think it becomes clear when you\u2019re hiring new people. So I think it depends on what stage of growth that you\u2019re at. It\u2019s something that, I would say, it\u2019s like eating well and exercising. Everyone knows they need to do it, but actually doing it consistently is the hard part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I think what we try to do is if you just have Notion as a default for every project you do or everything that you do<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>[\u2026]so you start a new project, you put it in, you write it down, because you don\u2019t know when an SOP is gonna become something that becomes an essential to your team.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say I\u2019m launching a new ad campaign. At first, it\u2019s just an experiment but then it becomes something that you\u2019re doing over and over again. When you hire a new person, you also need them to do it. But if you start from the beginning as a default you\u2019re always writing everything down like the process that you\u2019re doing, all the steps you\u2019re doing, it makes it easier to go back and really make that something that you can share with another team member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that\u2019s like the way that we do it now, is just default to writing it down. And sometimes, we have a lot of docs we maybe never go back to. But, I think, in the end we kind of figure out, \u201cOh, this is an essential one.\u201d We add it to our essential marketing knowledge base that we then share with new team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0I think one thing that Christine mentioned about was onboarding. So recently, our team, we had a process review. And me and another hire, we were talking about how, I guess, some thoughts we had about the onboarding process and some information that older teammates might have just\u2026it came really easy. Whereas for us it\u2019s like we had to muddle around through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And we had a little huddle where we kind of discuss what things we could improve on. And I think the whole process of having a process review also helped with throwing ideas back and forth in terms of what we thought we could improve on and keep everyone up to date in terms of how they were feeling about working within the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0The thing with sales, what I\u2019ve seen is that there are many instances where we unconsciously learn that we weren\u2019t doing something or that there was something that was setting us apart from other team members. Because, especially in sales, the culture tends to be different from other teams, and that\u2019s fine. But when it\u2019s remote, it just kind of augments that sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re like a hub that\u2019s sitting remotely and you have perhaps your own culture. And we started to notice that my colleagues and I, that suddenly we weren\u2019t sure what the product team was thinking of our comments or what they were working on. And we didn\u2019t have visibility on each other\u2019s, and we were having a lot of back and forth on Slack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And Slack is great but it can also become a graveyard. You can bury things there forever. And then we were like, \u201cWhy don\u2019t we make sure that in our meetings we have like a one-on-one with these teams, and we specifically talk about this lots of things that we wanna know about each other?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And suddenly we were like, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s brilliant. Let\u2019s just do it. We\u2019ve been missing out.\u201d And we started doing that and we were like, yeah, jackpot. We\u2019re on the same page now. So that was almost an unconscious idea that came into mind and we started playing with it, and it\u2019s been great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Two interesting things here from what we\u2019ve discussed just now is, first one is onboarding. So, I think onboarding is always tricky to optimize. Even co-located companies still has problems with onboarding process. In our company, it\u2019s better now, actually. So when I first joined it was more of a sink and swim approach. And at that, I was kind of okay because at that time we were 15, 16 people. You can find your way to figuring things out. At that time we have less clients, we have less processes and whatnot. But in these couple of years, actually, it\u2019s totally different. When you first came on, actually I think until now, people are still figuring out, how to onboard this person well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the second thing is process review. I think in our companies, only the product team has this process, internal process review. I think it\u2019s an interesting thing that we can have because, like what Christine mentioned just now, probably there are some documents that we\u2019re not using anymore. But suddenly we became really too busy with other stuff because now we forget, or other marketing campaigns, I mean, we forget that, to prune those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think this is something that, in the near future or in the future, we can try to figure out and try to think, \u201cOh. Well, having this process review will make our marketing campaigns go better or sales campaigns go better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0I kind of have a hot take on process in general. I think it depends on what stage of the company you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0I think over-processing is not a good thing. I think process, in general, can be good or bad. It depends on what you\u2019re doing with it. So, I think if you\u2019re a company in a stage where you\u2019re experimenting a lot, you\u2019re trying to break things, you essentially know, maybe you\u2019re creating this process for three months but you\u2019re not marrying yourself to this process and saying, \u201cYou know what? A year from now, that\u2019s gonna work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So I would say be nimble with the processes you\u2019re creating and be willing to break them, I guess, and don\u2019t over-process things. I would say this is specific to startups or really fast-growing companies or fast-moving companies default-to-action, and don\u2019t plan too much and over-process it. It doesn\u2019t need it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I think an interesting way to think about this is I interviewed Liam Martin, the CMO of a startup called Time Doctor. And he has this interesting mindset when it comes to documentation process. So the first time you do something, don\u2019t document it. The second time you do the same thing, think about how would you document it. The third time you do it and you document it at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So basically you want to\u2026 The main idea here is to avoid repetition, so to speak. So if there\u2019s something that you repeat all the time, you need to make it somewhat\u2026 not formal process. Formal sounds a bit rigid, but it\u2019s more like a well-documented process where you can tweak and optimize in the future or probably just eliminate when things change. So, the next thing is, I want to talk a bit on the engineering side of teams or remote engineering teams. Let\u2019s talk about how do we do code reviews. So, Ting, can you share a bit more about our engineering code review process? Are there any guidelines on it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0So currently our process, we usually\u2026 with each feature we do\u2026 once we\u2019ve completed the feature, we push onto a get GitHub, which is a repository sharing. And on GitHub there\u2019s actually code review tools that we can use within, the pull request. And then we have the back and forth where it\u2019s kind of we\u2019ll have teammates saying, \u201cOh, maybe you could change this, this.\u201d And that\u2019s how we have our code review. ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So I guess, in a sense, it\u2019s already async and remotely, even when we weren\u2019t remote. So we had that whole process going on. And, generally, we don\u2019t have one-on-one, I guess, one-on-one code reviews where you\u2019re paired up with another person and they individually have a meeting with you about your code. Rather, it\u2019s more of an asynchronous process over GitHub.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, is there any particular guidelines on how you should review thing? For example, how do you tell the outer person like what\u2019s wrong with this code and how do you fix it? Is there any particular communication guidelines there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Generally, when we look at code reviews, we wanna look at the bigger picture first. It\u2019s like, okay, look at what they\u2019re making. And, I guess, the big main points that they should be hitting on in terms of logic and then\u2026 Because within a code review you can never really catch all the small nitty-gritty details. So we only have time to really look at the big picture. Are they hitting the main things? And within that, we\u2019ll kind of work into it. Or if they\u2019re small details like, \u201cOh, they missed\u2026 There\u2019s, I guess, redundant code that you don\u2019t need.\u201d Over-communication, I guess, is always a good thing. Maybe providing an example of what you were thinking really helps the other person gain insight in terms of what they\u2019re recommending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. How about the tone? There are some times when code reviews can be a bit too straightforward, so to speak. Basically, like you\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I\u2019ve seen that around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Accidentally saying that your code sucks, something like that. So I\u2019m just curious, what\u2019s the mindset that we have in the engineering team to avoid this kind of communication breakdown?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0So, actually within our team, I haven\u2019t ran into any issues where it\u2019s very straightforward. Rather, it\u2019s more\u2026it\u2019s kind of like if you don\u2019t understand what someone is doing, you could always ask why. How come you\u2019re doing it this way? And then you gain a little bit more insight. And rather ask them why they\u2019re doing something, I think, it\u2019s a really good way of going about it. And once you see the process, maybe you can pinpoint, \u201cOh, this is where you can change things a little.\u201d And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve noticed between our team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So another thing that still curious about is pair programming. Do we do pair programming in our engineering team? Like, I actually don\u2019t, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Actually, we do. So we routinely\u2026I think every biweekly we usually have a pair programming session. And we\u2019ll get paired up with another team member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We\u2019ll find a small bug that we fix together. So when we were co-located it was easier because you kind of pair up and you sit next to each other. You have a driver and a passenger, someone verbally saying how you could go about it and someone typing. And then moving remotely, we\u2019ve been testing out different tools to work with.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the time we use Zoom, because Zoom, you can just screen-share, there\u2019s remote control access if you need it to. So that was really helpful. But then we also played around with another\u2026tested out another product called Tuple, which, actually, it was a really smooth experience using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Do you think pair programming itself, like the process of pair programming itself, do you feel like it\u2019s especially helpful when you\u2019re a remote engineering teams?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0I think it helps in terms of\u2026 Because when you\u2019re remote, you don\u2019t get that much time to work together with your teammates. A lot of time you\u2019re just really working on your own. And sometimes you\u2019ll Slack coworkers to ask about questions. But other than that most of the time it\u2019s you facing your code. And having pair programming, I feel like it also helps with building up relationships with your teammates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Another thing that we\u2019ve covered a lot in the FAQs is everything about meetings. We have several questions, how do I help my team get more comfortable doing remote meetings? How do I prepare and run a remote meeting effectively? So, just curious right now, we\u2019ve been running remote meetings for a couple of months now, fully remote meetings. So, how do you guys feel about this? Was there any difference in terms of the meeting dynamics? I mean, I know you\u2019ve been joining remotely for\u2026but I feel like, right now, because everyone is distributed now. Before everyone was co-located, like Emiliano and some our team members would be isolated, because we have 25-something people in the same meeting room and 3 or 4 people remotely. So, probably, Christine probably can talk a bit about this. So how do you think the meeting dynamics has changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. I mean I think it\u2019s a best practice that even if you have a team in the same office and you have remote team members, you have everyone on their own one face per screen, basically, like their own laptop in different rooms because you don\u2019t wanna make it so that people can hear jokes when they\u2019re sitting together and then the remote team members can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think that\u2019s an example of what\u2019s happened in the past. So, now that everyone\u2019s remote, I think the sound quality is just a bit better for everyone. No one\u2019s dealing with this one speaker in the middle of the room. I think Emiliano is nodding his head. I think that was huge. You could really never clearly hear things that were happening in the office if you\u2019re a remote team member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And I think that there\u2019s been more thought that goes into meetings in advance. You can\u2019t just wing it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I think you can always\u2026you can try to wing a meeting, but when you\u2019re remote, I think, it just forces to think about how you\u2019re using the time a little bit better. Just making sure you have an agenda on that. Not that every single time that happens, but I think more than it happened before you\u2019d have more clear agendas and things to keep meetings running smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0I think one big thing about having remote meetings is having your video on. I know, so every day for the dev team we have daily standups to keep us, keep the whole team updated on what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And initially, when we first started remote, everyone had their cameras off. So I just felt very isolated, when other people were talking, you could technically be doing other stuff, and people wouldn\u2019t really notice, and it created that disconnect. Whereas when we started having our cameras on, we started feeling a little bit closer to your teammates. You still see them face to face. It pulls the distance a little closer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, definitely. Keep your camera on. When we started having meetings between the office and remote, some of you would speak and I wouldn\u2019t be able to see you. You would be hiding in the crowd. And now that we\u2019re all in Zoom, when you speak, you would feed my computer. I know how you look like, even though you\u2019re in a different team, and we don\u2019t even have to chat. I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, so this is this person, hey.\u201d It\u2019s really important to putting a name to people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, in our kind of meeting is, of course, when you have one-on-ones. I want you to talk a bit about feedback and criticism because, even though you can\u2019t still have feedback and criticism face-to-face, it\u2019s still slightly different. There\u2019s another layer of medium there, which is Zoom. So it\u2019s not you\u2019re sitting side by side. It\u2019s more like face-to-face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know if you noticed, but there\u2019s a subtle difference if you\u2019re having one-on-one on a park bench, like sitting side by side with your manager on Zoom. I personally feel like there is select nuance there. I feel like when you\u2019re side by side it feels more friendly, like less pressure. But when you\u2019re on Zoom, it\u2019s just inevitable, even though this is still much better than Zoom with our videos. I think the question for Christine is, how do you think about giving feedback and criticism, especially when it\u2019s on a remote settings? And for Ting and Emiliano, I\u2019m just curious, how would you prefer getting your feedback and criticism from your managers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0So I think this whole\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>During this conversation we\u2019ve said default to writing. The exception is, when you\u2019re giving critical feedback, do not do fault to writing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I think it\u2019s easy, if it\u2019s a small thing, like, \u201cHey, fix the apostrophe in that sentence or something.\u201d Yeah, that\u2019s fine. But I think if you\u2019re really trying to explain the nuance of something or you\u2019re trying to get a team member to learn, like, \u201cOkay, here\u2019s the expectation. Here\u2019s where you didn\u2019t meet the expectation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t want them to read into things that you\u2019re typing. You don\u2019t want them to think like, \u201cOh my gosh. Am I going to be fired or something? Because my boss is unhappy with my performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So if it\u2019s anything performance-related, I think just say, \u201cHey, would you mind jumping on a five-minute call to talk about X, Y, Z?\u201d You just talk about the issue. You can deliver it with that body language and the empathy that will come across better. It\u2019s not face-to-face but it\u2019s screen to screen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>It does come across better and just, \u201cHey, I noticed you did this way. We know it\u2019d be better, it\u2019d be more effective if you do it this way next time. I think it\u2019s just more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so that\u2019s all the advice we\u2019ve given, meetings should have agendas and default to communication by text. I think it\u2019s kind of the opposite when it comes to these kinds of meetings. You don\u2019t need to have an agenda when you\u2019re giving critical feedback, but you just have those quick calls and just, yeah, show that you\u2019re human, and usually the receiver is also more receptive to that kind of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. A big point that Christine mentioned was communication. A large part of communication is the verbal, the gestures, your emotion, everything that really builds up to what you\u2019re trying to say. And being able to do that over video is the next best thing you have to doing it in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>When it comes to sales and working remotely, tracking your performance and being really honest with yourself, I think, it\u2019s a big component. If you know, you know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, this is the revenue I had in mind, you\u2019re nowhere near that, you know it, you feel it. So when it comes to one-on-one, \u201cHey, what is going on?\u201d So you shouldn\u2019t be surprised. You should be aware that maybe you\u2019re falling apart in some angles. So that\u2019s really important. But having an agenda really helps. I know my one-on-ones, what\u2019s their schedule like? And I know when there\u2019s gonna be some feedback and when there\u2019s gonna be some comments. It\u2019s never a surprise. It should schedule, expect some comments every now and then. Maybe, like, \u201cGreat work, we\u2019re crushing it,\u201d or, \u201cWhat happened with this deal? I noticed this. What\u2019s up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it. So, basically, ideally you prefer, before any one-on-one, you want to have a high-level agenda of what criticism that you might get and also what feedbacks or even positive side you might get. So you kind of somewhat prepare on day. Is that what you think?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0I think the preparation comes from my end of being self-conscious and knowing, I\u2019m probably going to expect some feedback in this regard or some comments here. So don\u2019t be surprised like, \u201cReally? Am I doing this, a bad work here?\u201d You should be aware. And when it happens to you that you get some comments that you weren\u2019t aware of, you\u2019ve got to be really mindful and really take notes in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it. Once you move on the topic of cross, which is totally related to art in terms of promote hiring. So one of the questions that we have here is, how do I know the team is getting things done? For this part, I wanna start with Emiliano first since in our business we help clients hire remote engineers all over the world. Some of them, either they just started to hire remotely or probably they have been writing mostly for a while, but still haven\u2019t got to that sweet spot in terms of remote management. So I\u2019m just curious, how do you explain to these clients, or let\u2019s say for the listeners here, they\u2019re trying to hire remotely but they still have these trust issues in coworkers they cannot see physically. How do you help them understand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. My thing is unless there\u2019s a compliance request mandatory by the government or some other power that it needs to be on-site, then that said, go ahead. You\u2019ve got to focus on onsite. Otherwise you should be flexible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Why do you want this developer to be working right next to you? Are you gonna be micromanaging, looking over their shoulder the whole day?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>They most likely\u2026even if they\u2019re in the same state, they would rather work from home where they feel more comfortable. They will do the reporting and you will be able to measure their output. There are many great tools out there for time tracking. We had Arc in our dashboard. We have one, but we tell them, \u201cUse whatever you like. What\u2019s your setup, what\u2019s your environment to manage developers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t have to make any changes besides the fact that they\u2019re gonna be reporting all the progress and all of that work. If you can trust your employees with them working, then I can\u2019t imagine how you\u2026 You just got to make it the comparison. You can\u2019t imagine that you\u2019re tracking every single employee looking over their shoulder. Why would you do this to the software developers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. So, Christine, since you\u2019re a manager, how do you figure out if\u2026on the hiring stage that you can trust this particular person? Is there any particular questions you ask or something specific that\u2019s important?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I mean trust isn\u2019t like a black or white thing. It evolves over time. It\u2019s like an ongoing, it\u2019s part of your relationship with any individual. So I think in the hiring process you have to be really honest. What am I looking for in this ideal candidate? What\u2019s my ideal candidate? You should actually have a profile that says, \u201cOkay, I want these technical skills and evidence that they\u2019ve done this in the past.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re looking for someone, I don\u2019t know, to run ads, for example, you want to be honest with yourself. \u201cOkay, I\u2019m looking for someone with that experience.\u201d Or if you\u2019re not and you say, \u201cYou know what, maybe I don\u2019t need that exact experience, but in need experience with data or something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You need to be really clear about the technical skills. And then also on\u2026I would say,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I would break in soft skills and cultural skills into two pieces. Be clear about what cultural fit is to you, to your team, maybe say the company and your team.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>What are those essential critical skills, like soft skills they need to have like, obviously, for remote teams\u2019 communication? And then maybe there\u2019s certain cultural values, such as work hard, play hard. I don\u2019t know, whatever it is in your team. And you have to make sure that that matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So it\u2019s your job as a hiring manager to make sure that when you\u2019re hiring you\u2019re being honest with this position, and you\u2019re seeing if that candidate is a match.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Because I think it\u2019s really easy to say, \u201cHey, I really like this candidate. They really fit maybe the cultural values part and the technical skills,\u201d but you\u2019ve completely forgot about the soft skills that are really important to be a successful member of your team. So I think if you\u2019re a new manager, it\u2019s a bit harder because maybe you don\u2019t know all of those things. You\u2019re guessing, \u201cOh, do we really value this skill? I\u2019m not really sure.\u201d So, it\u2019s something that you kind of evolve over time in your own hiring toolkit. Like, these are the essentials and these are the questions I ask to get at those things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, Emiliano, when potential clients come to you, what was the average level of preparedness where they come to you, like Christine mentioned, basically, you need to figure out the ideal persona of the candidates you\u2019re looking for. What are your skills? Are you good with JavaScript? Are you good with Python? Do these clients usually come to you prepared? Or do you think are most of them are semi-prepared? What\u2019s the level there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0It really does depend. And probably I\u2019ve seen a shift in the past 12 months because, traditionally, I would get on a call with many companies that have no remote experience. They just wanna get the benefits of having a great developer, regardless of where they are, but they come with many doubts. Like, \u201cHow should I communicate? What are your recommendations? How do I even interview? Because you want me to get on a call with them, how do I know they\u2019re the right fit and you already vetted them?\u201d So, I would always tell them, \u201cHow are you working right now? What\u2019s your approach? How do you actually interview the developers that are sitting in your office?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>You made sure there was a cultural fit during the interview to make sure that they were technically fit proficient in what you\u2019re looking for. So, you\u2019ve got to do the same thing over Zoom. This person is gonna have the camera on, we should expect the same from you. And if this is somebody that you can work with, have a cup of coffee, imagine in a heated discussion, then you\u2019re gonna play well with each other.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And most recently, I\u2019m starting to see more companies that they\u2019re like, \u201cYeah. Well, we\u2019ve hired more remote developers or we\u2019ve gone entirely distributed.\u201d So they\u2019re more just focused on hiring the best person, regardless of where they\u2019re sitting. So for all those that don\u2019t have that much of experience, the pushback is, how do I manage my remote developers? How do I manage my remote developer? And they\u2019re gonna start with just one person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And the thing is, what\u2019s the setup that is currently working right now with your current team? You\u2019ve got to have a similar approach and repackage that to that new hire. Potentially, that means having a lot of face time. You\u2019re hiring a developer but you\u2019re not having any calls, so is the emails or Slack? That\u2019s gonna be detrimental to the relationship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And I try to get on a call in the first week of work and see what\u2019s their experience and how they\u2019ve been communicating. And if I could almost put this in percentages, if they\u2019ve been communicating, having video calls, 99% of chances that things are going amazing. If not, they\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, I have some questions. I have some doubts, actually. How do I address this?\u201d And then I\u2019m like, \u201cWhen\u2019s the last time you spoke with them?\u201d \u201cOh, well, [inaudible 00:48:05] like message or Skype message.\u201d Well, it\u2019s not the same thing as you\u2019re doing or the same treatment that you offer to onsite employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. So I think an overarching theme here when it comes to working with remote team members or hiring remote team members or even other stuff like meetings, it\u2019s basically it\u2019s\u2026 I feel the big takeaway is about intentionality. Stuff like Emiliano mentioned, if a client doesn\u2019t cross the developer or an employer doesn\u2019t trust his or her employee, it\u2019s more like there\u2019s no intentionality or a proactive action to reach out, to figure out what\u2019s happening or how we can work on this together. I think it applies to every aspect on working remotely. Either you want to document stuff or if you want to run to meetings, more preparation needs to be done because you\u2019re not in the same location. One last question that I want to ask you, what positive things that working from home or remote work has bring to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. It\u2019s difficult for me to think of just one answer. But there\u2019s some small things that I probably miss when I\u2019m working on the road, but that\u2019s actually a benefit. Having family that lives somewhere else in the world, knowing that I can go visit them, especially if they\u2019re closer to my time. So, Brazil, my sister, going to visit her and working there, that\u2019s amazing. So no cutting out people. Cooking from home, I think that\u2019s great. Just buy bulk, buy chicken, and then just cook it when it\u2019s lunchtime. Some people are against it. But you don\u2019t have to take a lot of time cooking. You can do a 20 minutes thing. Having your own commute mentally, maybe somebody goes to the office, me knowing that when I walk my dog, I\u2019m gonna do a coffee, X number of days, I\u2019m gonna hit the gym. That\u2019s also part of a ritual that it\u2019s easier to stick to some sort of routine when you don\u2019t have any constraints like traffic jams and whatnot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0I think a large part for me would be, because I\u2019m home more and if I\u2019m living with family, it\u2019s the little things that I can help out around the house while working, that can be a plus and a minus, at the same time, and obviously, the no-commute time is a big plus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I think for me, I mean, there\u2019s tons of great things. I mean, I have dogs, so I get to spend more time with my dogs. I have two dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019ve got two dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s the best, right? But I think it forces you to really be self-disciplined about everything. I mean, then I was talking about cooking. I\u2019ve definitely started cooking more as well. Just really like you can\u2019t put off your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Your life becomes more obvious to you, like, \u201cOh, hey, why am I ordering Uber Eats all the time?\u201d I don\u2019t know. I just feel you take stock of what you\u2019re doing and how you\u2019re spending your time because I don\u2019t feel I\u2019m not rushing around. I\u2019m just in the same space all the time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So yeah, positive things, more time with my dogs, more cooking. And I would say just my quality of work is better in away. I\u2019m able to work really early in the morning, where I do my best work, do a bit more deep work. I\u2019m not confined to the schedule. I mean, ours are pretty much within the same range, but I can adjust my schedule a little bit to work when I\u2019m most productive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah. Even though the whole world is going remote or working from home and because of a very unfortunate reason, which is the pandemic, but I think it\u2019s also a good time for us to revisit our daily life, and what is really important for us and what is not important for us. So, that\u2019s the bright side that I hope people can realize. It doesn\u2019t take so much to be productive and happy. So I think it\u2019s a good point to end this interview. So, again, Ting, Emiliano, Christine, thank you so much for your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you for having us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Thanks for having us, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, yes. So, for the listeners if you want to listen more of the podcasts, our episodes, just go to our website and you can find a list of our podcasts. And hopefully when this is out, the new podcast landing page is going to go live. It probably is. So, yes. Again, thank you all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Christine:<\/strong>\u00a0Bye-bye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ting:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you. Bye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Emiliano:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you, Jovian<\/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>The Arc Team discussed the recently-launched Remote Work FAQ, how remote work has affected our lives, productivity, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","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 - 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