As a team at Friyay, we’ve been working 100% remote for several years. It became clear to us right away that remote teams need to make their work visible to the entire team. Remote working is very different from working in an office in that you can’t walk down the hall or look over your desk to see if your coworker is working or ask them what they’re working on. With remote work, all of these interactions must happen digitally.
Every Team Needs to Trust Their Teammates
We at Friyay believe an incredible amount of trust needs to happen on remote teams. The team needs to trust that all team members are working on and completing their tasks because various team members could be relying on other team members to complete their tasks before they can begin their work. Managers need to trust that their subordinates are working on the tasks assigned to them. This means the team needs visibility into all of the tasks the whole team is working on so that they are able to monitor the status of the work that is being completed.
Project Visibility
In Friyay, managers are able to put together projects and assign tasks with due dates to their team. The status of these tasks is visible to managers and the rest of the team via the lens that makes the most sense for their role in the project. A manager can see progress made on various tasks via the Kanban lens, a team member can see the tasks that have been assigned to another team member via the Assign Board lens, and a team member who is working on the project can see all of the tasks they have been assigned for the week via the Todo lens.
Weekly Individual Action Plans
At Friyay, each team member puts together their own action plan for the week in Friyay with the high level items they will be working on and completing during the week along with a breakdown of individual tasks they need to accomplish for each high level item. The high level action plan allows team members to see at a glance what other team members plan to work on. The breakdown of individual tasks is for the team member’s use and is designed by them according to how they want to visualize the project and work on the project. If a team member views another team member’s action plan and has knowledge to share or wants to collaborate on an item on their plan, then they comment on the item (card), attach files, or share links. Sometimes it even leads to a greater discussion about the item on their plan via an impromptu video chat with other team members.
Team Updates and News Feed
We have found at Friyay that a central “team updates and news” feed in Friyay in which anyone on the team can add a new card with their updates or news when they have something to share helps to give the team visibility into important company updates so that we are all aware of any exciting new developments within the company. This also gives team members the opportunity to give kudos to the team on an accomplishment via a Like or ask questions via commenting on the card. There’s also a timeline on the side if a team member wants to jump around to see updates from the team that happened on various dates.
With Friyay, you can give your remote team the visibility it needs in order to keep the ball rolling on projects and feel like a connected team. Give it a try for free here.