Features of remote communications
Some time ago I already wrote an article about the features of managing distributed teams. In it, I analyzed the issues of the organization from the point of view of the head of such teams. But, naturally, the most important thing in a team is not the leader, but the team itself. Not the rules and orders “hung on top”, but the sum of the talents of the team, its collective awareness and synergistic abilities. No leader will make the team of monkeys work, and no leader will be able to spoil the work of professionals (although ...). Therefore, today I want to discuss the features of remote communications through the eyes of any participant in the process: an outsourcing developer, a freelancer, a layout maker on a decree, or an employee of a distributed team
At the same time, taking into account my professional deformation (I have been testing for more than 10 years), I will look at these questions using the example of quite specific mistakes that I observed from the side or made myself.
Julia is a test manager. She is a very responsible, perfectionist and workaholic. As soon as she receives a letter from the customer, in which he asks to perform some new task, she immediately rushes to her decision. Working closely with her at work, I cannot ignore this. As part of the regular review, I appeal to the customer with the question of whether he is pleased with the results. Among his reviews: “Yulia is very slow, she takes up the task late, does not pay them enough attention.” Shock: are we talking about the same person?
Where does this inconsistency in the perception of work come from?
Trying to understand the question, I clarified the customer's complaints, analyzed the work process of Yulia, we together watched their correspondence for the last month. It turned out that every time, having received the task, Julia “nodded” to the monitor and rushed into battle. She could send an answer to the letter in 2-3 days, when everything was already done. The natural reaction of the customer was: “Yulia has been suffering all these 2-3 days of nonsense, why she is silent, why she doesn’t answer what she is doing,” etc. Having received the timely execution of the work, the customer understood that everything was under control and carried out on time ... But then with plugs: the sediment remained!
')
The root of this mutual misunderstanding is in the absence of the usual feedback that is inherent in personal communication: “Do this here” - “Okay”. To avoid misunderstandings, try to put yourself in the place of the person who sends you a letter. He does not know whether you read it or not, received it or not, took the task to work or not. Even with good cooperation and complete trust, there is an element of discomfort: is everything under control?
So that our customers, the management, and everyone with whom we communicate, it was good, pleasant, and we wanted more, we worked out a rule:
Any message must be replied within 2 business hours.
As such an answer may be:
In addition to the fact that after such an answer, your interlocutor gets a feeling of comfort and control, he also gets the opportunity to provide feedback. For example, he may report that a new task is more important than task N, and priorities need to be changed.
As a story, I will give a fresh screenshot, which inspired me to write this article:
For 4 days, a person tried to get an answer to a question that he could have received on the first day, if he had formulated it right away!
What is wrong with this correspondence?
Online and live communication is very different in structure. Online solves specific problems, it is inherently much more functional communication. I asked a question - I got an answer. In personal communication, everything is not so: non-verbal manifestations, empathy, and adjustment are important here. Many people who have not been raised by DotA and WoW, still remember what it is - personal communication. And whether out of habit, or out of nostalgia, they are trying to transfer it online. This is commendable, but meaningless - too many differences in online communication:
Therefore, we have declared a struggle to try to bring "intimacy" into online communication :
But despite the abolition of intimacy in working correspondence, you and I are people, and not all people like to sit immured in their workplace. Drink coffee together, call for a chat on non-working topics and just have not been canceled to discuss the next vacation! By the way, here I made a small rule for myself: working correspondence in skype- and mail, and personal with the same colleagues - in the Facebook messenger. Depending on whether I have a working time or a rest, I prioritize different signals differently))
We have an excellent test manager Ivan in our team (hello, Vanya!). He is a very smart and clear guy who formulates and structures information on the fly - just perfect. And he, in contrast to the previous story, does not dissolve the nurse. He says everything at once and clearly. For example, a client approached us with the question “I don’t know if I want you to test our product ... Show me how you do it.” Vanya got acquainted with the product, read about competitors, studied Central Asia, prepared checklists, conducted testing, formed a list of errors, and wrote a high-quality message to the client:
“Checklist: link
bugs: link .
At the time of writing this message, Vanya was thinking about our testing methodology, about the role of checklists and their need to evaluate the work done, about the criticality of the found bugs and the status of the product being tested ... These things were obvious to him, and he was sure that they were obvious to the customer, who is not very good at testing and, judging by the outsourcing, doesn’t want to understand this. The client asked in the same short style: “What is a checklist?”.
Of course, this problem is peculiar not only to online communication. But if in oral communication you can simply and promptly ask the interlocutor leading questions, then there are certain difficulties online with this. Remember only the previous point - you will find out a few days!
Therefore, in order to provide the required information immediately, I prepared a “self-questionnaire” before sending the message :
That is, when sending any message, it is important to understand whether the person has enough information, whether there is any oversupply, whether the purpose of the message is clear, whether the format of the answer we expect is clear. If you are sure that the answers to all these questions are “yes” - ask them again, but with the understanding that nobody reads your thoughts, and only you have your knowledge.
And Vanya and I rewrote the message in this style:
“Maxim, good afternoon! We are familiar with your product. The map of the functional, as we understood and arranged it, is available here . As a pilot area, we chose N. functionality. In order to evaluate how we performed the testing, we prepared a checklist for it, which is available here . In this table you can see the status of each test. Red cells with a number indicate that an error was found by this test. A complete list of errors is available here .
Please, tell us:
* How clear and useful are the errors we found?
* How complete is the testing, and does it meet your expectations?
* Are you interested in conducting similar testing for the entire product? In case of interest, we will provide accurate estimates for the remaining areas.
Regards, Ivan."
Once I received a resume for a job tester. The resume occupied about 25 kb and was in 7zip format, which I had to download and install. I was intrigued by what could be inside. Having unzipped, I found a text docx of 27 kb in size. A curtain.
I have many such stories. For example, once I was roaming, but worried about my work and figured out how things are. When I asked my colleagues on Skype, “What is the status of the projects?”, I was briefly left the situation for 5 minutes, and one of my colleagues dropped the presentation to 5 MB in half an hour. I rocked for 10 minutes, I fumbled with a mobile Power Point for another 30, and when I opened it, I found out that there are N bugs, tests are written X, and in general everything is fine.
Information is a value, but the way it is presented is equally important!
Your letter can be opened from the mobile Internet, on the phone, in roaming, on the ferry through the Bosphorus. And they can - in the office, on a poppy with 2 monitors of 27 ". Do you know how the recipient of the message works at the moment?
If yes - adapt! Discard the text of the poor fellow from the ferry, and a beautiful present for two Monica.
If the conditions of reading are unknown, please use thebrain standard solutions:
If possible, try to always collect as much information as possible about your online interlocutors, in order to take into account their working conditions and environments when sending data.
Of course, the list of problems is far from complete. But, if you look closely, you can see that each of the problems boils down to the same thing: self-centeredness. When you do not see your interlocutor, you can think out a lot about him, but more often than not, these guesses will be just a projection of yourself: he knows the same thing as me; he works in the same conditions as me; he reads messages just like me; and he has the same schedule, and vision too.
But we are all different! And when you try to take into account the peculiarities of your interlocutors, to adapt to them, and thus take care of them, you get yourself plus in karma, and your question will be successfully resolved with a much greater probability, and the person will do well and pleasantly.
At the same time, taking into account my professional deformation (I have been testing for more than 10 years), I will look at these questions using the example of quite specific mistakes that I observed from the side or made myself.
Lack of non-verbal cues and second-guessing
Julia is a test manager. She is a very responsible, perfectionist and workaholic. As soon as she receives a letter from the customer, in which he asks to perform some new task, she immediately rushes to her decision. Working closely with her at work, I cannot ignore this. As part of the regular review, I appeal to the customer with the question of whether he is pleased with the results. Among his reviews: “Yulia is very slow, she takes up the task late, does not pay them enough attention.” Shock: are we talking about the same person?
Where does this inconsistency in the perception of work come from?
Trying to understand the question, I clarified the customer's complaints, analyzed the work process of Yulia, we together watched their correspondence for the last month. It turned out that every time, having received the task, Julia “nodded” to the monitor and rushed into battle. She could send an answer to the letter in 2-3 days, when everything was already done. The natural reaction of the customer was: “Yulia has been suffering all these 2-3 days of nonsense, why she is silent, why she doesn’t answer what she is doing,” etc. Having received the timely execution of the work, the customer understood that everything was under control and carried out on time ... But then with plugs: the sediment remained!
')
The root of this mutual misunderstanding is in the absence of the usual feedback that is inherent in personal communication: “Do this here” - “Okay”. To avoid misunderstandings, try to put yourself in the place of the person who sends you a letter. He does not know whether you read it or not, received it or not, took the task to work or not. Even with good cooperation and complete trust, there is an element of discomfort: is everything under control?
So that our customers, the management, and everyone with whom we communicate, it was good, pleasant, and we wanted more, we worked out a rule:
Any message must be replied within 2 business hours.
As such an answer may be:
- OK, we'll do it until Friday.
- At the moment I am busy with task N. By Thursday I will study your letter more attentively and follow the deadlines.
- Already doing! There will be questions / changes - I will inform you.
In addition to the fact that after such an answer, your interlocutor gets a feeling of comfort and control, he also gets the opportunity to provide feedback. For example, he may report that a new task is more important than task N, and priorities need to be changed.
Personal communication habit
As a story, I will give a fresh screenshot, which inspired me to write this article:
For 4 days, a person tried to get an answer to a question that he could have received on the first day, if he had formulated it right away!
What is wrong with this correspondence?
Online and live communication is very different in structure. Online solves specific problems, it is inherently much more functional communication. I asked a question - I got an answer. In personal communication, everything is not so: non-verbal manifestations, empathy, and adjustment are important here. Many people who have not been raised by DotA and WoW, still remember what it is - personal communication. And whether out of habit, or out of nostalgia, they are trying to transfer it online. This is commendable, but meaningless - too many differences in online communication:
- Different time zones and schedules prevent synchronization
- No matter how much you hope for rapport in online communication, it will not be anyway, even if participants are available for communication at the same time
- Loss of precious time trying to sync
Therefore, we have declared a struggle to try to bring "intimacy" into online communication :
- All questions - immediately and in the case, not trying to synchronize
- We choose the appropriate method: Skype for short questions, email for important, task-tracking system for tasks. This minimizes the loss of information and questions.
- When it comes to large projects, we fix the questions in a special sign. Each question is responsible for providing data, response status, etc. So we provide "lossless" questions and ask again for all unanswered questions with an "expired" date.
But despite the abolition of intimacy in working correspondence, you and I are people, and not all people like to sit immured in their workplace. Drink coffee together, call for a chat on non-working topics and just have not been canceled to discuss the next vacation! By the way, here I made a small rule for myself: working correspondence in skype- and mail, and personal with the same colleagues - in the Facebook messenger. Depending on whether I have a working time or a rest, I prioritize different signals differently))
You must read my mind
We have an excellent test manager Ivan in our team (hello, Vanya!). He is a very smart and clear guy who formulates and structures information on the fly - just perfect. And he, in contrast to the previous story, does not dissolve the nurse. He says everything at once and clearly. For example, a client approached us with the question “I don’t know if I want you to test our product ... Show me how you do it.” Vanya got acquainted with the product, read about competitors, studied Central Asia, prepared checklists, conducted testing, formed a list of errors, and wrote a high-quality message to the client:
“Checklist: link
bugs: link .
At the time of writing this message, Vanya was thinking about our testing methodology, about the role of checklists and their need to evaluate the work done, about the criticality of the found bugs and the status of the product being tested ... These things were obvious to him, and he was sure that they were obvious to the customer, who is not very good at testing and, judging by the outsourcing, doesn’t want to understand this. The client asked in the same short style: “What is a checklist?”.
Of course, this problem is peculiar not only to online communication. But if in oral communication you can simply and promptly ask the interlocutor leading questions, then there are certain difficulties online with this. Remember only the previous point - you will find out a few days!
Therefore, in order to provide the required information immediately, I prepared a “self-questionnaire” before sending the message :
- Is his message clear from the message? This should be clear from the first, maximum of the second line!
- Does the reader have the necessary background information to understand the new one that we provide in the message? If not, it must be provided, if there are many, then by links.
- If the letter turns out to be long enough - is a short summary given at the very beginning in order to save the person time and give the opportunity to sort the letter for analysis?
- What answer do we want to get? The main question should not be “blurred” by the message - it should be formulated clearly, specifically, and at the very end of the message
- If there are several foci of messages, is it not better to send separate messages?
- Is it convenient to read our message? Bullets, numbered lists, structure ...
- Is there any extra information? There is a middle ground somewhere between the lack of data and War and Peace!
That is, when sending any message, it is important to understand whether the person has enough information, whether there is any oversupply, whether the purpose of the message is clear, whether the format of the answer we expect is clear. If you are sure that the answers to all these questions are “yes” - ask them again, but with the understanding that nobody reads your thoughts, and only you have your knowledge.
And Vanya and I rewrote the message in this style:
“Maxim, good afternoon! We are familiar with your product. The map of the functional, as we understood and arranged it, is available here . As a pilot area, we chose N. functionality. In order to evaluate how we performed the testing, we prepared a checklist for it, which is available here . In this table you can see the status of each test. Red cells with a number indicate that an error was found by this test. A complete list of errors is available here .
Please, tell us:
* How clear and useful are the errors we found?
* How complete is the testing, and does it meet your expectations?
* Are you interested in conducting similar testing for the entire product? In case of interest, we will provide accurate estimates for the remaining areas.
Regards, Ivan."
I feel so comfortable!
Once I received a resume for a job tester. The resume occupied about 25 kb and was in 7zip format, which I had to download and install. I was intrigued by what could be inside. Having unzipped, I found a text docx of 27 kb in size. A curtain.
I have many such stories. For example, once I was roaming, but worried about my work and figured out how things are. When I asked my colleagues on Skype, “What is the status of the projects?”, I was briefly left the situation for 5 minutes, and one of my colleagues dropped the presentation to 5 MB in half an hour. I rocked for 10 minutes, I fumbled with a mobile Power Point for another 30, and when I opened it, I found out that there are N bugs, tests are written X, and in general everything is fine.
Information is a value, but the way it is presented is equally important!
Your letter can be opened from the mobile Internet, on the phone, in roaming, on the ferry through the Bosphorus. And they can - in the office, on a poppy with 2 monitors of 27 ". Do you know how the recipient of the message works at the moment?
If yes - adapt! Discard the text of the poor fellow from the ferry, and a beautiful present for two Monica.
If the conditions of reading are unknown, please use the
- Minimize reasonable traffic
- Use the most common file formats that are platform independent - txt, pdf, html, png
- Provide links to external data sources if they may not be very easy to find.
If possible, try to always collect as much information as possible about your online interlocutors, in order to take into account their working conditions and environments when sending data.
findings
Of course, the list of problems is far from complete. But, if you look closely, you can see that each of the problems boils down to the same thing: self-centeredness. When you do not see your interlocutor, you can think out a lot about him, but more often than not, these guesses will be just a projection of yourself: he knows the same thing as me; he works in the same conditions as me; he reads messages just like me; and he has the same schedule, and vision too.
But we are all different! And when you try to take into account the peculiarities of your interlocutors, to adapt to them, and thus take care of them, you get yourself plus in karma, and your question will be successfully resolved with a much greater probability, and the person will do well and pleasantly.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299194/
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