The COVID-19 pandemic led to a very fast transition from working in the same physical space to remote working. As stated earlier, most of the respondents did not have any extensive experience in working remotely. Because of this, many of them felt that it took some time to become accustomed to the new situation. One respondent stated that initially, people were trying to do remote working the same way as they had been working in the physical space. Previously a team had been almost constantly working in the same room, and therefore there used to be constant interaction between the team members.
According to the respondent, trying to simulate this in a virtual space led to a lot of unnecessary meetings.
A big difference to working in the same space, is the lack of spontaneous social interaction. When the teams were working in the same physical space, the team members could follow what the others were doing, and tackle issues when they arose. One respondent stated that when working remotely, issues would sometimes be gathered up in a bunch, and then be tackled all at once in the next meeting. A few respondents stated that after the initial adaption, the meetings became more focus and organized, having a clear agenda of what to discuss before each meeting started.
Another challenge with not working physically together, is making sure that everyone is on the same page regarding what is going on in the project. Several respondents stated that in order to tackle this, their teams had created more organized ceremonies for communication, where all team members gathered to share information in order to ensure that everyone was up to date with the project. One example of this are the daily stand-up sessions, during which the team members would discuss relevant topics to the project’s progress, like what each member was going to work on that day, what their challenges were, or any other relevant topic. This was a practice that most respondents’
teams had started doing.
“I think it would have been a good thing if it [daily stand-up sessions] had been before COVID, when everyone was in the studio. But now it became a necessity. “
The need for collaboration within the team combined with the remote setting resulted in an increase in the number of scheduled meetings. Some respondents felt that this led to their schedules being completely packed with meetings, having less time to focus on their own work. Some respondents stated that they tend to also do other things during a
meeting if the topic is not directly necessary for them. At the same time, several respondents complained about lower engagement in the meetings, feeling that it was hard to know how well others were listening and focusing on the meeting.
“Of course, you need to talk with people to be informed, to get your inspiration. But the balance between the real work and calling should be reconsidered. Right now, I feel there are way too many unnecessary calls that should be cut down. And someday for some people, they have like from nine to five just calls every hour. “
What facilitates the teams being able to work remotely, is different digital tools. While the respondents already used various tools before the COVID-19 pandemic, there has still been a change both in which tools are used as well as how they are used. The respondents named three main tools that they have been using for remote working:
Figma, a vector graphics editor and prototyping tool; Mural, a digital workspace for visual collaboration; and Teams, a business communication platform. Of these, Teams is the only tool that was used before the pandemic. However, it was previously used to a much lesser extent.
The respondents were positive towards the digital tools and felt that the two new tools had been very useful. For example, Figma was seen as an improvement to the previously used vector graphics editor and prototyping tool Sketch, as Figma allows for real-time online collaboration, something that was not possible in Sketch. Several respondents also felt that working remotely had forced them to improve their usage of the tools. For example, the teams had started to use Teams and Figma for storing files in locations where all members can see them and are able to edit the files collaboratively, as opposed to storing and editing files locally on each one’s own computer.
“I think we would have continued the same way if we were not pushed towards more convenient online collaboration. So, I think that's really great, and I was actually positively surprised that working has changed so much in this sense. “
One concrete example of where the digital tools are needed to facilitate the remote collaboration, is the workshops with the clients. Before the pandemic, the workshops used to last for a whole day, where a big emphasis was placed on helping people get to know each other and creating a good atmosphere for ideation and brainstorming. During the remote setting, however, the workshops had become much shorter, due to people feeling exhausted with too long virtual meetings. Mural functioned as the main tool for facilitating different exercises and activities. As the virtual setting made it harder to establish a human connection, the workshops had become much more focused on the agenda and the objectives, rather than on creating a good atmosphere. On the other
hand, when the workshops were over everything was already documented in Mural, compared to the previous physical workshops where everything would have been written on physical post-it notes.
The role of the project manager also changed due to the usage of digital tools. Some of the tasks of the project managers used to be quite practical, like reserving rooms for meetings and keeping track of the hours the team members spend on the project. As the employees more independently managed their own work in the remote setting, one respondent stated that the need for the project managers had decreased. Another respondent stated that the lack of insight into the work of the team members felt challenging for project managers, as they had a harder time following the progression of the projects. A third respondent stated, that even though the work had become more flexible, it was still important for the project manager to set up routines for the team, in order to ensure that the right things were being focus on and that the work progressed in the right direction.
“This kind of remote work, and ways of working, highlighted so nicely that we have so many project managers which are basically useless. Because tools can create a lot of things, and since we are working remotely, people started to manage their own work themselves. “
One of the biggest changes with the new setting, was the interaction with the clients.
Previously, a team would sometimes work at their client’s location, or the client would visit them at the office, with most of the communication outside of that happening through email. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, both the design teams as well as the clients were working remotely using Teams. This meant, that it became easier to integrate the clients into the work of the teams. Instead of having an “iron wall” between a client and the respective design team, the collaboration became much closer than previously. Several respondents stated that the overall communication with the clients had improved, as communicating through online calls worked much better than sending emails.
While the overall interaction with the clients had been improved, some respondents still felt that not meeting physically made it harder to build a personal connection to the clients. At the same time, one respondent felt that the remote setting made it easier to see some of the human side of the clients, as people tend to behave a bit differently sitting at home compared to being in an office, surrounded by colleagues. Another respondent noted that some clients were also affected by an increase in online meetings, making it harder to schedule time to talk to them. However, most respondents felt that the client
interactions had become easier to schedule, as there was no need to travel in order to be in the same location.
“Its very client and project specific, but, I mean, everybody is more or less using Teams.
So, you just chat there with whoever you need to talk to, answer specific topics or share documents back and forth. I think that [client communication] has actually probably improved over what it used to be when you had certain times that you were at the client location, and then everybody was super busy anyways. “
When I asked what had been done to facilitate the remote working practicalities, the respondents brought up a few things. The Company had acquired a licence for all employees in the office to use Figma, which enabled simultaneous online working on the same files. For the other new tool, Mural, people had created some example templates, that could be used as a starting point for remote working session. There had also been some sessions about how to facilitate remote workshops. Finally, the Company had provided some funds for the employees to invest in better equipment for their home offices.