What’s it like operating a creative studio with a remote working culture?
Because why be restricted to one address? Or zip code?
This company was built remote. Not out of trends, or process, but naturally. Matt and Pete holed up in coffee shops and co-working spaces until they could find a dedicated space to call home (which was smaller than a lot of people’s closets — ahhh, the good ol’ days).
As the company started taking on work with startups and companies around the world, we inadvertently added on work travel from Reno to the Bay Area, New York City, even Tokyo. We found ourself building our communication and company tools around being able to sustain the remote company culture.
Having a remote work focus keeps us agile. For example, of course, we could have had Jonas — the team copywriter — commute an hour a day to Reno, but why would we want to if he’d be missing out on two hours of productivity? Why lose him as a valuable part of the team (and friend!) when he then moved to Chicago? Why not just have him work remote?
When sitting down to write this post, I realized how much of a non-issue it is for us these days. We don’t see it as cool, trendy, or hip. It’s just… The way it is.
Even the crew who live and work in our home base of Reno, NV has the freedom (with notice, of course) to pick up and work from wherever they want. Most of our team works — at the minimum, semi-remotely. And we do so seamlessly with clients around the world.
And I think that’s why we can say that we’ve done it — we’ve created a global studio thanks to our origins of working remotely and maintaining that culture along the way.
So how do we do it? How do we keep the workflow steady, communicate, and produce great stuff for a global clientele with a team that works across several different time zones?
Being a fully functioning remote-working studio is a pillar of our culture as a creative studio and we embrace the challenges it holds while enjoying the benefits.
Although we’re getting this thing dialed into a science, just like our projects and process — we’re constantly iterating to get it more and more right.
Below are some accounts and lessons learned about how we navigate working with clients (and each other) from around the globe.
The difference between working at home and working remotely
Long Term vs. Short Term
Working from home on occasion is different than being a dedicated remote worker. We define remote working as being long term. If you can’t pick up and head to Thailand for a few weeks with short notice, it’s not exactly remote work. What I’m talking about here is having several members of your team working long-term across different time zones.
Plenty of space for professional development
and those random life essentials.
I can do work as my car is getting worked on at the dealership. If I have the sniffles, no need to dip into sick time, just keep my germs to myself and work from my couch that day. I can also go to Sacramento on a Friday to squeeze in a professional development workshop from 8–9:30 am and duck into a coworking space that evening to not miss one minute of work.
Online, at-work mentality.
A foundation of trust and common sense.
Trust is huge in a remote working culture. And common sense. If someone’s not being productive, obviously, it’s a problem that we address. But we don’t DARE murder our culture by telling people they’re not ‘allowed’ to visit this or that website or app. If things aren’t getting done, it’s usually a deeper issue than whether that person works remotely (or not).
Keeping us from slacking…
Learning to love Slack
We ask that everyone stay logged into Slack as much as possible when working. As may be the case with your team, we have a love-hate relationship with Slack. But it really is the best tool for putting us in the same room, virtually. By keeping channels designated (projects, general, dev, copy, brainjuice, etc.), we can find things easier. And by clearly defining Slack as the virtual studio water cooler, it helps us ask ourselves if what we’re about to share on Slack is suitable. More on Slack soon, but for now…
Basecamp, our buddy
Keeping us in check
Basecamp is what we use for the work. My job as project manager extraordinaire (if I do say so myself) is to keep due dates updated, the crew motivated, and the workload evenly displaced so we move like a well-oiled machine. By moving those more crucial project-related conversations over to Basecamp, we can keep our work documented. As they say, a good paper trail makes good friends (and healthy client relationships). This way, if something goes haywire, it’s much easier to find in Basecamp than it is in the black hole of Slack.
Constantly iterating, across the globe.
It’s not just us, it’s our clients too
Here’s an example… With a growing client base in Australia/New Zealand, we can easily handle coordinating time zones with a part of the world that’s 17 hours ahead of us. They start working when we crack open that first post-work beer. But this is the beauty of being agile enough to work remotely. I can bounce off of work in the middle of the day to go swim for a couple hours and jump back online for a 7:30 pm meeting with them (our time). No worries, mate (did I just do that? — yep, sure did).
Communication. Is. Everything.
Maintaining the love via Slack (or whatever you use to chat with your team).
You learn a thing or four about tonality when you work remotely with a team of varied personalities and levels of sensitivity. It’s easy to perceive directness as abrasiveness, non-responsiveness as standoffishness, and a plethora of other easily missed signals. Here are a few social etiquette tips we’ve learned that may help you keep the love going strong on Slack…
- Keep sarcasm to a minimum. Usually, what we put into Slack isn’t as funny as we want it to be (and can easily be taken the wrong way).
- Showing appreciation and celebrating wins (with the appropriate level of emojis, of course) goes a long way for morale.
- If you’re heads-down on something or heading out for the day/awhile, just tell the team so they don’t think you’re MIA.
- Seek the balance between under and over-communication. Irrelevant chit chat is wasted time, but being too short is just kinda rude. Finding that middle ground is key.
Fostering a coaching-friendly culture
Pushing creative growth in a digital environment
Coaching is a skill that we all work on in order to strengthen the team. However, the coaching relationship is a delicate one that comes from trust, confidence, clarity, patience, and right intentions. If you have solid grounding there, coaching can happen, even digitally. What’s great is the documented progression that happens. With a quick scroll, you can see the work improve along with the coaching conversation that accompanies it. Creating a coaching-friendly culture
Never forget the phone
Sometimes voice-to-voice is best
We love our internet toys. But sometimes, especially in a creative working environment, trying to unpack a deeper, more complex thought/question via typed word just doesn’t do it justice. It can be a waste of time and emotional energy better spent on — you guessed it — getting the work done. The phone is always there. Use it (but don’t overuse it) when needed. You’re almost certain to get your point across the right way with less back-and-forth that way.
When ‘Do Not Disturb’ is your best friend.
Don’t be afraid to go quiet and do deep work.
This is a judgment call. There’s definitely a time and a place for deep, uninterrupted work. We get it. Just let the team know why you’ll be away and when you’ll be back — all is well. You can stay connected to the team without having to be in available-mode at every working hour. When you do come back, it helps to scroll through whatever platform you use to communicate with your team to see if there’s anything you missed.
Dress for success
Even if the only living contact you’ll have all day is with your cat
When working from home, we can totally wear whatever. However, I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like an unstoppable creative dynamo in my underwear. Even at home, it helps to dress the part. Take a shower. Dress it up. You ARE going to work (even if you don’t have to go anywhere). Showing up is only the first part of the equation. It’s HOW we show up that matters. Even if it’s just us who care.
Doing the work, because you genuinely want to do the work
Offering work-life integration not a work-life balance
This is probably my favorite thing about the remote working culture at L&M. I’ve worked remote at other jobs, I’ve freelanced, I’ve been self employed. But it’s always been in the framework of work-life balance. It’s one thing to leave early and shut off phone, but that often comes with shame, and guilt. Here, I’m fortunate enough to go coach swimming in the afternoons, and jump back on after to finish work that needs to be completed. The proverbial ball and chain of work doesn’t run my life, so I’m able to genuinely enjoy my work that I’m doing.
So there you have it, friends. Just a few things to help you get your footing right should you choose to take your team outside the walls of your studio space. The world is at your fingertips when you embrace a remote working culture.
