What are some effective ways to stay connected with your team while working remotely?

One thing that we have been trying out recently that seems to be working quite effectively is having everyone stay on an open call on discord. Everyone remains muted, except when they need to reach somebody. It cuts down on the waiting time between responses and allows other team members to share opinions on topics they might not initially be asked about, which in turn can bring forth interesting & unique ideas.

Stay connected remotely by scheduling regular video meetings, using platforms like Slack for quick communication, and shared calendars for coordination. Collaborate using tools like Google Workspace, manage tasks on Trello, and organize virtual gatherings for team bonding. Set clear expectations, offer regular feedback, and celebrate achievements to maintain morale and productivity.

In my opinion, the right tools and platforms make sure that everyone is very well informed and collaboration is done in a more professional and effective manner. Personally, as an external recruiter, I find Slack particularly effective for working with external organisations. Additionally, Telegram is user-friendly and serves as an excellent tool for seamless communication.

I've found slack or discord being the best options for collaboration. Slack is great if you and your teams collaborate with other organizations. The cross connect feature is fantastic for rolling in co-dev connections. Discord is a great way for VOIP collaboration. While slack does have hangouts, discord's voice chat acts more like meeting rooms. And their screen share is more conducive for playthrough feedback meetings since the product was developed with streaming of games in mind. Recently introduced to Notion and I LOVE it. Despite my hard-core love for Atlassian products Notion has impressed me. The integration of AI and other tools and templates make documentation fun. Bonus, share notion links to external folks as needed.

In my experience I feel that hosting regular meetings regularly helps in staying connected, some preferred tools are discord and slack. A team, as a collective unit must learn to make use of tools that can help to contribute directly to the project. But the overall frequency of meetings is completely dependent on the type of work that is being done. If the work is hybrid, the number of regular meetings needs to be increased.

In the realm of remote work, choosing appropriate communication and collaboration tools is paramount. As business strategist Michael Porter noted, "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." This applies to selecting digital tools as well. Opt for tools that align with your team's needs and work style. Whether it's for project management, real-time messaging, or video conferencing, the right tools can bridge the gap caused by physical distance, ensuring seamless collaboration and communication.

O ideal é que a equipe possua mais de uma forma de comunicação, permitindo conversas e reuniões da forma mais prática sempre que necessário. Para isso, é necessário utilizar algumas ferramentas: - Uma para conversar durante o dia a dia ou reuniões (incluindo canais de texto e áudio), podendo ter acesso ao histórico, independente da quantidade de pessoas envolvidas nessa conversa. Sugestão de ferramentas: Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams. - Uma para manter o planejamento, incluindo todas as decisões tomadas de forma organizada de uma forma onde todos da equipe tenham acesso. Sugestão de ferramentas: Trello, Miro, HacknPlan.

To stay connected remotely with your team in the video game industry, I like to use platforms like Slack for quick communication or Team. Schedule regular video meetings (1 per week or two to be updated on the current topics) and leverage collaborative tools such as Google Workspace and Trello for effective coordination and task management. We use to track tasks also by using Google Spreadsheet and even Discord to create different channels for meetings and playtests.

I find that a daily sync meeting is extremely important. However, these meetings are generally short, because everyone needs to get on with their jobs! So I also propose a set time for "office hours" where any team member can get together with any other team member, or even with the whole team, and discuss issues with more time allotted than just the 15 minutes allotted to the usual stand-ups in Agile. The advantage is that everyone has the office hours on their calendar, so everyone knows that during that time there may be something going on that concerns the team. Also, the team leader may ask during the standup if anyone needs office hours, so that people will know ahead of time what's going to happen.

Whether it's a daily stand-up or a sync meeting on a regular cadence, it's important to have that time set with the following goals: 1. What has been worked on 2. What are you planning to work on 3. What blockers are there or immediate concerns that require attention. Take notes! I found that sometimes notes are forgotten and it can be helpful to have those notes for future reference or for absent team members to review on their return. When working with folks from different timezones, we used Slackbot to host a sync thread that auto asked for the needed information.

More meetings are not the answer. Most jobs can be done very well remotely and asynchronously with clear communication, expectations, and project scoping. A kickoff for each week to discuss expectations, speed bumps from the previous week, and giving others a heads up for potential pain points is often all that is necessary. Don't schedule meetings to just have meetings.

No geral as reuniões são muito positivas, do ponto de vista do colaborador, além de se sentir motivado a ter que cumprir objetivos para ter o que mostrar na reunião, o membro da equipe vai poder expor problemas e receber feedbacks que podem aumentar a sua produtividade ou ajudá-lo a resolver problemas que estejam impedindo o seu progresso.

Regular meetings are the backbone of remote team communication. They foster a sense of community and keep everyone aligned on goals and progress. However, it's essential to balance frequency with productivity. Over-scheduling can lead to meeting fatigue, while infrequent meetings might leave team members feeling disconnected. Find a rhythm that works for your team, ensuring that these virtual gatherings are purposeful and engaging.

Manter uma sincronia eficaz em toda a equipe é essencial, mas isso não implica necessariamente em reuniões síncronas diárias entre todos os membros. Considere o seguinte: um artista precisa saber os detalhes específicos de um problema técnico que os programadores estão tentando resolver? Provavelmente não. Nesse contexto, é vantajoso programar reuniões ao longo da semana apenas com os membros envolvidos diretamente na resolução do problema. Em um dia específico, idealmente segunda ou sexta-feira, promova uma reunião geral envolvendo toda a equipe. Essa abordagem não apenas evita a sobrecarga de reuniões diárias, mas também assegura que o tempo dedicado a discussões coletivas seja valioso e relevante para todos os membros.

There is no need in regular daily meetings. Weekly is enough. If there is an problem to discuss: try to chat about it. In most cases it will be solved without distracting a lot of people.

Setting up your remote office with specific feedback channels or based on discipline can help organize feedback. Much depends on team size and how feedback culture is within the team. One of my teams had a feedback channel for WIP things that was not intended for critical feedback but encouragement. It was a nice way to share what you were working on and get a feel for what was working. Having a process in feedback may be necessary if there is a specific hierarchy of direction. Any process regarding how feedback is recieved or given should be documented and provided during onboarding training.

Feedback is extremely important. You can be the greatest game designer, but you are still human. Sometimes feedback can help to find out points and problems you have skipped.

Tools like Trello, or Jira help in organizing tasks, tracking progress, and assigning responsibilities. They allow the team members to see what others are working on and ensure everyone stays aligned. I also like to use confluence when possible to share my work and let people known on what is up to date and what is the current state of things. Even setup a structured feedback process using tools like Google Forms or specialized game development platforms to gather feedback from team members at various stages of the game's development.

Transparency in work and open feedback channels are crucial in a remote setting. Sharing ongoing work and receiving feedback not only promotes collaboration but also builds trust among team members. Encouraging an environment where feedback is welcomed and valued leads to continuous improvement and a deeper sense of community.

Para os programadores, também é importante compartilhar o trabalho desenvolvido no GIT quando uma tarefa já está aprovada e testada (sendo que ela vai entrar na próxima entrega), permitindo assim fazer um merge com as outras alterações da entrega. Essa abordagem não apenas acelera o ciclo de desenvolvimento, mas também facilita a identificação e correção rápida de qualquer problema que possa surgir durante a fusão de alterações. Dessa forma, promove-se uma colaboração eficaz, assegurando a entrega de um trabalho integrado e de alta qualidade.

Especially as a lead / leader, it is super important to enforce boundaries between work and personal time. It is far too easy to "just quickly check for a new email" or to "quickly jump on because a thread on Teams or Slack was just pinged" (I am certainly guilty of this myself!) - absolutely avoid that! As a lead / leader, you need to ensure your team does not fall into any bad habits and that they stick to their work hours (where applicable), so that they have time to switch off, recharge, recover, before the next day. It's therefore sensible to set up regular one-to-ones and really listen to your team to see if they do set themselves the right boundaries, and encourage them to switch off and take regular breaks away from the screen.

I had to set up a dedicated space to work that is separate from my living areas. This physical boundary helped me to set the start and end of my workday. I turn of notifications on apps or I usually try to setup this communication tools on the remote machine therefore it allows me disconnect from work entirely. But try also to clearly communicate your working hours and availability to colleagues. Setting clear limits help others to respect your personal time.

I have seen too many managers and leads sacrifice their own health for the good of the game. Lead by example. Folks cannot have a good work life balance if that is not being shown from leadership. Additionally, leadership should help enforce good work life balance as well. And a good part of this is scheduling and scoping realistic work roadmaps. This is where your producers come in to play. Just because you feel sick and work from home does not mean you should still work. Go rest! It helps to set up office in a dedicated area of your home that you can walk away from. Try to provide some physical barrier between your workspace and your home life. Curtains, a room divider... or use the spare room that has a door.

As a team leader or manager don't just communicate that you value work/life balance and freedom. It's incredibly important for you to showcase that with your actions as well. Communicate expectations of work hours, disable notifications within apps like Slack after a reasonable time each day, let others know they should disconnect, etc. But if you say that don't send them a message after hours because you're undercutting a healthy culture by going against the values you defined to the team already. That creates confusion, resentment, and turnover in time.

Remote work can be flexible and rewarding, but also stressful and exhausting. To prevent burnout, you need to set and stick to strict work hours. - It creates a clear separation between work and personal time - It allows you to have enough time and energy for your personal life To stay strict on work hours, you need to set clear and realistic goals, prioritize your tasks, communicate your availability and expectations, and log off when your workday is over. As much as it's easy to answer just one email after-hours, it can set the wrong message that you're available 24/7.

Remote work blurs the lines between professional and personal life. Setting clear boundaries and expectations helps in maintaining work-life balance and prevents burnout. Communicate your availability, work hours, and expectations with your team. This clarity helps in respecting each other's time and commitments, fostering a healthier work environment.

Work-life balance can help you to avoid burnout. Set your working hours in public calendar. Delegate some of your routine work to someone who will be interested in it. Don’t forget to rest. These simple rules are very difficult to follow:)

Getting a compensation to order takeout food for a celebration or party is a nice touch. If you are planning something big, consider shipping "supplies" for everyone to enjoy together. (Party hats may be silly but they can be fun!) There's a lot of wonderful social games that can be played together online. These are a bonus for team building and moral.

I've said it many times. It's not only about celebrating achievements. To become a cohesive team, there needs to be a time for people to socialize, as they would do in a real office. I call this the "water cooler time". If teams work in a co-located environment, then usually the water cooler is the place to go to catch up with your colleagues. Why not have the same interactions online, by setting a time for socializing? Discuss anything and everything from movies, to family, to what happened over the weekend. Learning about each other creates social ties that make a team much stronger. In fact, feel free to celebrate achievements unrelated to work! It will make working that much more fun!

Recognizing and celebrating achievements is vital for team morale, especially in a remote setting. Celebrations, whether for meeting targets or personal milestones, cultivate a positive work culture. They remind the team of their collective success and the value of their contributions, enhancing team cohesion and motivation.

Celebrar conquistas profissionais, mesmo no contexto do trabalho remoto, desempenha um papel crucial no engajamento, motivação e fortalecimento da cultura organizacional.

If you ever have to meet with a coworker individually over zoom for some work-related task, try to engage in actual conversation once the task is completed. Ask people how they are doing, what are they reading, watching, or playing these days. What kind of stuff do they do to get away from their desk? What are their thoughts on the project you're working on together? Some of the best relationships I had with coworkers for years working remotely all blossomed from these simple extra few minutes of conversation.

While working remotely you may run into the challenge of having a team scattered around the world, with different time zones making scheduling almost impossible. This is an important consideration, because the team needs to have some live time to chat so ask your team members if there is a convenient time, even if it's not during traditional working hours, where everyone can be online. It may not work all the time, but we are going for majority of people, most of the time here! To help team members show up, make that 30-minute meeting part of work hours, so allow the off-work hours team members to start 30 minutes later, or stop working 30 minutes earlier. The important thing is to have consensus and a happy team!

Beyond these strategies, consider the importance of empathy and understanding. Remote work comes with its unique challenges and pressures. Being empathetic towards team members' situations can create a supportive and inclusive environment. Also, encourage informal interactions and socializing to mimic the watercooler conversations of an office setting, as these moments can significantly boost team bonding and morale.

Making effective use of version control systems and agile methodologies is a great way for teams to work in a professional environment while also staying in contact of seeing current tasks for the project, current tasks / back log. I've personally found git very useful to see what changes were quickly made at 1am without having to pester the team as it's already detailed when pushed