Effective Remote Working

I have been working remotely for some time now. Here, I summarize my insights on how to make remote work both effective and efficient. 💪🏻

Communicating Effectively 💬

• Verbal communication can easily be overlooked. Record important meeting notes in a Google Doc for future reference.
• Opt for communication via video calls rather than voice calls. Human expressions foster greater openness and mutual trust. 🤝
• Write clearly to communicate effectively with your co-workers. Time and space are significant barriers in remote work.
• Prefer posting work-related communication in open/team channels rather than 1-1 chats. This keeps everyone informed and prevents confusion.

Sharing Publicly 👐

• Share as much as possible about your tasks publicly.
• Update a task's status before starting and after completing it.
• Openly share blockers so they can be promptly addressed by colleagues.
• Sharing your learnings can help clear someone else's blockers. Group learning is exponential in nature.

Working Style 💻

• Analyze 📈 a task before investing time in it.
• Write your analysis in a structured manner to help communicate your thoughts clearly and lucidly.
• Use a tool like Hackmd to jot down your thoughts and share them with fellow developers.
• It also serves as a knowledge base for any similar future tasks.
• Designing a quick prototype, for instance in Figma, ensures that other stakeholders (developers, scrum masters, clients) are aligned, thus avoiding rework.
• Cross-referencing resources on GitLab/GitHub/Bitbucket issues provides more context to the problem. Link issues, designs, analysis documents, or even screenshots to the issue.
• Include a before / after screenshot of the changes (➕/➖) made in a Merge Request/Pull Request.