What I Learn From Managing Distributed Design Teams For Multi-Products
GO-JEK has offices in Jakarta, Jogja and Bangalore (yes, that’s in India). The UX Design team which consist of Designers, Researchers and Writer are spread amongst those 3 offices. Overall, we’re responsible for end-to-end design process for over 15 consumer, driver and partner products; and GO-JEK’s hyper-pace has been quite an adventure. Here’s a couple of fundamental things that I’ve learned so far in managing a design team at this scale.
1. Introduction: Set a positive expectation and team goal
The teams have different culture, even for Jakarta and Jogja, let alone the India. When introducing new team members, make sure to set the right expectation to get the existing and the new team excited about the new setup. Be open to both sides about the real situation and the goals to get everyone on the same page.
2. Keep an open mind about new way of working
Everyone has different background and experiences, but I’d like to see this as an opportunity that will enrich and strengthen the team. However, it’s not easy for everyone accept change. It’s important to set the team’s mindset that we’re in this together and be objective about any ideas to improve our workflow.
3. Have a structure, even if it will evolve
Team structure is important because it help us map out the strength, weaknesses and opportunities in the team, which will be helpful when planning for hiring strategy. The structure will also give foundation for the team process for mentoring, soundboarding or daily reporting purpose.
4. Over-communicate
I like to use long-distance relationship for analogy, because it’s very similar. We’re committing into something together with someone who are far away. Just like romance, it requires a lot of understanding, compromise and it’s a two-way effort. Over-communicate the important things, document meetings/discussion with decisions to refer back to.
5. Meet in person
Again, like long distance relationship, no daily chats or video calls can replace meeting face to face, discuss/brainstorm directly, having lunch or dinner together, and just be there physically. We schedule Jakarta and Jogja office to visit each other every alternate month whenever possible, each visit should be at least a week and at least 50% of the team can go (or as much as possible). Because I think the trip should be more about bonding than just business. We don’t travel as often with India team because we want the trip to be as efficient as possible (obviously because of bigger budget) so it usually happened with the other teams as well.
Have you had experiences in managing distributed team? I’d love to hear your thoughts and stories.
