By Drew Rothstein, President

Sometimes you just need to be in-person to do your best work. This is particularly true with cross-team projects and complex re-architectures.

We’ve written about how we work before and that we are a remote company with some locations having centralized teams. While we do all get together for Offsites multiple times a year (and have some pretty fierce pickleball + basketball games with only minor injuries), these are not focused on heads-down work.

Recently, we had a complex project come up that involved two teams: our Product Engineering team and our Encryption Engineering team. During initial discussions it was clear that we would be defining a new schema, a new way for the Product to coordinate with a new API, and begin building a completely new UX.

For a project like this, we pondered a few questions:

  • Did we want to attempt to do this remotely?
  • If we did, would the result be enabled as quickly?
  • Would the cross-team learning / outcome be as valuable?
  • Could we ship a demo by end-of-week if done remotely?

It was quickly concluded that the best way to accomplish the highest value outcome was going to be a Coworking Week.

Planning a Coworking Week

We use Slack for team communication and created a dedicated channel + kick-off so that everyone could coordinate.

Slack Channel Kick-off Slack Channel Kick-off

Choosing Location

The first and most important discussion is of course: Where should we all meet? The team chose Austin, TX where the average temperature was 99°F each day with a 65°F dewpoint. I can’t say I truly understand this choice but they chose it!

Coordinating the time is the first step with the team selecting a week, confirming availability, and then finding a suitable location. Key requirement: Fast and secure WiFi.

Choosing a week Choosing a week

For an Offsite a hotel is great, everyone gets their own space / privacy but for a Coworking Week it is common for a smaller group to prefer a roomy AirBNB / VRBO with a kitchen and various amenities to make collaboration space / time the most optimized.

Not the BnB we chose Not the BnB we chose

Setting Goals

After the location is chosen, the next step is to map out which restaurants… I mean, to plan the goal for the week. This isn’t a cheap endeavour in dollars or time: we are asking people to step away from their lives, families, et cetera, and spend a week together in another city.

The team spun-up a document and started to outline the Goals, Non-Goals, and specifically: What is actually in-scope?

Setting Goals Setting Goals

Go Go Gadget Coworking

Once the team lands and acquires their first taco (and maybe a second), the work begins. Typically supplies are procured such as extension cords, power bricks, and a white board but this varies based-on location.

Work begins on really decomposing the work and fleshing out what is going to be done during the week. This process takes time, and sometimes an additional taco. This phase is not rushed nor should it be. Most work in Engineering is actually non-technical and involves figuring out how you actually want something to work / how it should work, and the outcome(s).

Which team will own which interfaces, where / how is the schema going to be designed, which APIs may be needed / exposed, and what questions are unanswered that we need Product / Other input on?

All of this information is captured and eventually distilled into a shared document.

As the first day ends, a recap post is shared out to the rest of the team. This is done to keep everyone in the loop (incl. folks that are not physically present) but also to make it clear to the broader team what is being done and the value of the in-person time.

Day 1 Recap Day 1 Recap

Each day concludes with similar daily updates and photos of IRL activities:

Day 2 Recap Day 2 Recap IRL Activities, probably Tacos (Blues on the Green) IRL Activities, probably Tacos (Blues on the Green)

End of Week

Once the week draws to a close, two final items take place:

  • A team demo of the work accomplished.
  • A more detailed recap of the week.

Our team holds a Demo Day every Friday afternoon and Product Demos as part of our Weekly Team Meeting on Mondays. The team put together a Live Demo (required) and shared the state of what they built / executed on during the past week. Even if rough and unfinished it is important to demo.

And, a larger recap post was published.

Top secret recap Top secret recap Demo Demo

Wrap-up

Once everyone completes their journeys back home, the work continues. The original document that was used to plan, is used to continue the work on the project. The remaining scope is discussed, planned, and agreed upon for upcoming sprints. And, the project ships!

We are hiring for a number of roles. Even if now isn’t the right time, we are happy to keep in touch and let you know when a role that may interest you becomes available. Check out our roles here.