Joining Segment Design Remotely

It’s been a month since I started my job as a Product Designer at Segment. I wanted to document my odd, but wonderful experience joining a new company remotely in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. Why not? I have plenty of time on my hands while I practice social distancing at home and I encourage others to do the same. *ahem* Okay moving on…

I officially accepted an offer with Segment back February and was stoked to have the opportunity to grow into this new role. With a dynamic product, an incredibly talented team, and a quick 15-minute walk from home, it was the perfect match for me. Soon after celebrating this new opportunity, I learned that the Bay Area had issued a shelter in place order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in this heavily populated area.

This meant that I would have to onboard fully remote, with no date in sight for returning to an office environment. What does that look like you ask? Let me tell you.

OFH (Onboarding From Home)

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Onboarding remotely has been 90% smooth and 10% oh no how do I work from a tiny room where I also sleep. Needless to say… It’s been an adjustment.

I am very grateful to say that since starting in March, I have received consistent support from Segment to help me get up and running. I received my laptop in the mail a few days prior to starting and was able to set up my tech stack. I ordered a monitor, a Bluetooth mouse, and a whole bunch of Reese’s cups (yes, those are necessary for a productive at-home work environment). 🤗

After getting set up, I realized I had two immense fears:

1. Missing out on traditional in-person opportunities to integrate into the existing team
2. Learning the ins and outs of a very technically complex product remotely

In order to conquer these fears I had to adjust both my workflow and mindset. This meant using technology to do things I would normally accomplish in person like coffee chats, design critiques, team hangouts, etc.

Within my first 2 weeks at Segment I made an aggressive effort to schedule 1:1’s with everyone on my team in order to establish a working relationship voided by the shelter in place order. Additionally, I bothered colleagues to add me to meetings I wasn’t invited to in order to gain a deeper understanding of the app and company culture. In those conversations, I focused heavily on absorbing each person’s unique knowledge of the product.

My days were often filled with Zoom meetings, virtual lunches, virtual game nights, and endless Slack messages in order to stay productive and connected. Using these resources I was able to ramp up fairly quickly and conquer my initial fears, despite the challenges of onboarding from home.

DFH (Designing From Home)

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I’ve successfully onboarded onto the team. Now what? How does the current state of the world affect a Product Designer at Segment?

I spent weeks 3 and 4 diving deep into an existing problem, leading discovery and design for my first project virtually.

Because I’m not able to do this…

…my days go a little something like this:

1. Check-in with my team via Status Hero on Slack (in lieu of standup)
2. Catch up on Slack messages, emails, calendar invites, etc.
3. Create a tentative to-do list for the day to stay on task
4. Typical design activities — Brainstorm, research, plan, document, design, prototype, etc.
5. Meet with members of my team + cross-functional members to foster collaboration via Zoom
6. Freak out a little, walk around my house to get steps in, then back to #4

What has worked for me so far:

• I make a point to use tactile resources such as pen and paper or a whiteboard if possible to simulate the experience of those scrappy, low-fidelity sessions I would naturally have in-person.
• Sharing literally everything early and often. Have an undeveloped concept? Share it. Prototyped a user flow? Share it. Wrote a long Medium article about your weird experience? Share it.
• Leaning on my team — Segment has a team of stellar designers, PMs, and engineers who I am able to lean on for support when tackling complex problems. (plus a healthy dose of validation)

All that to say — I am incredibly grateful to be a part of the Segment team and beyond excited to help scale the business by leveraging the power of good design… from home. 🏠