Interview Questions: How do I Manage Remote Culture?

My primary objective in cultivating team culture, whether in a remote or colocated setting, is to enhance collective problem-solving. It may sound a bit pragmatic, but successful collaboration demands a level of vulnerability. Team members should feel comfortable taking risks and admitting mistakes in front of their peers—it's fundamentally an emotional safety matter.

So, the question arises: How do I ensure that as the team grows, the stakes rise, and organizational dynamics become more intricate, employees still feel at ease taking risks and admitting when they're wrong?

If there were a one-size-fits-all plan for fostering a healthy culture in engineering teams, I'd be the first to share it. However, social issues like these require customized solutions based on the unique individuals within your team. This holds for both colocated and remote teams, although intentional choices in toolsets may be necessary when managing a remote or distributed team.

Discovering what works best is primarily a result of building personal relationships with my team members and finding common interests that unite us. Whether through activities like video games, collaborating on open source projects, or even something as unique as organizing an 'Oil Painting Bob Ross Watch Party'—the specific activity is less important than finding something engaging for everyone on the team.

That said - I do have a couple of tools I've found useful in finding activities that the team might respond to:

First off, there's Lean Coffee™, a structured meeting format where the agenda is determined by the attendees. My aim with this is to facilitate discussions on topics unrelated to our day-to-day tasks.

One of the standout benefits of colocated teams is the spontaneous insight that often arises during unplanned "water-cooler-style" conversations. If every team interaction is strictly work-focused, we miss out on opportunities to connect on a personal level, potentially impacting our emotional safety.

Topics for Lean Coffee discussions can span professional (books, talks, techniques, tools, etc.) or personal (vacation photos, pet birthdays, recipe sharing, etc.). Team members suggest agenda items, and everyone votes on their preferred topics. We then dive into the most popular topics and continue down the list.

The way you shape these meetings will depend on what your team finds valuable. Let them mold it to make it something they eagerly anticipate rather than view as an interruption. While I suggest allowing flexibility, it's beneficial to use your influence to maintain a balance and prevent it from becoming too serious.

For managing these sessions, I've found Miro to be an excellent tool. They offer a template for Lean Coffee and additional features like timers that I've personally found quite useful.

The second item in my toolkit is 5-15 reports—a weekly gut check that employees share with their supervisors and, ideally, their skip supervisors.

If you've had experience in retail, this might sound familiar—it's a practice inspired by Patagonia's former CEO, Yvon Chouinard, and was "popularized" years ago in an insightful Inc Magazine article.

The concept is simple: employees compile a report that shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes to write or five minutes to read. Personally, I've adapted a version from my time at RevZilla that includes sections like Gut Check, Problems, Notables, and Good Ideas.

As an employee, this structured journaling provides a valuable framework for managing up... ensuring important topics are recorded where my supervisor can find them, and giving a framework for 1-on-1s. It prompts me to document wins as they happen, making self-performance evaluations during review season far less daunting. I find it so beneficial that I often fill these out even for solo projects.

From a managerial perspective, these reports help me stay in the loop regardless of other commitments. This is especially crucial in remote teams, where gauging morale can be challenging over Zoom, or in large teams where I may have limited interaction with my skip reports. The weekly reports serve as a reminder to celebrate wins and address issues affecting my teams. In fact, I often consolidate positive news and share it with a broader audience, keeping the company informed of accomplishments, good ideas, and other noteworthy updates from my team.

While there are various apps, templates, and HR platform plugins available, I personally keep it simple and effective by using Google Docs, creating a new page every week. It's a straightforward, cost-effective approach that works well for me.

In summary, creating a positive team culture involves prioritizing collective problem-solving, fostering emotional safety, and tailoring solutions to the unique dynamics of your team. Tools like Lean Coffee™ and 5-15 reports serve as effective mechanisms for promoting engagement and maintaining connection, emphasizing the importance of simplicity and adaptability in cultivating a vibrant team culture. Whether through open discussions or structured reports, these approaches underscore the significance of themes such as open communication, mutual support, and a shared sense of accomplishment in building a thriving team environment.