We make places
Here’s how Wayfair’s European creative team has adapted to the remote working environment while keeping its culture afloat.
We are lucky enough to work for a company that has spent the past few years implementing tools and processes which have enabled us to continue our creative work during these challenging times. Yet so much of what makes or breaks a healthy business is the human side of work. Technology, processes and tools can become a bottleneck just as swiftly as they solve problems, but if your people approach their work and collaboration with positivity and productivity, there is no device or location that can get in their way.
That’s exactly what our European Creative team has proven with every project delivered in the past six months. Our team of 20 international creatives based in Berlin has been operating as usual in very unusual times, and we couldn’t be prouder of our work. We are copywriters, graphic designers and project managers from 12 different countries, speaking seven different languages with English as our main communicative touchstone. We collaborate with stakeholders across Berlin, Ireland, the UK and Boston — and as you can probably imagine, the more you add to the equation, the more complex fun it gets.
Here’s how we did it.
📌Adapting to change — and adapting again
I joined Wayfair exactly three weeks before Berlin’s official lockdown. For me, it was a rocky introduction that happened so fast I didn’t have any time to digest it. But my colleagues acted as though they’d all been trained for years to adjust to these swift changes. Their competence and openness to the new environment made it easier for me to just let go of the fear and uncertainty and take Wayfair’s creative ride.
As manager, my main priority was to maintain an effective and collaborative creative work environment where no one would feel left out. This meant going the extra mile to listen and understand what was important to my team, making sure they had everything they needed to deliver their tasks and were always informed of what was going on.
It wasn’t all perfect: Over-communication became a thing! We are still figuring out the right balance between over- and under-communication, so that we can keep our teams curious, creative, energetic and motivated without drowning their inboxes and calendars. With everything happening around the world, sticking together, facing reality and finding ways of making it work has been key.
📌Building rituals
Six months ago, we didn’t really know what our remote working future environment would look like, and we still don’t know what the next months will bring. All the same, we’ve built a handful of rituals that have kept us in tune with each other and added rhythm and communication to our days. These include:
- We check in and out every morning and evening in our Slack channel.
- Once a week someone shares a picture of their pets, plants or newborn baby (Hi Olivia!) in our dedicated Slack channel 🐶
- All our creative agile touchpoints are still intact. Some of them have even improved as a result of the cost-effectiveness of online communication, in comparison with the limitations of physical spaces.
- Smaller groups (marketing design, major promotion design, copy and creative ops) hold small creative sessions using miro, invision, Google Slides and Hangouts, to name a few.
- We continue to find ways to connect as a group, with online cooking classes, bi-weekly showcases with external guests, internal quiz sessions, creative workshops and small gatherings.
📌 Keeping the creative mindset
Our main mission as creatives is to create experiences that help our European customers find their happy home. This means we have to stay curious, empathic and ahead of the game. As creative leaders in a remote working environment, this has been a challenging year in terms of continuing to learn and try out new ways of keeping a healthy working culture while meeting the needs of a rocket-speed growing business.
With Wayfair’s increased positioning in the European market, the challenges that we have faced have only made us grow and proved our commitment to creative excellence. Helping our team keep a creative mindset has come with a focus on attitude, communication and the quality of work.
For now, we will continue to work remotely until the end of the year — at least one last quarter to go! Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about the achievements and learnings the upcoming months will bring us.
