Hi.
How are you coping? It is not easy at the moment. I think we are all struggling to adapt to the new reality and I doubt you are any different.
I’ll be honest. I am lucky. I have worked at home for 18 years and spent 13 of those running remote teams. We have also homeschooled our son through most of his education, so life has changed very little for me. However, I realise I am in the minority.
Most of us are facing enormous upheaval, from managing remote teams for the first time to seeing work dry up overnight. It’s a lot to process.
None of us was prepared for something of this magnitude, and I don’t claim to have any answers, but I do have three suggestions that you might wish to consider.
Stop Approaching Remote Working Like Office Work
Although companies have had remote working forced upon them, it offers extensive potential once they adapt to this new reality. It is a subject I have been writing about for years. Back in 2013, I was lamenting companies reluctance to adopt it more, in 2018 I was providing advice on how to build an effective remote team and I revisited the subject yet again in 2019. In fact, I have been advising my clients on the subject for as long as I can remember, so if you wanted some tips, check out my website.
The reason why many companies and team leaders struggle with the idea of remote working is that they try to replicate the in-office experience. If you approach remote working in the same way as office work, it will inevitably fall short. However, if you accept it is a different beast, you will see increases in productivity, staff morale and quality of output.
That is a topic we discussed in length on this week’s podcast, so you might want to listen to that. On that show, one person asked about how to replicate a UX workshop online. That perfectly demonstrated the problem. Our aim shouldn’t be to replicate in-person working virtually, but instead to adopt completely different remote techniques that provide the same output. It inspired me to write a post, exploring how you can get the same results from a UX workshop without meeting in person.
Not that remote working is our only challenge. We are also facing a tremendous amount of economic uncertainty, which for some is leading to work drying up.
Use This Time to Adapt What You Are Delivering
Many of the freelancers and agencies I coach are experiencing a considerable drop-off in work. Meanwhile, the in-house digital teams I mentor are finding many of the projects that were keeping them busy put on hold. What are we supposed to do when we don’t have enough work?
The advise I have been giving is two-fold.
First, we need to look at jobs we have always been meaning to do, but have never done. Work that, if implemented, will place your team in a stronger position when business starts to recover.
For example, that might be creating that design system which will allow you to deliver projects faster and cheaper. Or maybe it is time to address that legacy code that has been hampering you for years.
It is your opportunity to re-evaluate your website and address some of those issues that you have never had time to fix. To help with that, I have even launched a new low-cost website review offering that is part usability test, part expert review.
Of course, if you are an agency or freelancer that is not going to help pay the bills. That is where we come to my second piece of advice — we must re-evaluate what it is we can offer.
The problem is that too often we get caught up in what we deliver and not our skills or resources. We think that we “build websites” or “design interfaces”, but these aren’t all we have to offer. What skills or resources do you have that help people address the new needs they have?
For example, in my case, I have seen the number of people asking me to prototype or review a website fall considerably. However, I quickly realised I have years of experience building and running remote teams and that I can offer to advise around that.
Unfortunately, seeing those opportunities isn’t always easy, in part because it is hard to see your potential. That is where finding support can help.
Find Support
Facing these kinds of challenges alone is extremely hard, and we shouldn’t even try. The strength of the human race is in cooperation and community. We should embrace that more now than ever.
That is particularly important for those of us in more isolated roles. Perhaps you are a freelancer or owner of an agency. Then there are those of us heading up digital teams, where colleagues don’t fully understand the challenges you face.
Fortunately, many online communities can help. I, for one, have found the Boagworld Slack Channel enormous support at the moment, both as we share our business challenges, but also as we discuss our mental wellbeing. We would love you to join us.
Finally, I want you to know I am here for you as well. As you may be aware, I have offered coaching services for many years, but now I want to make that accessible to more people.
If you need advice and a sounding board in these turbulent times, I am happy to jump on video chat. I am offering these consultancy calls at a reduced rate, but I don’t want price to be a problem. If you cannot afford the rates advertised on my site, drop me an email, and we will sort something out. You can pay what you can afford.
At times like this, we must support one another as much as possible, and I will do my best to do my part; through our slack channel, consultancy calls, weekly blog posts and these emails.
Stay safe and drop me an email anytime if you feel the need to chat.
Thanks,
