8 Strategies to tackle Remote Collaboration Challenges

More than 65 Percentage of the industries have really accepted hybrid kind of a work nature or even full time working nature and sometimes very few physical environment working. So what it really means is we are moving into a different era of technology. You know what the challenges is also more if you are remotely collaborating with your design team or your clients or even your project mates or anybody. Right? So how do you really tackle those challenges? I'm going to be discussing the eight important challenges and how you can tackle those using some strategies. Because in this age, if you're not learning this particular trend, you will be definitely having a lot of disadvantage when it comes to job switch or even finding a new job. Right? So if you know this parallelly you can even find a remote job. Particularly it's suited for housewives or women who are who wanted to really take care of their kids as well as to take care of their career. This is going to really address them. Okay, take a lot of notes. This is going to be a really important podcast for you all. I already told you why it is very important to learn this particular challenges and strategies for working in a remote environment. Right? Being the trend and age, you have to now get another more perspective. If you wanted to start a design industry or if you wanted to really create a new design consulting or any kind of a manufacturing industry, or if you want to become a very creative guy in doing something, definitely you need to get this clarity guys. Because the industry is not same 10 years before, even 20 years before, the industry was completely different. Right? The way in which you have to see the future should also be even more different from this. Catering these advantages, you need to really take your next steps forward in your career. Because the way in which the AI is shaping the work culture and the work productivity and the way in which the workforces are distributed. Even the government is making lot of policy changes to capture that leave design career. It's definitely going to have a disruption. But the point is even a very good government official posts are being replaced with AI technology because they can able to AI can able to take a better decision making for them. So how do you really understand this? It's only one step is there guys. You have to get educated. You need to be aware and become conscious what's happening. If you're able to do this, you can become a master and leader in riding this trend. And even you can create a new trend. Okay, so first let's understand the barriers of this remote collaboration. Okay. The first is communication barrier. Lack of face to face always leads to Misunderstanding. Let me tell you guys, 20% of the remote workers struggle with communication problem. That is why you need to use lot of video calls. You need to be proficient in tools. And in the end of the podcast I'm going to be suggesting you some tools as well so that you can utilize those tools and you can create a free account. I'm going to give you a account also like the login page. I'm not promoting any tools. It's my experience using a lot of tools in a different different period I've experienced. And I'm giving you this as a outcome so that you don't have to experiment it wasting your time. You can directly use these tools and get effectiveness of it. Because tools can really leverage our effectiveness much more better. Okay. So it can able to foster your open communication better for barriers breaking in communication. The second is collaboration breakdown. See guys, there is huge difficulty in spontaneous collaboration when it comes to idea exchange or communicating your ideas. Collaboration is really a big issue in that let me tell you. Companies with effective collaboration practices are two times more likely to outperform their peers. We have discussed this. McKinsey Global Institute have proven this research. You need to use a tool called Miro Envision figma. You know what? This is a real time collaborative tools where you can collaborate with your co employees and you can get a real time feedback running parallel. It's a beautiful tool guys. You need to understand how the collaboration is broken down. Because of the advantage of this AI tools particularly I would say Miro has an AI enabled feature. Figma has an AI enabled feature called figjam where real time collaboration happens. Okay, the third important barrier is isolation and motivation. It's a very big problem guys. You know what? Feeling of being isolated, sometimes it really demotivates you. If you're working in a core environment, it's not a problem. 22% of the remote workers struggle with loneliness. Oval Labs Owl Oval Labs has really published this stat. To really have this environment tackled, you need to have a supportive team culture and schedule a virtual team building activities, play some games and entertainment, propose to your boss or your management or your hr. You can write an email asking you to have this kind of a team building motivation games and activities. Maybe in a weekend or in evening times where the work culture is not disturbed. Okay, Maybe you can have a short session for 15, 20 minutes so this can able to avoid this isolation and motivate you a lot. The fourth important challenge is version control issues. This is a big issue, guys. You know what? Keeping changes of the Design iterations and documentation is a big problem. That is why you know what you can use tools like Git. You can use tools, you know, like particularly in Miro also you can able to document all these Things using version 1 or you can have yesterday's version or you can have a day before yesterday's version. Even in Adobe XT there is a feature I don't know in Figma that the feature is there. But Adobe XT saves your data in a version wise thing. So if you wanted to go back to your earlier version and check it out, we can do it. You know it's a great advantage. I'm saying it's not a challenge. In fact it's an advantage where you can utilize where in an offline discussion it doesn't happen. Sometimes people tend to lose track because we talk in live and then we discuss them. Right. So you need to get this version. Control issues can lead to 45 percentage decrease in profit in project efficiency. Guys. Adobe has published this. 45% is a big number, right? So you need to understand the effectiveness of project is more important. The fifth important issue is inefficient feedback loops. There is a delay always happening in a project, guys. 80% of the responders believe remote collaboration tools are very crucial for successful design. InVision really published this. That's why InVision is able to create a lot more products than that. InVision is becoming really big guys nowadays. I'm seeing a lot of their tools options and the way in which they are growing is really high. Previously Miro used to rule the show, but now it's really becoming high. I mean I've used invision but I've not used very extensively. You can definitely try it out and I've heard a very good feedback about it. Leverage the use of tools like Marvel, Figma and Miro and InVision to get a rapid feedback. You know what tools can really break this loop and get you very, very effective feedback. You know there is a feature called screen capture in Miro where you can talk in a video. It's called track record. Sorry. You can even record that particular video audio and you can send to that person for giving you feedback. Hey, like let's say if a person A has a feedback, hey, in your Miro map, this user journey is not mapped properly. Can you check this statistics and information one more time before proceeding to ideation and prototyping and wireframing you can send that hey person A, hey person B. You can point it out and you can able to tag them in Their comments. It's a very effective feedback loop which can be closed. You need to leverage the tool advantage. Guys, the sixth important thing is security concern. See, handling sensitive data information is very problem. You will not have much problem, but industry will face this issue. 69% of the executives believe remote work has increased the risk of Cyber Security by PwC. It's a very important thread, right? I told you so you need to understand and you need to use very secular platforms also for your work and related stuff. You can use very good cloud storage platforms, well established Microsoft storage issues where your company if they're suggesting it's final, you can able to propose that as well. The seventh important challenge is tech stack compatibility. See guys, team members have lot of compatible tools and you will not have that. And sometimes you will have a tool and they will not have. So 90% of the developers work remotely. Definitely. It's already a statistics, right? Even when pandemic happens or not. So emphasize the need for that standardization in your company. Then you will have more common tools using it. So stack overflow they call so you know what 90% of users are remotely working. So you need to understand this and you need to standardize those particular tools and materials. And if you want training, you can even ask your companies or your particular subordinates to or your boss to give you that so that it can enable you to match that. The last important thing is time zone differences. See guys, whenever you're working in different time zone there is a big issue, right? So that's why the solution could be you can schedule a regular overlap hours of meeting so that you can able to work across different times. So there is something called a world time buddy. You can watch that particular time and schedule your meetings. Like let's say it could be a little bit overlapping for you to manage that well in advance. Communication is the only strategy to overcome this. 24% of the remote workers find collaborating with different time zones is challenging statistics by buffer. But what's the point if we are very proactive communicating that hey, this is a time good in India, good for us, good for this country. We'll have it shallow, will have everything common. Send an email, invite them for a meeting and get it confirmed. This is how you plan things ahead and overcome this challenge. If you're able to understand this challenge is whatever is happening, guys, let me tell you, the future is going to be very uncertain and you can able to handle that. Because AI is scheduling meetings and AI is planning the work and projects nature. AI is giving a project charter and the way in which the remote work nature is much different. Definitely a workforce are reduced and definitely the mess of creativity is there. The creative touch is missing. You can able to cater that. I mean you can able to cater that by adding advantage of the AI. A lot of people think AI is a bad thing. No, if you are able to add that creativity touch and a personalized support in your meetings, in your projects, in your collaboration, in your remote working environment, AI can enable you much faster to become an effective team player and contribute a lot. And you know what, in the future it may be a big issue like people will have something like different gadgets. People can even work in their tablet, in their mobile. I mean you don't need to require a big laptop workstation this, that, so that the gadget is very different. The way in which you see the tools now, like we are prominently using lot more tools. Like let's say we are using Zoom, we are using teams, this, that, right? So in the future it could be much AI enabled tools wherein the video and audio will be in a much more different way. You can have a 3D hologram calling, wherein you have to demonstrate certain actions for your project, wherein you can present real time live of your project data, wherein you have to be in a very different, what you call environment to isolate yourself to present it. So the work from home culture, the hybrid culture, it's going to be much different. So people are really feeling like what's really going to happen. If you understand the issues what we are facing now, this is going to translate into a new technology or a product or service. Guys, somebody is going to come up with a solution, right? So understand this and you can able to create your own. You can be a designer who can really cater and solve these problems using your creative products or creative services, right? Tomorrow you will be an entrepreneur. You will not be only designer working for some organization lifetime. You will be even starting up your own. You will contribute much more if you understand what is really happening. This is how the world is changing, guys. Be aware of it, be conscious, don't be scared. Being able to ride the trend carefully. Okay? There are some tools which I'll tell you which will enhance your remote collaboration. The first is figma. It's a real time collaboration design tool. Miro. It's an online whiteboard for collaborating and brainstorming. And you can use something called Slack Instant meeting and messaging platform for very quick communication. You can use Microsoft Zoom which is very common, we all know face to face discussions, video call. You can arrange a very good backdrops, you can have a very good audio setting, can record the meeting. Everything is possible. You can use Invision Marvel. It's a very good prototyping tool and very efficient for feedback loops. You can use Abstract and Git for version control system. For design files you can use Trust Tracerot. I have not used this tool guys. It has been suggested that it's very secure for cloud storage. Industry definitely knows it. I'm not sure of it, but you can talk to your systems team or your what you call your IT team. They can able to give you this asset. Okay. And you can use World Time Buddy for scheduling different time zone meetings. And you can use Down IT for Sale a Slack which is facilitates random virtual coffee chats which will engage your clients and your customer and your teammates much better. And you can use Notion Basecamp. These are some of the asynchronous communication and project management tools which can leverage the power of collaborating online with you. You can use something called figjam which will be even more effective to build a lot of your concepts, mind maps, your ideation, etc. Okay, so I hope this podcast is giving you so very good challenges how we can tackle those remote working nature and how we can ride the trend. Okay, thank you so much guys. If you need my mentorship support in helping you out to learn design strategies, you can write to me in that email. If you find this useful, you can rate me 5 star in Apple and Spotify and get notified for further episodes. Thank you so much. Take care. All the best. Bye bye.