How I Manage Remote Collaboration

I’ve been lucky enough to gain years of experience as a remote collaborator at Turo. I’ve found the practices it takes to be successful can enable any team to be as or more in sync than a colocated team. It’s been a learning process to get it right (particularly in a colocation biased org like Turo). I’ve fallen in love with this way of working though. I'm excited to continue practicing it.

I’ve been a remote collaborator in two contexts:

  1. Partial Remote (2014-2019)
    I worked in Turo’s satellite Cambridge office for 5 years. That office included of myself, a PM or two, and a cohort of engineers. The bulk of the product organization (and rest of the company) was in San Francisco though. In 2018 & 2019, I also led design on our International Team. I managed close relationships with international business teams in Berlin, London, and Toronto.

  2. Full Remote (2019 - Present)
    I’ve spent the last year working from home in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. I've spent a lot of time at my wonderful coworking cooperative too. Most of my project team was in Cambridge, but we had a few other distributed team members too. I managed the same remote relationship with SF & international folks mentioned above.

I wanted to share some thoughts on how I approach remote work. I have extreme pride in my 100% “wore pants for work” streak. I’ll focus this more on practices for collaborating from afar though.

 
 
 
 
 
 

1. Be Thorough

I do as much documenting as designing. After a typical project, I’ll have 20+ docs detailing thoughts on any given decision I worked through. Writing helps me interrogate thoughts. It lets me process trade offs and share rationale with more clarity. I don't send out every doc I make, but they’re always made accessible. They function like bread crumbs through a projects life cycle. This allows quicker sharing, formal or informal. It can even be self-serve.

Key benefits: preserves context, enables sharing

2. Be Transparent

I never want to design in a silo. I never want to do anything in a silo. Heads down time is important at certain project stages, but I want my team to have access to every part of my process. Organizing projects around collective project documentation helps teams stay aligned. It does that by creating open access to project details & decisions. I’ve used Google Docs, Confluence, and Dropbox Paper for this over the years. The specific tool isn’t important so long as your team is using it too. When combined with thorough documentation, transparency becomes a potent tool. It brings & keeps every collaborator in the fold.

Key benefits: builds trust, creates asynchronous access

3. Be Trusting

I’ve found the best way to build trust with my collaborators is to trust them first. For that reason, my first instinct is always assume positive intent. I’ve had my share of disagreements in projects (as we all have). They’ve almost always been for understandable reasons like misaligned information or perspectives. That’s okay, even good. Disagreement can lead to stronger rationale. It can help clarify what changes we’re advocating for. Thorough and transparent documentation makes it a lot easier to reconcile conflict. We can fill in gaps or add a new perspective on the fly. It starts with trust though. I trust my teams positive intent. I use conflict as an opportunity to build a stronger product.

Key benefits: enables autonomy, strengthens projects

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

That’s that.

Take a look at some recent work:

 
 

Building trust by coaching new hosts on how to take great car photos.

🚙 Turo
🚀 Shipped November 2019
📱 iOS, Android, and Web

Improving marketplace safety by adding positive friction.

🚙 Turo
🚀 Shipped October 2018
📱 iOS, Android, and Web

Allowing hosts to list & earn anywhere.

🚙 Turo
🚀 Shipped March 2018
📱 iOS, Android, and Web