Communicating in an Open Office
How we get things done at Mostly Serious, despite scooters, a guitar, office bingo, a ping pong table, and no offices to hide in.
The 24-Hour Giant Conference Table Experience
We recently spent a day with our friends at Community Foundation of the Ozarks (CFO), from midnight to midnight, leading the interactive side of the one-day donation drive called Give Ozarks. In that day, we helped raise over $1M for Springfield and Ozarks-based non-profit agencies while running on very little sleep and working at the largest conference table in the world with key CFO team members.
Toward the end of the night, as we were winding down and recounting the day, we had a conversation about how Mostly Serious manages to operate in an open office environment. Like most companies, especially in Springfield, CFO has individual offices for everyone, so joining up and working 24 hours in the same room was a massive change. For one day, the energy of the group was vital to keep us all moving, but any more than that and I think their team would have started to see the effects of the constant distractions that come from an open office without tools and boundaries.
So how do we do it? By using amazing apps, setting a few guidelines, and taking frequent coffee runs.
Slack
We’ve gushed over Slack quite a few times in the past. In our industry, instant messaging has always been a staple. Be it group texts, IRC, HipChat, Skype, or another service, communicating through text is simply part of life in a tech startup. The reason companies like ours gravitate toward communicating through text is to limit shoulder taps, which have been proven to steal large blocks of productivity.
Proximity is an invitation to interrupt somebody. And interruption is the biggest enemy of productivity that there is. When everyone is sitting together, everyone’s at the same desk or nearby. It’s really easy to shout something over to somebody or tap someone on the shoulder or whatever. That can be useful at times, no doubt. But for the most part, it’s interruption. — Jason Fried of 37signals
However, that also typically means lots of email. Lots and lots of email.
Slack takes communication to another level, which is evident by their insane growth since officially launching in 2014. Aside from offering a beautiful experience for organizing projects into channels, sending public and private messages, and powerful search, they also offer simple-to-set-up integrations with many of the other tools we use every day. That means less email and more time spent getting shit done.
Teamwork
When we started Mostly Serious, we used a number of products we thought could be built better (along with probably a million other startups). One of those products was a project management tool for smaller organizations. We had been using Basecamp at previous companies and for freelance gigs, but it never felt like a tool built with our workflow in mind, and as they launched Basecamp New, we felt it moved even further away.
Enter Teamwork, the project management app that finally made us feel at home. Where Slack is our communication hub, Teamwork is the epicenter for our projects. All schedules, task lists, client communication, project files, and time tracking (until we recently moved this outside of Teamwork) is handled right there in one application.
Now, all we need is for Teamwork and Slack to become lovers and have an integration baby. Come on, folks, you know you want to.
Toggl
We’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with Toggl for a couple years. Our reluctance to spend additional time tracking our actual work time is only bested by our need to have deep statistics into how we are best spending that time. Did we bid the front-end development correctly on the last project? How much time did we spend on that proposal? How can Joe possibly take that much time in the bathroom? Toggl helps answer all of these questions. And it’s because he’s playing on his phone (he claims).
Time tracking is built into most project management apps these days, including Teamwork, but the simplicity and clarity that Toggl offers is worth the additional cost. If you’re going to track your time, Toggl is the best tool we’ve ever used to do it.
Google Calendar
What would we do without Google? Our kids would have to drive their own cars, Adam would have to use Spotify with the rest of us, and Molly would go insane reminding us every time we need to go to a meeting.
With Google Calendar, our weeks are organized, days are managed, and best of all, we get a reminder in Slack 15 minutes before every event starts. Since most people already use Google for just about everything, it’s easy to integrate our personal calendars too.
Dropbox for Business
The easiest way to keep your files synced and safe, Dropbox is our favorite file storage and sharing application. Before adopting Dropbox, we built our own service for sharing large files, called Pushcue, and stored client files exclusively on Slack and Teamwork like cavemen.
We now use Dropbox to ensure we have constant backups of all working files. Every client has a folder, and every department has a subfolder, which has created a seamless and consistent file structure for each of our team members. No more digging through Laura’s covered desktop trying to find that missing file among her favorite dog and cat memes.
Trello
Instead of trying to explain what Trello does, which is basically impossible, I’ll leave it to them. Here’s what their homepage says about their product:
Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone. Drop the lengthy email threads, out-of-date spreadsheets, no-longer-so-sticky notes, and clunky software for managing your projects. Trello lets you see everything about your project in a single glance.
Got it? Yea, same here. The words to note in that pitch are “organize anything.” We use Trello to track and interact with sales leads. When a lead comes in, it goes into a “prospecting” list, then moves through our process until it has either been won or lost. We use Labels to quickly identify the type of lead it is, Descriptions to store contact information, and Members to make sure everyone who needs to be is in the loop.
Before Trello, we used expensive CRM tools which were feature packed with reporting, deep client-communication tracking, and other features that went well beyond what we required. Trello provides a free solution that gets the job done in a way we have complete control over.
For contrast, Springfield Creatives uses Trello to run their committees and board communication, which demonstrates the flexibility this tool offers.
Wunderlist
Our project manager, Molly Riddle, uses Wunderlist as a failsafe reminder tool for larger tasks. These are tasks that encompass parts of projects that are broken down deeper in Teamwork, tasks that are not related to a project, or things that are brought up in a meeting that we don’t want to forget. Each person has a list as well as several company lists.
Molly recently wrote a blog post outlining 5 of her favorite iPhone apps. Here’s what she had to say about Wunderlist:
Even outside of my project managing at Mostly Serious (where Wunderlist rules all), Wunderlist in itself takes high-level organization to the next level. If you’re an anal-retentive, type A fan of to-do lists, this app will complete you. If you’re not, this app will help you get stuff done that you wouldn’t normally do.
Wunderlist is pretty, it’s simple, and it offers up reminders, options for repeating tasks, and customizable backgrounds. It’s free but doesn’t compromise by being bogged down with footer or header ads. It’s the best tasking app out there, even if only because marking off tasks makes the most satisfying ding! noise imaginable. Pro-tip: use it for groceries.
The Headphone Rule
How do you remove shoulder taps and keep people productive in an office where flagging someone down is so easy? Wear headphones. At Mostly Serious, we have a rule that if a person has their headphones on, you should treat it as if the door to their office is closed. If your need is so important that you would open the door (probably ping pong), go ahead and interrupt, otherwise, put it in Slack and Teamwork and let the other person respond when they’re able.
Get Out of the Damn Office
Some research claims getting up from a desk for 10 minutes every hour is the healthiest way to work a desk job. That isn’t always going to happen, but an effort to get out from in front of a screen increases productivity, creates better working environments, and produces better work by giving everyone time to reflect on what they are creating. We have lots of ways to take breaks, ping pong, coffee runs, beers on the patio, beers on the other patio, and a YMCA directly behind our office. Take breaks often.
Bonus: Personal Picks
The apps above keep me in the loop every day, but there are a few extras that I personally rely on for communication, inspiration, and organization:
