The Sqwiggle Blog | Our Thoughts on Remote Working

Just hours ago we pushed out a brand new version of Sqwiggle for Mac (0.3). It includes a whole bunch of great enhancements and a fresh design update that brings it inline with our web experience. Just some of the many fixes and improvements included:

Entirely new design

The camera turns off to save battery when possible

Hibernate mode stops the camera immediately turning on after sleep

It’s now possible to delete messages in the chat stream

Improved team pane with ability to promote users

Improved connection quality indicator when in a video conversation

Improved notifications when a video conversation starts

A fancy new dock icon

Larger and better laid out videos

Stream support for tweets

Stream support for GIF’s improved (give it a try!)

CTRL+B shortcut now toggles busy mode

Stream commands are no longer case sensitive

Emoticons no longer showing within a timestamp

If you haven't tried the desktop app yet, give it a whirl as there are a number of advantages over the web app including native notifications and pausing of your music when video starts :-)

It’s difficult to achieve simplicity in the design of a product. The usual first inclination is to overcomplicate and look for the most convoluted answer to a difficult problem.

“I'm as proud of what we don't do as I am of what we do.” -Steve Jobs

When you’re driving a car, do you always take the longest route to your destination? If you do, then you’re probably crazy. The fact is that everyone enjoys simplicity. When you open an Apple product, is there ever a question on what to do next? The product explains itself.

The ultimate aim is for there to be no question on what to do next.

Design is nothing more than the science of controlled chaos, so producing a product that contains that chaos is just saying no to 10,000 unworthy things and yes to only a few amazing things. The ability to pick out what’s amazing and what is not amazing is a difficult task to master.

In the design of Sqwiggle, we could’ve taken the product in a lot of different directions but the ability to say no has been our most powerful weapon in fighting over complication and bloated product design. The urge to produce complicated design can be fought with a few things in mind.

1. Clear Purpose – recognizing exactly what you’re trying to achieve is the best way to come to a clear, and concise answer to a difficult problem.

2. Self Examination – always be aware of things you’re proposing and look at them from a critical lens. Be your own devil’s advocate.

3. Outside Perspectives – let’s face it, we all can’t be perfect at all times. It’s important to get an outside view of the product you’re producing by tapping industry experts and friends.

Building something simple is tricky business because complication is the default setting for most people. Doing something, and doing it well is a great life skill to have in general but especially relevant in designing software.

In this blog post, I discussed the difference between a Swiss Army knife and a butter knife. I believe the case can be made that a butter knife is ultimately more useful and beautiful than a Swiss Army knife ever could be.

The fact is, that the Swiss Army knife does so many things that it never actually becomes great at any of them. A butter knife, on the other hand is the most appropriate utensil in the world for completing the task of spreading butter. It’s not great at hardcore cutting, but it wasn’t designed for that. The butter knife knows exactly what it is and does that one thing in an irreplaceable manner. I’m an advocate for “butter knife software” design.

In designing software, there’s a major temptation in believing you are actually helping people by just throwing features at a complex problem without actually addressing the problem itself. I’m here to say that that approach is along the same lines as adding oars to a sinking lifeboat. No matter how many oars you have, the lifeboat is still sinking.

The major takeaway from this article is just to say that simplicity in software design and any type of product design for that matter is the best way to approach a difficult problem with an irreplaceable solution. Find the one thing that your product does and do a better than anything else in the market in the most simple, yet concentrated way. Do that and own the market.

I’ve interviewed several candidates for different positions at Sqwiggle over the past month. I can say that the interview process is naturally more difficult for both parties involved. It becomes your challenge as a candidate to impress me, despite the lack of physical connection that an in-person interview can bring.

Remote work comes with many benefits but landing the remote job of your dreams can prove a difficult challenge. Here are a few tips that I’ve seen in candidates I’ve interviewed recently.

“Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” -Aristotle

1. Write a Very Personalized Cover Letter

As someone who’s sat on both ends of the spectrum from hiring to hired, I know the difficulties of landing a great job, especially in the remote paradigm. One way to stand out is by offering deep insight into your thought process through a strong cover letter. Think about the cover letter as a gateway to the next step of actually speaking with someone. Use it as an opportunity to stand out by researching the company and offering insight into their business. This post by simply hired highlights the importance of a killer cover letter, “What may be the most important aspect of writing a killer cover letter is to make sure it’s not just a copy of your resume in prose form. It is an introduction that must grab the attention of the reader and make them want to move on to your resume, and most of all, to meet you face-to-face.”

A strongly worded cover letter is important to the remote paradigm because there is no physical presence as a reference point so, personality and cultural fit is an absolute must have. Building a remote team is all about having compatible personality types so, showing your personality through a well thought out cover letter will naturally allow your personality to shine.

2. Learn the Business By Doing Your Research

Let’s say you’ve mastered the cover letter, and have secured an interview at the company of your dreams. One way to stand out is by coming to the interview with an arsenal of knowledge on the company and their strategies. Nothing impresses me more than a candidate breaking down my work with great detail and insight and offering me food for thought over the next few days. If I’m thinking about your advice in the shower the next morning, chances are, you’re the person I’m looking for.

3. Follow Up Shortly After the Interview

Following up via Email will surely show your interviewer that you’re serious and excited about the position. Use this as an opportunity to present yourself as a serious candidate with a lot to offer by giving a few last pieces of useful knowledge. If you can drive home the fact that you’re a consistent source of great ideas, then the position will surely be yours but be aware that there are a few pitfalls with this approach. According to this post on Forbes, there are a few solid ways to come across as annoying in these follow ups, so be aware.

Landing a great remote job comes down to a few key factors: Confidence, Ambition, and Humility. With those in mind, start the interview process and grab the job of your dreams!

“Mistakes, in our culture of perfection, of correctness, are considered a weakness of logic, of sensibility, of intelligence. Unfortunately, this logic is preventing us from pushing the boundaries of the status quo. Impressing the boss, fitting in, towing the company line. Giving the answers that we think our superiors want to hear…is killing our ability to improve and do good business.” Chris Marshall, contributor at GOOD

Failure and success are not mutually exclusive. Leaders in business do not become so by making the least mistakes, they are the trailblazers who take ownership of each misstep to accomplish more efficient, productive work.

When employees are allowed to create, take risks, and fall short of lofty goals, problems can be identified sooner and rectified promptly. Growing companies that embrace mistakes and relentlessly pursue trial and error are industry changers. Motivational speaker Les Brown attests, “Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit.”

Mistakes are course correction.

John Robison is the owner and CEO of Bog Hog Mud Motors, a web-based company that manufactures and sells do-it-yourself mud motor kits and parts.

“Mistakes show you what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong,” says Robison. “You have to know the difference between the two, which is not always as easy as it sounds.”

The mistakes Robison made with previous ventures led him to an entirely different, more effective business structure.

“The vision of my first company was sculpted from an idea concocted by my limited viewpoint as a high school student,” he admits. “Later in my 20s when I brought the business to fruition, I realized it was flawed from the beginning. I poured my time and resources into the project only to find that the scope of what I could accomplish was inflexible, preventing future growth. As difficult as it was to admit my errors, the experience with failure was extremely valuable. The next business I bought was more scalable, easier to execute, and not restricted by season, cash cycle, or geography.”

Change your perspective.

Be thankful for the Beta tests. Trial 1,002 will work out because 1,001 shortcomings contributed to it. Do you think Bill Gates cries himself to sleep at night when he remembers all the attempts that did not make a tech giant? Of course not, and neither will you.

Be gracious with others.

Leaders do not react to mistakes by blaming and berating employees. Leaders respond quickly to problems with actions, solutions, and training.

Remember that you are human and so are your employees. Want to keep innovators on your team and creative ideas flowing? Address the issue, learn from it, and move forward.

Be gracious with yourself.

Upset that you haven’t accomplished everything you said you would by the age you are now? Relax. Most people drastically underestimate the amount of time a business will need to be successful. Keep setting high goals, write them down, post them in a visible location, and revise as needed.

On days when nothing seems to work, look back at what your company was in the very beginning. Have a good laugh and keep working.

Be vulnerable.

Honesty with employees and customers is essential for building trust and loyalty.

Let employees know that mistakes are an important part of productivity. Discuss some of your own mistakes and the positive results that came from addressing problems effectively.

Be honest with your customers and they become loyal patrons. “We noticed a discrepancy in an order after it had left our warehouse,” says Robison. “The missing item was shipped immediately and the customer was notified of our error. He was impressed by the honesty and expediency with which the potential problem was handled, and has continued to be a faithful customer.”

At Sqwiggle, we love the idea of building content that’s helpful and lasts. It’s something that is of the core of our entire organization. We’ve been thinking hard recently on how we can create this content in an informative way that supports startups and their lofty endeavors. One way of doing this is by capturing one small portion of our daily strategic product and marketing discussions. We talk many times throughout the day, but even a small piece of that is a great glimpse into our daily lives as founders. We’ve decided to upload these discussions to YouTube in a series we call “Sqwiggle Sessions”.

These discussions are a great way of showing the world the ups and downs of building a business. Yes, the good and the bad. We feel this will be beneficial in cultivating a culture of openness within our own company and potentially giving other companies and founders some interesting ideas on doing the same within theirs.

There are definitely some concerns with this approach. We’ve taken steps to ensure that the potential negative repercussions are stopped by delaying really important strategic product discussions by 6 to 8 weeks so that sensitive information is protected. This is for the best interest of our employees, our product and our shareholders. The goal is to be open and informative, not foolish.

Sqwiggle is an experiment in itself and we feel that the Sqwiggle Sessions will be a great avenue to promote a new level of excitement and sharing. As with any experiment of this nature, it can be scary but that’s where YOU come in. We need your help in building the community around this idea. This may not be the perfect implementation, but any step in promoting the open, informative nature of great content building is a step in the right direction.

We understand that this is not for everyone but as founders of Sqwiggle, a company built on higher levels of collaboration within the remote work paradigm, this is a great avenue to get our message and thoughts to the world.

The telecommuting revolution has people flocking to their homes, local coffee shops, and any public place where free Wi-Fi can be shamelessly siphoned around the clock. Start-ups, mega companies, and even the CIA offer full time or part time alternatives to gray cubicles and beige conference rooms; some head executives have also transitioned from the corporate office to the house, kitchen table, or, in the case of Virgin’s Richard Branson, to a privately owned island in the Caribbean.

Despite the increase in high bandwidth connections, innovative devices, and the mass production of Snuggies, one will not frequently see empty corporate parking lots crumbling under 80 story buildings in post-apocalyptic decay.

Given that research confirms the increased productivity and employee satisfaction that accompanies remote working, why are some businesses still corralling their people with nine to fives?

It’s Just Not for Everyone

Naturally, not every task can be performed from a laptop. Manufacturers, construction workers, and even poor NBA players still have to suffer through the long commute. Regardless of what half of the movies of the last decade have shown us, the justice system will always require at least a few non-cyborg humans to police the streets.

And, if I needed an operation, I probably would avoid a hospital in which doctors and nurses on webcams instructed me through performing my own surgical procedures. I am fairly certain I don’t have the steady hands required for the job, and I just can’t reach some places.

Perception is Everything

Working from home still conjures negative images for some executives. Unless professionals are visually accessible, bosses may question whether a telecommuter is really on task or playing Grand Theft Auto for hours in his basement. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, quipped on remote working; “We all know that is basically sitting wondering whether to go down to the fridge to hack off that bit of cheese before checking your emails again.”

Appearance and attire can create additional negative stigmas, particularly in companies with only a minor percentage of telecommuters. Conducting a video conference from home dressed in your best Star Trek uniform may not garner much respect from the room full of suits and ties on the other end of the feed. Brilliant ideas aside, your less-than-professional wardrobe could delay your next promotion.

It’s the Little Things in Communication that Build Culture

Patrick Pichette of Google and organizational specialist John Seely Brown give high regard to informal “water cooler” conversations that move ideas through an office. Some remote workers are less likely to engage in non-essential conversations, which can decrease the flow of communication.

Sociometric Solutions, created in an MIT media lab, uses technological and analytical tools to capture comprehensive views of how organizations function. CEO Ben Waber stated, “Digital communication tends to be very good for planned interactions, like formal meetings. But a lot of the value of working with people comes from all those interactions that you didn’t plan.”

Chief executive Marissa Mayer ended telecommuting for Yahoo in an effort to regroup and resuscitate the ailing company. Loss of accountability and trust resulted in empty offices on Fridays and decreased logins from many remote employees.

Realistically, not everyone will choose to embrace telecommuting. Though respecting the connection that can happen when a group shares a physical space, John Seely Brown has also shown that widely distributed remote networks often work well. Companies with healthier communication practices use digital technologies to share information as much as they do in person.

Whether 12 inches or 12 time zones separate a CEO from her team, some people just won’t get along. Success from close or distant proximity will inevitably stem from effective communication flowing throughout the collective whole.

Working from home is awesome. I enjoy working the entire day in my pajamas just as much as the next person, but in all seriousness, this lifestyle goes much deeper than that.

Health is a major factor in remote working.

Realistically, any sedentary lifestyle requires some measure of additional planning, but remote working comes with extra temptation that must be addressed. Here are 12 resourceful ways to enhance your health in your remote journey!

1. Avoid Passive Snacking Because You’re at Home

I’ve found that when working at home, my tendency to snack can elevate to serious levels of fruit loop induced gluttony. I’m no psychologist, but I believe there’s something about positioning myself near a consistent source of food which weighs heavily on my mind when I’m sitting at home. Maybe it’s just nature. Whatever it is, be aware that it does exist and fight the temptation to overindulge.

2. Traveling is Not an Excuse to Go Crazy

I travel quite a bit. It’s easy to fall into a trap of believing that for a limited time of travel, a bad diet is okay when in reality, it’s not. According to this great article, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine says that increased travel in business people can cause a host of health related issues including high cholesterol and blood pressure.

Travel is a great opportunity to expand your horizons, but not at the expense of your health. Get your travel snacking and fast food eating under control.

3. Safe-Guard Your Mind from Loneliness

Spending too much time at home can lead to a lifestyle of social isolation and ultimately, cause numerous issues regarding your health both mentally and physically. This post on the Time Magazine blog states, “social contact can have profound physiological effects. Simply holding a loved one’s hand lowers blood pressure and reduces pain, for example. Studies show that lack of affectionate physical contact is associated with higher levels of stress hormones and inflammation.”

Our team at Sqwiggle keeps in touch all day to reduce loneliness among team members. Remote working can become an increasingly lonely lifestyle and if not addressed, can lead to depression and physical distress.

4. Get Your Company Involved

It’s important for any company with remote employees to deeply understand the unique needs and daily struggles of their workforce. Conversely, as a team member, it’s your responsibility to work with your employer to make your remote experience as positive and enjoyable as possible.

In this great article, writer Adam Bluestein tells an amazing story of an innovative team of software developers in Massachusetts who ultimately decided to spend their summer together in Brazil. The awesome initiative would’ve never have happened if the employees wouldn’t have pushed the issue and created a compelling case to their boss. It’s in everyone’s best interest to promote employee happiness among the team and this is definitely true for remote teams.

5. Measure Your Success

One key to any fitness or health initiative is proper measurement to ensure progress is being made. Tools like Fitbit and Nike Fuel Band are a great start to track your steps, calories and total mileage while walking or engaging in physical exercise!

6. Find the Ways Remote Working Can Promote Health and Use Them

Remote working comes along with certain freedoms that classic offices can’t afford. One of those freedoms is the ability to shift your schedule and work exercise and health related activities into your daily flow. My perfect day consists of exercise in the mid-afternoon, followed by smoothies throughout the day using my NutriBullet. Find your perfect rhythm and jump in!

7. Educate Yourself and Know the Risks

One core part of any new lifestyle is knowing the health risks involved and remote working has several of them. Get your hands dirty and do some research to learn about other’s experiences. Remote work is still a fairly new concepts so it takes proper study to really know what you’re getting into. Quora is a great resource to get started.

8. Stand Up!

Standing desks are the new craze among remote workers. According to this article, “a 2010 study by the American Cancer Society found that women who sat more than six hours a day were 37% more likely to die prematurely than women who sat for less than three hours, while the early-death rate for men was 18% higher”. Standing for the majority of your day is a great way to keep your muscles engaged and your metabolism moving.

9. Experiment and Get Involved

One way to stay active both mentally and physically is to seek out the latest innovations in the world of health. Testing equipment and techniques, then finding out what’s possible and relating those findings to your particular situation is an awesome way to stay healthy and vibrant within the fitness community. Getting involved with others who are excited about health and innovation can naturally keep you accountable and improve your livelihood over time.

10. Spend More Time Outside

Remote work does come along with the freedoms mentioned above but, those freedoms should be used well. Sometimes, it’s nice to step outside and smell the fresh air. This article by the Harvard Health Letter makes the point that spending more time outside carries several key benefits from more increased levels of vitamin D to concentration and mood improvement. Needless to say, being outside the house is nothing but a good thing.

11. Maintain Good Posture

Posture carries big weight when it comes to your overall health. The Kansas Chiropractic Foundation states, “Without good posture, your overall health and total efficiency may be compromised. Because the long-term effects of poor posture can affect bodily systems (such as digestion, elimination, breathing, muscles, joints and ligaments), a person who has poor posture may often be tired or unable to work efficiently or move properly.” Posture is important so maintain healthy posture and thrive!

12. Keep Your Workspace Consistent

Stress can play a big part of everyone’s professional career but it’s not ideal. One key factor in workplace stress is a space that is contrary to the way you work. I’m not saying that a messy office is wrong. Actually, the opposite! Keeping your space consistent with your workflow is important to enhancing productivity. If you’re a chaotic worker that thrives in a messy space, then by all means, keep your space messy! The goal is to stay consistent in your work environment and reduce the stress that a strange space can bring.

No matter what you do as a remote worker, the goal of staying healthy and vibrant is core to the success of your journey. Keep lean and monitor yourself regularly. Involve others in your daily activities and stay away from the natural reclusive behaviors that remote working can bring. If you follow my steps and add some steps of your own, remote work can open you up to amazing levels of freedom and happiness!

By Devin Holmes from Go Fish Digital

Like many, I had to rethink my career choices shortly after the height of the recession in 2008. Trying to earn a living in the blue-collar arena after 2008 was just not going to happen for me. I thought I’d try my hand at something that played to my strong points, and being that I’ve always been fairly artistic, design seemed like a good fit. Plus, I figured if the main tool of the trade is a MacBook, I could work from anywhere, even from home. This would obviously allow me to travel and spend more time with my wife and two little girls.

Shortly after graduation, I applied to a few big ad agencies here in Cleveland unsuccessfully. Although I had spent years of my life completely dedicated to learning the trade, working an internship at a nationally acclaimed ad agency (and even doing quite a bit of freelancing to boot), agencies still just weren’t that interested in hiring someone with no substantial industry experience.

Distraught and confused, I ended up taking a job at a local restaurant franchise working in the corporate office as an in-house designer for significantly less than my salary requirements – but hey, at least it was work, right? I figured I could use this as a stepping stone. Unfortunately, the downsides far outweighed the perks.

First of all, I’m not much for driving, so the bus ride each day was long and arduous. Spending the first 20 minutes or so of my day being hammered with rain, wind, snow and nearly frost bitten is not my idea of a good morning. The hours were long and the work was tedious and repetitive. And, to top it off, I had to do it all wearing my Sunday best. This was not what I envisioned when I went into this field.

Despite the fact that we all came into the office each day to do our work, I realized there was a consistent lack of communication. The corporate office was not that large. There were really only six or seven of us at a given time, but the communication was terrible. Everyone was trying to use their own communication system and they often clashed.

“I wasn’t even aware of that.” became a very common excuse for not getting work done. To further illustrate the inefficiencies, my direct boss (well, one of three!) actually lived in LA and flew to Cleveland once a month for a week or two at a time. He tried to communicate with everyone via Evernote, and occasionally scheduled Facetime meetings, but often, Facetime would fail to connect and my coworkers would not (or could not) implement Evernote into their routine.

But it was a job, so I put my head down and got to work. Meanwhile, my dream of being free as a bird, able to work from anywhere, work while travelling, and spending more time with my family was far from being realized. I just couldn’t comprehend why I had to commute for an hour each morning and each evening while dressed in a suit and tie just to sit on my buns in front of a computer? This was something I could do just as well, if not better, from the comfort of my home.

I can’t tell you how many times I pushed my then-employer for a remote position, but to no avail.

Luckily, one of my long-time freelance clients, Go Fish Digital, a quickly growing SEO firm in the Washington, DC area was in need of a remote full-time designer. Needless to say I jumped at the opportunity. A quick interview later, and I was officially named the lead designer for Go Fish Digital.

I was told, “We use an app called Sqwiggle for collaboration. It uses everyone’s webcams constantly so we can collaborate faster.”

I’d never heard of the program and wasn’t sure what to make of this, but whatever it took to work remotely from home, I was game.

Fast forward to a few months of using Sqwiggle. I can honestly say, I barely notice that little green light indicating my cam is on. It’s made collaboration with my coworkers extremely easy and allows us to work much faster than in a traditional office environment separated by doors and partitions. Just a quick “bee-do” chime, and I am asking questions and getting answers. It’s also been an extremely useful tool for posting links that the whole team can see. This way, there are no stragglers in our daily agenda. I think it’s pretty funny that I can work with a team that is 400 miles away more smoothly than a team only a few feet from my desk. One of the partners at Go Fish Digital actually lives in Florida, some 1000+ miles away from my home.

I can’t help but think, “Why isn’t everyone doing this?” If we were all using Sqwiggle, we could increase office communication, save the environment from tons of petro chemical exhaust from commutes, spend more time with our families, and (insert drumroll) even work in our PJ’s! If it weren’t for this awesome little app, I’d either be (a) Still stuck in a stuffy corporate office, or (b) Out of work due to the job market here in Cleveland.

Photo Credit: peasap

Author Bio

Remote work is a great lifestyle choice for some free-spirited employees that love the feeling of ownership and freedom it can bring. It’s one thing to offer remote working as a secondary option for work in the classic office setting, but it’s another to completely build a team around the idea with talented people from around the world. According to this study, remote working is on the rise. As of June 2011, approximately 2.5% of the entire U.S. workforce are considered remote employees.

Why would anyone do this? Is it really viable to build a team of smart people from all around the world and work from home or coffee shops?

First, for anyone that’s new to the idea, let’s start with a quick definition. What is a distributed team? Wikipedia defines the term as, “a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology.”

When we think of team collaboration in context of an “officeless” environment where communication is a challenge, it’s important to understand why companies choose this lifestyle and how they’re accomplishing a high level of success in the process.

Jeff Robbins, CEO of Lullabot said it best, “As a fully distributed company, it's built into our DNA to avoid remote worker alienation. We bend over backwards to make our team feel connected and involved in the company. Being a good proactive communicator is a requirement for any job at Lullabot.” It’s safe to say, great communication is the number one factor in the success of any remote team, no matter how large or small.

If remote work is truly on the rise and companies are adopting the idea of fully distributing their teams, who are these companies? How can we dig into their story and find out what works for them? Which tools are they using to optimize communication? Of the hundreds of remote teams, here are just a few that you might recognize.

KISSmetrics is a company centered on building a great customer oriented metrics platform for SaaS businesses. Currently, their team consists of several dozen team members, most of which work from home with heavy reliance upon video technologies to supplement physical presence whenever possible.

Automattic, provider of the world’s largest blogging platform Wordpress, is one of the most exciting fully distributed teams with ~200 employees located all over the world. Their website states, “Because of the geographic variance, we’re active pretty much 24/7. We care about the work you produce, not just the hours you put in.” Automattic is a great example of what’s possible when companies push the bar and build innovative team culture, regardless of location. The Automattic team relies heavily on P2, an internal Wordpress blog for asynchronous communication.

Treehouse, a company that’s teaching web design and development in a more interactive way is also a distributed team with 50+ team members located around the US and UK. Co-founder and CEO, Ryan Carson discusses his thoughts on work habits in this post. “People are smart and motivated and want to succeed. We presume that about people. We’re demanding, and we’ll fire people if they don’t perform. But you have to institute practices, and not just say that you believe in personal time.”

MySQL - If you’re not sure what MySQL is, you may have been living under a rock. The internet basically runs on it but you may also find it interesting that the development team behind this very popular, open source database is also completely distributed. With more than 400 employees located in 40 countries around the world and most of them working from home, this very innovative team is truly pushing the bar of what’s possible within the distributed team paradigm.

Buffer - Buffer is a great app, built to schedule your social media updates for the most optimal times throughout the day. I use it everyday without fail and it’s great. Buffer is a small, lean and completely distributed team that often takes advantage of the freedom that comes with the ability to work anywhere and everywhere.

Having worked in cities around the world like Hong Kong and Tel Aviv, the Buffer team regards the ability to work remotely and travel as a major asset in enjoying their work. “At the end of the day, we are most focused about just enjoying ourselves, having fun and practicing being happy. That’s what will all make us do our best work.”, says Leo Widrich, Co-founder of Buffer.

Github, a powerful tool for code collaboration is also built under a highly distributed team. The team consists of ~60% distributed team members. As stated in this awesome blog post by Jessica Stillman, “Employees have the freedom to go to Brazil for a week and work and not miss anything, which I think is really great as far as the company culture goes.” says Jon Maddox, a Github developer.

It’s clear there are major advantages to distributing your team and relying upon technology to remove the gap in communication between team members. Companies everywhere are looking toward the future and implementing team distribution techniques in their hiring and company culture.

It’s important to realize that companies are using this methodology and applying it into their daily workflow and finding major success in hiring great people and collaborating in real, tangible ways regardless of physical location.

It can be done because real teams are doing it.

Today we're very happy to announce that Sqwiggle has closed a $1.1million round of seed funding from an incredible group of investors, we did a quick video interview with TechCrunch too.

Raising a round of funding is incredibly hard, and in a lot of ways we landed on our feet and had an easier job than many other new companies do thanks to Naval and the AngelList Syndicates product. Despite this, it's still incredible how many people it takes to go from the idea of raising to actually closing! We've never sat at tables with so many smart people and had so much help from people we admire.

Inspired by Walter Chen's blog post we thought it would be appropriate to give gratitude to all of those that helped in making the round happen including but not limited to...

Artur Adib

Ash Fontana

Babak Nivi

Ben Lewis

Brett deMarrais

Chris Evdemon

David Kopf

Davy Kestens

Deng-Kai Chen

Devdutt Yellurkar

Dharmesh Shah

Dustin Dolginow

Ed Roman

Elad Gil

Greg Kumparak

Howard Lindzon

John Reinsch

Jonathon Triest

Kamal Ravikant

Laney Thornton

Mark Tomlinson

Mary Kate Bacalao

Mickey Du

Mike Collett

Nabeel Hyatt

Naval Ravikant

Ryan Boyce

Rahul Prakash

Rafael Corrales

Ted Serbinski

Wade Foster

Walter Chen

All our customers and beta users!

So What Now?

The most important thing on our immediate horizon is to build an incredible product for distributed and remote companies, and to do that we need a passionate and talented team.

We're hiring right now so if the thought of changing the way thousands (perhaps millions) of people work everyday floats your boat then please drop us an email!

As a business owner, I receive my fair share of negative feedback. I can tell you specific times when I’ve even gotten upset because one person of many using my product decides it’s not quite up to par and sends their particularly negative review. In the beginning, I would take this feedback as a personal attack.

I can promise you, there’s no benefit in that approach.

Whether you’re a business owner, executive or employee, I’ve found that embracing negative feedback can be a powerful tool of self analysis which will ultimately help optimize the day to day workflow and social interaction within your specific role.

I’ve found an extreme amount of value in negative feedback from customers, friends and onlookers who regard your work or product as a “poor experience”. Viewing negative feedback from a learning perspective and treating it as valuable will train you to better understand the needs of coworkers, customers and even friends. A healthy view of this feedback will bring you or your product through the gauntlet of strength training exercises which will only result in a higher quality offering.

"It's very important to actively seek out and listen very carefully to negative feedback. This is something people tend to avoid because it's painful." -Elon Musk

Why is negative feedback valuable?

Negative feedback is valuable for a number of reasons, most of which are difficult to see while you’re in the moment of receiving it. First, I’d like to start off by saying that particularly brutal feedback is always difficult to hear in the beginning. It’s an exercise in stretching your “humility muscle” and, in most situations, isn’t something that you’ll instantly see as valuable. Looking back on my experience, my first inclination was to get angry and respond with a sarcastic tone.

Not a good idea.

If handled properly, negative feedback can bring a strong sense of self awareness centered on your work, product and leadership qualities. Taking what you’ve learned and following it will always lead to a path of personal growth and success. All of the great entrepreneurs throughout history have embraced negative feedback and ultimately, learned how to grow successful businesses based on the needs of their customers.

Because you’ve been blessed with the amazing gift of being human, it’s important to realize that no one is perfect and everything you do will not always result in a win. Feedback is your strongest meter to determine whether or not something is working and more importantly, not working. If you decide to embrace it, negative feedback can be an extremely powerful tool in leading you in the right direction, which will help you avoid repetitive failure and land more wins than losses.

In our first release of our product Sqwiggle, we received hundreds of support tickets requesting a few key features that were left out of the first release. Some of these features helped people ultimately decide to stop using our product which at the time, really sucked. If we didn’t embrace the huge amounts of early negative feedback, we would’ve never shifted our thinking to add some of the requested features.

In moments like this, it’s important to defend your line of thinking to a certain point but when the feedback is overwhelming from people you know and trust, it becomes time to re-examine your thinking. I’m not advocating the ridiculous notion of changing what you believe based on a every line of feedback that comes through the door, but there is definitely a fine balance of truth in numbers. Good feedback, no matter how negative, carries a bit of truth and should be valued and tested against your gut belief and vision.

I can tell you definitively that there are some features that we strategically left out of Sqwiggle and still haven’t added them because they’re not a right fit for our use case even though we received several requests. Nonetheless, in a public facing support environment, people know what they want and just want the satisfaction of being listened to. That’s it.

Whether you’re running a business or receiving candid feedback from a dear friend, good support is just that, support. Take the good with the bad and move forward in humility. You’ll never go wrong.

How should I respond to negative feedback?

Sometimes people are just downright mean. Let’s face it, we can all get somewhat grouchy when we’re frustrated over what we perceive as someone’s failure. So the question is, what’s the best way to respond in situations where people are angry or frustrated?

Empathy

Putting yourself in the person’s shoes will quickly give you access to their mindset in relation to your work or product. Seeing the frustration from their eyes is the best way to handle the problem and move forward with a solid solution. This approach also opens you up to a deeper understanding of your weaknesses, which leads to amazing personal and professional growth.

Value Their Input

Showing people that their time in giving honest feedback was well spent is a great way to emphasize that they’re being heard in a strong enough way and could potentially impact your daily process and workflow. This is a great way to put their mind at ease while opening your thought process to new ideas and solutions.

Don’t Take Feedback Too Seriously

At the end of the day, we’re all just people. There are more important things to stress out about than someone’s frustration with you and your work. This is planet Earth and there are real problems that need to be addressed. If the pressure gets to be too much, step away and spend time with your family or friends. Sometimes letting someone’s negative input roll off your back is the best way to stay focused while not being preoccupied with stress.

Humility

Last but not least, stay humble in your response. People can tell when you carry a sarcastic tone and conversely, they can spot humility a mile away. Realize that when you respond to someone, you’re representing more than just yourself. If you work for a large organization, you’re representing them in everything you do. If the person is already frustrated, responding in a sarcastic tone will only ensure their lifetime dislike of everything you stand for. Can you really afford that kind of negativity? I can’t. Staying humble assures that you’re always in check and you seriously never know when a bad reply will come around and bite you in the butt.

Conclusion

Feedback is one of the most powerful assets you have. Learning how to use it to your advantage can help propel your work to a higher level of greatness. Respect the person that’s providing you with the valuable gift of correction because they’ve taken their time to do so. Stay humble in your responses and learn everything you can from what they’re telling you. It all comes back to humility.

Marissa Meyer may disagree with us, but here at Sqwiggle, we believe remote working is the future, though it's still far from being the standard. The technology sector still needs to adapt in a lot of ways, but it seems to be an inevitability from where we're standing.

Technological Limitations

Since computers became the standard workplace tool, we've been confined to the desk where the computer lives. In a sense, a slave to our own technology. This wasn't a choice but a necessity, as real computing power required large fans, bulky drives and CRT monitors.

This marriage to the desk wasn't our natural state but an evolutionary step. Fast-forward to today and mobility is king. Laptops are so light we hardly notice them in our backpacks and tablets have become just as powerful as desktop machines, capable of the same level of computation. This seemingly natural push towards mobility is a direct result of the freedom we lost when we became chained to our desks during the latter part of the last century.

It's About Freedom

Remote working is about freedom. We enjoy having a physical and social connection with the ones we work with, but this usually means being forced to commute to an office and being shackled to a desk from 9 to 5.

The future of remote working is about maintaining these social positives that come with the office setting while enabling the freedom that comes with being able to work where you want. We always keep this in the back of our minds when building Sqwiggle. Our goal is to help create a future where working your day job doesn't mean sacrificing your freedom.

Working With Time Zones

Time zones are still a natural enemy of remote working and, aside from altering the Sun's gravitational pull, there's not much we can do about it. Overlap is key but can be unfair since some may be required to work strange hours. Because of this, asynchronous communication is a natural compliment to real-time synchronous communication. It's important to keep a line of discussion (other than email!) open so collaboration can still happen, even when work days aren't overlapping.

At Sqwiggle we use P2 for our asynch communication. It's been working well for us so I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Do Your Part

The future of remote working is bright but it's up to us to help steer it in the right direction. Don't be like Yahoo!. Roll the dice and hire remote workers. The talent pool you have access to when hiring remote is immense and, with the right tools, company culture can remain intact.

We’re very excited to release support for one of the most requested features on Sqwiggle today - workrooms!

Sqwiggle was originally designed to support only small (~10 user) teams but we soon started receiving a lot of feedback that Sqwiggle would be great for larger teams too. This is where multiple workrooms comes on - so how does it work?

How it Works

Workrooms are accessed from a new menu at the top left of the app, simply click on a workroom name to enter it. Each company can have any number of workrooms for team members to use. For example, you might want to create a room for meetings or have rooms for developers, designers, projects, location or any other split that makes sense for your team.

Remote work while staying productive can be a difficult lifestyle, especially without a persistent office as an anchor point in our team’s culture. Recently, one of life’s little electric moments slapped me in the face and forced me to pack up my San Francisco apartment to better spend my time in the greener pastures of travel.

As someone who works as part of a distributed team, I’d like to share the struggles, successes and big wins that come along with this gypsy lifestyle and avoiding the classic office mode of thinking.

Changing Environments, the Good and Bad

One of the major difficulties in building a distributed team is the ever changing work environment. One day it’s a coffee shop and the next day it’s your neighbor’s back porch. Without an office, it’s easy to get confused and irritated with your mixed surroundings.

I’m a person that enjoys familiarity and working without an office can be a drain on my productivity so, it takes a bit of creativity to make me feel at home. Here are a few things that will help you feel good about your surroundings.

a) Focus on your computer setup, instead of the actual space you’re in.

b) Video conference with co-workers for long periods of time and create a familiar space in doing so.

c) Turn out the lights. As I’m writing this, the lights are out which helps me forget my surroundings. The dark becomes a familiar place.

My Computer is Now My Most Familiar Environment and That’s Okay

I’ve now shifted my thinking from the idea that physical work space holds any importance over my Mac’s desktop and browser, which have now become my primary focus of comfort and consistency.

This new shift in thinking naturally helps me set new, lowered expectations for my physical surroundings while putting all the emphasis on my mac setup which I can control, ie: dock icons, desktop wallpaper, gmail, etc. In thinking about my desktop as my new office, I can now feel comfortable at home, no matter where I go. Suddenly, physical work space becomes irrelevant.

Getting Used to Smaller Screen Real Estate

I don’t have access to a consistent office environment, so naturally, it’s not practical to carry my 27” Cinema Display everywhere I go. I’ve had to get used to the small real estate on my 15” Macbook Pro. One thing I can say is that I’m way more productive on a small screen. I believe the reason is because it requires me to prioritize my windows and brings more focus to the thing I’m working on instead of giving me the temptation to leave my task prematurely. Getting used to smaller screens is an important aspect of successfully avoiding the office environment because it allows you to stay light on your feet and work from anywhere, seamlessly.

My Backpack is Now Way More Valuable

I’ve specifically noticed that, since I’m putting way more emphasis on my computer, my backpack is a major point of focus in keeping it safe from harm. I find myself taking it everywhere and not leaving it in random places like I used to. Since my computer is now my primary mechanism for communication, productivity and work, I’m way more specific in where I leave it laying around.

A New Understanding in Focus

I’ve found that working without the comfort of an office is slowly training me to stay focused, even in the most annoying situations. For example, the other night my friends decided to play board games but I chose to work instead. I literally sat next to their board game table with headphones and worked the night away without a hiccup. The old me would not have been able to maintain focus in this kind of distracting environment.

Conclusion

Working without an office is difficult to say the least but I promise, it can be done. Staying focused is the biggest challenge of any remote worker, especially those who do not have access to a secluded area they can call home. It’s important to stay creative and positive when you’re living the gypsy life of being a remote worker. The only way to be successful in this lifestyle is by stretching beyond your comfort zone and working in places that make no sense. Doing this will train you and give you a new understanding in focus.

When using the Stream, you sometimes need to get the attention of a single person and, if they have busy mode enabled, this can be pretty challenging. So we created a feature called @mentions which allows you to reference another member of your team.

How it works

Simply begin typing the name of the user you want to reference and you’ll see a list popup with all possible team mates:

Simply click the name or press the tab / return key while they are highlighted and voila!

You can also reference a user using the at symbol:

Notifications

When you reference another member of your workroom, they receive an optional desktop notification and/or an email. These notifications can be customized in the notifications pane:

Just thinking back on my personal experience, I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum; the (remote) employer and the employee. Both experiences have had their ups and downs but one thing that always comes back around is micromanagement and how it can kill the team’s momentum and creativity. Micro management is a disease that must be recognized and stopped quickly.

An employee’s greatest asset is their unique perspective on a difficult problem but when an employer dictates every detail of the execution, it can suppress the employee’s unique signature and put into question the value they bring to the company.

In thinking through the pitfalls of micro management, specifically for remote teams, I’d like to offer my thoughts on why it exists and how to stop it.

“You don’t manage people, you manage things. You lead people.” -Grace Hopper

Why is it so tempting?

As someone whose company operates as a remote team, it can be incredibly tempting to fall into the practice of micro management. It’s important to realize that the remote lifestyle isn’t always the most simple pathway to success and real difficulties within team communications exist. These communication problems can lead into an anxious and desperate need to increase collaboration in whatever way possible. If not stopped, this desperate feeling will ultimately lead you down the path of micro management.

I can promise there are solutions to help ease the temptation.

1. Create Boundaries

A great way of stopping the need to micromanage is by creating natural boundaries that you will not cross. Place major emphasis on these boundaries from a productivity standpoint. Hold yourself to this standard and do not cross it. For example, decide that you absolutely will not dictate the design specifics (color, spacing, etc) to your UI designer. Don’t hold back from questioning the motives behind their design, but don’t dictate pixel spacing. If you do this, you will be breaking a very important boundary, not to mention it could destroy the credibility and respect you’ve worked hard to build while disrupting the creative spirit of your designer. Setting these boundaries beforehand will help you realize what you’re doing before you do it.

2. Hire Well

I’ve written in the past on the importance of hiring well but it’s such an important point, it’s worth noting again. Your team is the core of your organization. They deserve respect, honor and most importantly, trust. A deep understanding of this point will naturally lead you to become more selective in who you decide to work with. Setting a high bar for your team will help build the necessary trust and autonomy to drive your mind away from the need micro manage.

3. Learn to Trust

As mentioned in my previous point, it’s important to trust your team but sometimes this trust doesn’t come naturally. I would venture to guess, the sole root of micro management is a strong distrust for your team. When you’re struggling with trust, you should really examine yourself and find the root of the problem. You might find that it lies with your team. If so, then the answer is fairly simple. Find a new team.

Otherwise, it’s probably something you’re dealing with on a personal level and if that’s the case then do whatever it takes to fix it. Whether it’s talking to a counselor or just the simple act of exercising your trust muscle, there’s no place for team distrust in the fast paced world of business. Find it and fix it.

4. Increase Communication but Don’t Overwhelm

As mentioned before, if your team is mostly remote then you’ll probably notice some serious communication issues from time to time. It’s totally normal and nothing to worry about. Working through these issues just takes a bit of ingenuity and persistence.

Find creative methods that will increase communication in subtle ways so you don’t run the risk of shocking the system and creating chaos within your daily workflow. It’s easy to fall in the trap of over communicating when it’s really not necessary.

Slow down, be creative and focus on less but better communication.

Conclusion

Be very deliberate in creating a trust filled environment of happy remote workers. Make it your aim to allow creative freedom by increasing communication in clever but subtle ways. Micro management is a dangerous game that should be avoided at all cost. It’s highly tempting, especially in a remote environment but if you go down that path, you’ll ultimately regret it. This highly toxic method of management can slowly poison your creative workflow and destroy your team’s morale.