How Overloop mastered remote working (Pre-Covid)
With Overloop’s employees based all over Europe, remote working has been at the core of our brand, since the beginning. The concept which was once considered a perk, is now becoming the new norm in a lot of organisations and changing the way they work and thrive.
Overloop's remote working culture means making sure our team is filled with self-motivated and honest individuals. When hiring, we look for the best people all over Europe, who will embrace the company’s shared values, goals and practices. Recruiting remotely has allowed us to assemble a diverse team which has brought in new perspectives to Overloop and maybe in the future, can open the company up to new markets and opportunities.
How/When did Overloop decide to go remote?
“When I set up Overloop, some employees had been in France for some time. We had been working together very productively so we knew it could be done. Initially, I was planning to get some office space so the UK-based employees could have a space to work, but once we started and did the first team meetup in Marseille, I realised that remote working was a feature, not a bug.” - Remco Van Stiphout, CEO
Since our start in 2017, we’ve found working collaboratively can happen just as effectively remotely, if not better. Having the right tools to successfully collaborate and be productive is a big part of this. Investing in reliable technology including laptops, monitors and noise-cancelling headphones is important, but using programs to aid our day to day work is a vital part of how we work remotely.
We’ve put together a list of our favourite tools and how we use them to make our work as productive and seamless as possible.
Slack
Make use of slack reminders! Set reminders for important messages you have opened so nothing gets forgotten
Integrate it with third-party apps such as Google Hangouts or Jira
Star or pin important messages. This is especially useful for URLs that everyone on a project might need over and over, like the Jira board or requirements doc
Use slack statuses so your colleagues can get an idea of how quickly you will respond
Disable notifications when in meetings so you don’t get distracted
2. Google Calendar
The ‘Find a time’ feature is a way to quickly find a time that works for all guests included on the meeting invite
Don’t forget to add a Google Meet! Being remote means screen sharing and talking to each other through calls
Enable working hours - this is especially useful if you are working with people in different time zones as they will be able to see when you are on/offline
3. Google Meet
Attach an agenda to the meeting invite to give participants an idea to what the call will include
Share your screen! This gives other people on the call something to look at while you review or edit a document, look at code together or hold a standup using a Jira Board
If you’re not speaking and are in a noisy place, mute your microphone
If you don’t have access to a laptop, you can always dial in on your phone
4. Jira
Keep the board up to date - we often do this on a daily standup with Project Managers and Engineers
Link important documents and spreadsheets like roadmaps and requirements to epics so you can find them easily
Create personal dashboards to keep track of your velocity for different projects
Here are some extra key remote working practices and tools that we’ve found keep us as productive as possible...
Using other collaborative project management tools e.g. Asana or Trello
Visualisations e.g. Lucidchart to explain ideas and workflows
Making sure the team always has tasks lined up in a queue
Respecting work schedules - people might be in different time zones
When we think of remote working, most of us envision working from a room in our own home. But for us, remote working has unlocked so many opportunities in our daily lives. For many of our employees, remote working has given them the flexibility to travel the world while working and even, for one of our talented engineers, touring Greece with his band!
Alex could tour with his band…
“Working remotely has not only allowed me to remove the time consuming and stressful process of the commute, but also enabled me to not have to choose between coding and being a musician. What better way to spend the endless hours of driving while touring, than writing code? That's what I call optimization.”
Xavier decided to do some backpacking…
“Remote working gave me the opportunity to travel around Europe while still working, allowing me to experience new places for longer periods than if I were to visit on vacation. A typical workday while travelling was, for example, walking in the Old Town of Prague, stopping at a café to work for a few hours, finding a place for lunch, walking again to find another café and do some more work. This flexibility allowed me to really enjoy a city while still being productive.”
Although working from home has many benefits, getting to see the rest of the company on our meetups every 4 months is very important to us and we’re looking forward to getting back to them as Covid eases up (with a bit of luck) in 2021. It allows us to celebrate the goals we have achieved and the projects we have completed as well as giving us the chance to get to know our colleagues better by spending time not just working, but doing activities and enjoying each other's company. If you are thinking about taking your business fully remote, we highly recommend organising something similar for your employees, it costs a fraction of the overhead of renting an office and boosts the team’s morale!
Urbee - Product Manager at Overloop