From Our Team to Yours: MixerChat
Written by Citra Hartono (Product Marketing at PicCollage)
HUGE NEWS! Our team just released MixerChat, a web-tool to help remote & hybrid teams communicate better. We spent 2 amazing months developing MixerChat, and now we are delighted to share this tool with other teams, spreading the joy of smooth and hassle-free online communication. Join the space, hop between breakout rooms, and discuss with your teammates!
So, why did we create MixerChat? Let’s rewind for a bit…
“We’re using Google Meet for our sync today!” “Huddle now?” “Let’s have scrum in Gather!” “Oh no! I’m having some problems with Gather. How about Kumospace?” “We’ll use Zoom for this session” “Let’s use Discord later” “See you in Butter!” “I found a tool called Rally, shall we give it a try?”
Calling in a meeting from all over the world is just how we roll in PicCollage Company because we have members working in different locations, so we’ve been experimenting on different products out there.
A core value of ours is “Overcommunicate”, which means we would proactively reach out & keep other members in the loop through rituals (weekly team meetings, syncs, workshops, sharing & feedback sessions) and communication tools. All these not only help us to create a smoother workflow and ensure that we are focused in the same direction. The pandemic has been limiting the effectiveness of our communications and it is making us adapt to virtual conversations; therefore, the need for a quality video conferencing tool has never been more crucial.
To ensure the conversations we had were as direct as possible and that they could be started easily, we were using a “Breakout Room” feature, which the attendees could split into several smaller groups and have free discussions. The chats in different rooms covered various topics and took place simultaneously. By using this feature, we were able to save time and made sure that we were aligned on different topics, enabling us to have clear next steps moving forward. By using this feature, we were able to save time and made sure that we were aligned on different topics, enabling us to have clear next steps moving forward.
Here’s an example of how we used Breakout Rooms, and it was actually during the process of creating MixerChat! Product creation consisted of several functions (front & back-end developers, product managers, designers, marketers, and user researchers), and during project syncs, we grouped together in the main room and updated our latest statuses first. Then, we split up to talk more thoroughly about specific topics in separate rooms — a room for developers & designers for UI/UX topics, another for PMs and user researchers to discuss product development-related subjects, a room for marketers & designers for branding, and more! Lastly, we regrouped in the main room to share what we talked about & determine next steps.
PicCollage team tried multiple tools to support hybrid working. However, we struggled to find the ONE to facilitate our “breakout discussions” better — some were not intuitive, others had stability issues, and very few were available on both mobile & desktop devices. As a tech company, why not make it our own and solve our own problems?
Here was the how…
We began with the mobile phone concept and called it “Mobile Breakout Chat” because members wanted to freely join breakout discussions when they were on-the-go. Consequently, we focused our product development on the phone layout at first.
The next step was to figure out how to apply the mobile UI & the setups on the desktop version! While we were working on the phone-desktop adaptation, we gave it a go for internal use, and also used it for our external virtual recruiting event “Online Mixer Chat”, an event where we got to talk to potential candidates. From these tryouts, we collected extremely helpful feedback, squashed some annoying bugs, and added useful features to make the tool more complete and stable.
(At this point in time, the working title was ‘Meeting-Oriented-Breakout-Chat’ — catchy right? 😂)
Towards the finish line, we started to brainstorm the product names & branding directions. In the end, we decided to go with a fun & more casual concept for this virtual space, so voila, that’s the birth of MixerChat!
MixerChat was inspired by our team’s working style , and communication is a big part of it, even in this hybrid working environment that everyone is experiencing. Now, you can also have same quality discussions with smaller breakout rooms anytime, anywhere!
Please give MixerChat a try & let us know what you think too!
