Half of our employees work remotely. We tell how we do it
In Puzzle English, work is organized so that almost all tasks can be performed remotely. About half of the employees work this way: we have people from Belarus, Ukraine, Ireland, France, Montenegro, and Thailand. Someone originally lives in another country, others moved in the process of work. A few more people in Russia, but not in Moscow. Today we will tell you how we organize processes so that the quality and efficiency of work are at a high level, no matter what.
About 20 people work in the office, and it is not necessary to be in it every day from 9 to 18: if necessary, you can work from home by prior arrangement. And at the very beginning of development, the company had no office at all: both the general director and all the developers and content compilers worked from home computers. The office was needed when the staff exceeded 20 people and it was necessary to organize a video studio for regular shooting of video lessons - they form the basis of the sections “Grammar” and “Teacher Method” .
For communication we used to use Skype , now - Slack . There are several chats by departments: for editors, about PR, smm, bugs, mobile applications, general and random - for communication on non-working topics. In Slack, you can write personal messages, and in order not to clog up general chats, you can reply to a specific message by opening a "thread" - then all answers will be hidden under the cat.
We use the free version, it is enough for a staff of 40 people, and we save all important files and correspondence separately, if necessary (after some time all correspondence is erased, storage is only on a paid account).
Another convenient feature of Slack is that you can mute chats if the information from them is not priority, but you need to follow the processes as a whole. Notifications are not distracting, and if you need to call someone specific, you just need to mention it via @, a unit will appear opposite the chat. You can also set the silent mode for a while so that only the number of unread messages appears, and the notifications themselves do not pop up - for example, if you need to record a screen or when you are negotiating on Skype.
To set tasks, monitor processes and work with bugs, we use Jira . There used to be Basecamp , but Jira is more convenient and provides more features: you can build releases, set urgency for tasks, and so on. For project management, some employees useTrello : there, for example, work is being done on partner placements and tracking tasks on our main Youtube channel , and in general it is optimal for personal use: set tasks for the day and mark their completion.
To make it more convenient to share screenshots, we use Monosnap : the images are uploaded to the server, you can instantly get a short link like take.ms/... or a code for embedding, you can make notes in the screenshot - select fragments of the image with a brush or frame, append text, set arrows. By the way, Monosnap also provides the ability to record a screencast of the screen along with sound, and the video is written immediately to a file, and even if you accidentally close the recording window without clicking “Save”, the video will not be lost.
If you encounter problems that are difficult to describe in words, we connect TeamViewer . It also helps if you need to reproduce a bug that is caught on only one device.
For layout there is Zeplin , which integrates with Slack. All layouts loaded into it appear in a separate chat, they are visible only to those who are subscribed to this chat. For joint development we use BitBucket .
Tech Support Enjoys Zendesk: in it you can make a bot that will respond when the specified conditions are met, there is support for the API, accepting applications via the phone, maintaining feedback and analyzing it. There are still priority groups, several channels from where the entire feedback flows from the site and mobile applications, triggers, many macros; Google Play feedback can also be received in it. Working with Zendesk is a topic for a separate article, and we will write about this later.
Plans, reports, publication schedules, shared task lists are maintained by Google Docs . It is quick and convenient: you can give access to commenting or editing, everything is available in real time. Files for general use are stored in Google Drive , editors of the Teacher Method use Dropbox .
These are all technical points, but what about discipline? We initially recruit those people who can and want to work remotely and are able or willing to learn how to do this. There is a rule: from 12 to 18 hours Moscow time you need to be online, the rest of the time you distribute yourself. You can work at night or early in the morning, most importantly - do your workload. Technical support is more difficult - you need to respond quickly, but those who are responsible for the content have a little more freedom of action. Anton and Nastya, who are recording videos for our Puzzle English Live channel , once worked for a couple of weeks from Cyprus, and they themselves are from Ivanovo.
Every Monday, in a general chat, the CEO throws a work plan for the upcoming week: a list of tasks in the Google Doc with links to Jira and a list of artists. This is a preliminary plan, it can change along the way - we are flexible and advocate for the quality of work, so if you need more time, then just transfer the task to the next week.
We have a list of employees and their phone numbers in case they have disappeared from the network for a long time. Naturally, pages on social networks are also known to everyone, you can write there. For the first disappearance from the radar we do not fine, but no one will allow this on a regular basis. In general, we try to warn in the general chat if there is a possibility of a lack of a network or some other problems. Additionally, we write in Slack status when we are absent and when we will be back, including before going on vacation.
With weekends, sick leave and holidays, by the way, everything is also flexible: if a person does not want to lie on the couch and can work, this is only a plus. In this case, you do not need to take a sick leave - it is convenient if you do not want to load the body with a trip in the subway, but there is a desire to continue working.
With motivation, everything is simple: as a rule, if a person does not like work, he leaves it, because without desire and love for his work in a remote place it is almost impossible to force yourself to work. Another issue is self-discipline. But when there is a clear time, when you should be online, as well as a very specific list of tasks for the day / week, a certain schedule is formed very quickly. In freelance, everything is different: there are no specific time frames except the deadline, so the schedule is set in a completely different way.
Separation from the team is not felt at all. This is what content marketer Mila Kotlyarova says:
“I have been working in the Puzzle remotely since its inception. It was never a problem to phone with Sasha (General Director) or other employees, discuss current tasks and plans. Chat is always open if I go out to the store or am on the road - I now live in Montenegro - I work on the phone. Office workers do not have any “advantages” - all decisions, discussions and pressing issues are duplicated in Slack, even if they had been discussed in detail at the meeting before. When I find myself in Moscow and have time, I go to the office and communicate with my colleagues.
I don’t know if I would have been as effective if I hadn’t worked remotely - in six years I spent a total of two weeks at the office and realized that it wasn’t mine. Most exhausting road, these 2-3 hours are best spent on work or personal projects. There are no problems with self-organization for a long time - I developed several rules and life hacks for myself that help me focus on work and not be distracted. Now, by the way, I’m sharing them in my Remote & Freelance channel . Timers like TomatoTimer and TMetric , for example , clearly setting tasks for the day and dividing work and leisure places help, for example . ”
We have a horizontal management system, so initially the main requirements for each employee are self-organization, initiative and the ability to take responsibility. All are equal, can offer their ideas and take on tasks that interest them. The editor can engage in SMM management, tester development, and so on. This is how growth occurs in the company: when a person is ready to learn new things and take on new tasks, he can move to another department to a new position or get more responsibility in his own.
The following articles tell you more about how to work with these features and in a previous writing, as a small staff makes content is measured in hundreds of hours of video and audio content.
We give readers of the blog a coupon of 500 rubles for buying a subscription, which includes 8 types of training and weekly newsletters about English grammar and vocabulary.
And for unlimited and eternal access to all the features of the site there is an “All Inclusive” tariff (the discount is not valid).
About 20 people work in the office, and it is not necessary to be in it every day from 9 to 18: if necessary, you can work from home by prior arrangement. And at the very beginning of development, the company had no office at all: both the general director and all the developers and content compilers worked from home computers. The office was needed when the staff exceeded 20 people and it was necessary to organize a video studio for regular shooting of video lessons - they form the basis of the sections “Grammar” and “Teacher Method” .
What services do we use for work
For communication we used to use Skype , now - Slack . There are several chats by departments: for editors, about PR, smm, bugs, mobile applications, general and random - for communication on non-working topics. In Slack, you can write personal messages, and in order not to clog up general chats, you can reply to a specific message by opening a "thread" - then all answers will be hidden under the cat.
We use the free version, it is enough for a staff of 40 people, and we save all important files and correspondence separately, if necessary (after some time all correspondence is erased, storage is only on a paid account).
Another convenient feature of Slack is that you can mute chats if the information from them is not priority, but you need to follow the processes as a whole. Notifications are not distracting, and if you need to call someone specific, you just need to mention it via @, a unit will appear opposite the chat. You can also set the silent mode for a while so that only the number of unread messages appears, and the notifications themselves do not pop up - for example, if you need to record a screen or when you are negotiating on Skype.
To set tasks, monitor processes and work with bugs, we use Jira . There used to be Basecamp , but Jira is more convenient and provides more features: you can build releases, set urgency for tasks, and so on. For project management, some employees useTrello : there, for example, work is being done on partner placements and tracking tasks on our main Youtube channel , and in general it is optimal for personal use: set tasks for the day and mark their completion.
To make it more convenient to share screenshots, we use Monosnap : the images are uploaded to the server, you can instantly get a short link like take.ms/... or a code for embedding, you can make notes in the screenshot - select fragments of the image with a brush or frame, append text, set arrows. By the way, Monosnap also provides the ability to record a screencast of the screen along with sound, and the video is written immediately to a file, and even if you accidentally close the recording window without clicking “Save”, the video will not be lost.
If you encounter problems that are difficult to describe in words, we connect TeamViewer . It also helps if you need to reproduce a bug that is caught on only one device.
For layout there is Zeplin , which integrates with Slack. All layouts loaded into it appear in a separate chat, they are visible only to those who are subscribed to this chat. For joint development we use BitBucket .
Tech Support Enjoys Zendesk: in it you can make a bot that will respond when the specified conditions are met, there is support for the API, accepting applications via the phone, maintaining feedback and analyzing it. There are still priority groups, several channels from where the entire feedback flows from the site and mobile applications, triggers, many macros; Google Play feedback can also be received in it. Working with Zendesk is a topic for a separate article, and we will write about this later.
Plans, reports, publication schedules, shared task lists are maintained by Google Docs . It is quick and convenient: you can give access to commenting or editing, everything is available in real time. Files for general use are stored in Google Drive , editors of the Teacher Method use Dropbox .
Discipline and motivation
These are all technical points, but what about discipline? We initially recruit those people who can and want to work remotely and are able or willing to learn how to do this. There is a rule: from 12 to 18 hours Moscow time you need to be online, the rest of the time you distribute yourself. You can work at night or early in the morning, most importantly - do your workload. Technical support is more difficult - you need to respond quickly, but those who are responsible for the content have a little more freedom of action. Anton and Nastya, who are recording videos for our Puzzle English Live channel , once worked for a couple of weeks from Cyprus, and they themselves are from Ivanovo.
Every Monday, in a general chat, the CEO throws a work plan for the upcoming week: a list of tasks in the Google Doc with links to Jira and a list of artists. This is a preliminary plan, it can change along the way - we are flexible and advocate for the quality of work, so if you need more time, then just transfer the task to the next week.
We have a list of employees and their phone numbers in case they have disappeared from the network for a long time. Naturally, pages on social networks are also known to everyone, you can write there. For the first disappearance from the radar we do not fine, but no one will allow this on a regular basis. In general, we try to warn in the general chat if there is a possibility of a lack of a network or some other problems. Additionally, we write in Slack status when we are absent and when we will be back, including before going on vacation.
With weekends, sick leave and holidays, by the way, everything is also flexible: if a person does not want to lie on the couch and can work, this is only a plus. In this case, you do not need to take a sick leave - it is convenient if you do not want to load the body with a trip in the subway, but there is a desire to continue working.
With motivation, everything is simple: as a rule, if a person does not like work, he leaves it, because without desire and love for his work in a remote place it is almost impossible to force yourself to work. Another issue is self-discipline. But when there is a clear time, when you should be online, as well as a very specific list of tasks for the day / week, a certain schedule is formed very quickly. In freelance, everything is different: there are no specific time frames except the deadline, so the schedule is set in a completely different way.
Team communication and career development
Separation from the team is not felt at all. This is what content marketer Mila Kotlyarova says:
“I have been working in the Puzzle remotely since its inception. It was never a problem to phone with Sasha (General Director) or other employees, discuss current tasks and plans. Chat is always open if I go out to the store or am on the road - I now live in Montenegro - I work on the phone. Office workers do not have any “advantages” - all decisions, discussions and pressing issues are duplicated in Slack, even if they had been discussed in detail at the meeting before. When I find myself in Moscow and have time, I go to the office and communicate with my colleagues.
I don’t know if I would have been as effective if I hadn’t worked remotely - in six years I spent a total of two weeks at the office and realized that it wasn’t mine. Most exhausting road, these 2-3 hours are best spent on work or personal projects. There are no problems with self-organization for a long time - I developed several rules and life hacks for myself that help me focus on work and not be distracted. Now, by the way, I’m sharing them in my Remote & Freelance channel . Timers like TomatoTimer and TMetric , for example , clearly setting tasks for the day and dividing work and leisure places help, for example . ”
We have a horizontal management system, so initially the main requirements for each employee are self-organization, initiative and the ability to take responsibility. All are equal, can offer their ideas and take on tasks that interest them. The editor can engage in SMM management, tester development, and so on. This is how growth occurs in the company: when a person is ready to learn new things and take on new tasks, he can move to another department to a new position or get more responsibility in his own.
The following articles tell you more about how to work with these features and in a previous writing, as a small staff makes content is measured in hundreds of hours of video and audio content.
If you want to pump English, come to us
We give readers of the blog a coupon of 500 rubles for buying a subscription, which includes 8 types of training and weekly newsletters about English grammar and vocabulary.
And for unlimited and eternal access to all the features of the site there is an “All Inclusive” tariff (the discount is not valid).