Communication

Overview

We made the decision pretty early on that we wanted to be a completely remote and distributed team, which comes with its own set of benefits and challenges.

The benefits are endless–we can seek out the best possible teammates to work with, regardless of where they’re located. Our team members have the freedom to make the best decisions for themselves–where they live, what hours they work.

That said, working remotely as part of a fully distributed team presents its own set of unique challenges. Without the structure of an office setting and the face time that comes with it, we need to be very intentional in how we communicate with one another.

Communication creates culture, and as part of a fully distributed team, the tools we choose to use are closely tied to our communication, and ipso–our culture. We believe that when you’re part of the team, you have two jobs: one is your role (handling support, writing code, marketing, etc) and the other is to help build and improve our culture. We’ve all contributed in some way here and as we grow it’s really important that new team members understand this when they join.

We’ve dedicated several pages to each of these topics to better document our guidelines and philosophy on them, because as a remote company, we believe documentation is key to our success–both as a business, and as a culture. See something that doesn’t match reality? Let us know! Send a DM to anyone on the team with questions–we’re all here to help : )

Internal Communication

Working remotely is integral to who we are, as it speaks to our core values of trust, autonomy, and no micro-managing. Every team member here is treated as a valued and respected individual–trusted to manage their time, projects, and contributions to SkyVerge.

That said, it can be tough to stay motivated and self-directed when you’re working in your own space, and our leadership spends a lot of time brainstorming ways to make sure our team always feels connected and supported. Our goal is always to make sure we’re setting our team up for success in every way possible, and documenting our philosophy on communication is a part of that.

Communicating effectively in a remote environment doesn’t mean that you have to “over-communicate,” or that your communication should only be work-related. More importantly, it means you’re responsible for asking questions when needed, participating in team discussions to help yourself and teammates improve, and if you think we can improve things, saying so.

It also means that you’ll need to be aware of where you stand — do you feel like your questions are being answered? That we’re on the same page with projects? That we’re connected and working in sync, or if we’re missing this? It’s important to be aware of the efficacy of our own communication and that we’re constantly seeking to improve it.  

If you feel like we’re missing the mark, bring it up with Max or Justin. We’re all responsible for building a great communication network and culture, and a portion of being part of SkyVerge is helping to build this structure. “Not my problem,” is not a phrase that’s part of our team vocabulary.  

With that context, head on over to the ‘Tools’ page to see the how behind our communication why.