Another busy week working on well… stuff I can’t really talk about, so instead let’s talk more about the communication tools at We the Collective (WTC). We the Collective’s team spans across Canada and the USA and with such a large part being remote, it is important to stay in touch and create a community online to mimic an office environment. In order to accomplish such a team building environment, WTC uses a variety of different softwares for us to all get to know one another and keep up to date. We use Google for meetings, Teamwork for our projects – which the project management team keeps under control – and slack which is to imitate the feeling of an in office experience as one would’ve been like.
Teamwork which is the program used for all tasks and projects is one that I am still getting used to. It’s like a big to do list for everyone to keep on top of where they need to be and for the project management team to keep on top to see how fast things are getting done and and if designers, developers, etc. are able to complete a task within a given amount of time or if they need more or less. I say I’m still getting used to this as it is a big adjustment to write project updates. In-class check-ins are much different as those are scheduled and fully verbal. Whereas working with a mixed platform team,as much as it is nice to talk to the colleagues who are in the office with you, there still needs consideration for those living and working elsewhere who still need to be kept in the loop.
Slack on the other hand, is something I have gotten comfortable using. Whenever I have a question or a concern, I can reach out to whomever I think would have the time or the right answer. The WTC Slack channels have also been great to observe interactions with people I have met either online or in person and people I have yet to meet. There are also a bunch of channels that go towards sharing things with each other, like how much they liked the new Dune movie or a website that they found was great for inspiration. It’s all there and you can bet that I write anything down that I find cool or inspiring too.