Why remote work may be more fun in 2021
Four months ago, CreateFuture went remote - as many businesses did. Digital tools that previously enhanced our work became our work. Everything we now did as a company was mediated through technology.
We’re lucky - we’ve been able (with the help of our lovely clients) to thrive in this crisis. We’ve blogged about our experiences and what we’ve learnt. But like everyone, we’re facing a certain repetition in using the same sort of tools all day. Teams, Zoom, Meet, FaceTime are all basically the same and Zoom fatigue is real.
Because of this, we’ve been pleased to see there’s a lot of people who feel the same - and a lot of startups looking to make remote work better. We thought we’d take you through some the things we’re seeing out there. Given how quickly things are changing you may be seeing them in your work sooner than you think.
Making the meeting more fun.
One of the most frustrating things is the way that when presenting, you’re often unable to gauge reactions when all you have is a screen and your words. We have essentially all become makers of very low budget television shows for our customers and colleagues.
In response, Mmhmm - developed by the ex CEO of Evernote is a breath of fresh air. The ability to place ourselves in the video - to point to elements, to have ourselves as newscasters in our own mini news reports, and much more are very exciting. Check the video below.
The popular live streamer software OBS (being open source it’s very open to experimentation) is also worth keeping an eye on. Paul Ford’s piece on it in Wired is a good introduction to it - and also gets to the heart of why Zoom isn’t enough. Also on the experimentation front, some such as Matt Webb (technologist ex-R/GA and GDS) have been experimenting with home live annotation of video, and of course, there’s the folks who’ve mocked up their own low tech green screen. Perhaps when some of us are back in the office, a green wall might seem a shrewd investment?
Stop, collaborate and listen
It’s not just the presentation that needs to be examined. Working together while not together, it’s harder to collaborate. Office suites (e.g. Microsoft Office or Google Suite) don’t allow for the same level of collaboration you get from being in the same place as someone else. They’re designed to enhance, not replace office working.
Here the most inspiring demo that things could be better comes from MakeSpace. Their site promises a way of getting people and work together on the same screen. It feels natural, flexible and very efficient. I suggest you sign up.
It’s pleasing to see that VCs have realised there’s much potential here - there’s a lot happening (and getting funded).
Worthy of mention among those who’ve picked up seed money include….
Clubhouse - An audio based social network with break out rooms for smaller groups
Loom - A video chat/messaging hybrid
Around - A persistent video chat app which integrates with your desktop"
Screen - A collaborative screen sharing tool “Like Google Docs for everything”
/Talk - “An anti-meeting tool for fast, decentralised conversations”
I’m sure there are others. There’s a lot of money to be made in how we’re working now.
Events are not just speakers
The final thing that’s under scrutiny is the world of events. There have been many very successful virtual events under lockdown. Without the need to travel, some have even attracted bigger crowds than they would otherwise. But a series of speakers or panels isn’t an event. As Ben Evans points out:
“The only part of that bundle that obviously works online today is the content. It’s really straightforward to turn a conference presentation or a panel into a video stream, but none of the rest is straightforward at all. First, we haven’t worked out good online tools for many of the reasons people go to these events. Most obviously, we don’t have any software tool for bumping into people in the same field by random chance and having a great conversation. No-one has ever really managed to take a networking event and put it online. You certainly can’t just make a text chat channel for everyone watching the video stream and claim that’s as the same as a cocktail party.”
He’s not wrong and a lot of people seem to be experimenting with trying to replicate these important parts of traditional events. These are probably the area furthest away from actual business models and things you can buy, but some interesting things are happening on the fringe.
Most of these are likely to give your IT department a heart attack. But mark our words, something will come out of these experiments on the fringe. There’s just too much stuff happening out there. We’ll continue to look at this area - keep an eye on our newsletter for some of this, and who knows, maybe next year we’ll see you in an Animal Crossing workshop. 😏