Toolset and Workflow for Success

In an increasingly digital world, the remote office model offers a lot of flexibility and opens up new opportunities for companies and employees like 8reasons Digital . But how can we ensure efficiency, productivity, and team engagement without physical presence? I’d like to share some information how we enable to succeed as a remote office company.

The main tools we use as a UX+UI company

To ensure smooth collaboration within our UX+UI Design team, we rely on a powerful toolset that supports us in all key areas:

1. Figma : The most important tool for our work is Figma. We use it for concepts, UI designs, clickable prototypes, and design systems. It allows us to develop and share design ideas in real-time, fostering creativity and collaboration. When we are working on Design Files, everyone in the team can see the progress - it is live based and in combination with a communication Tool like Teams, we can create agreed things.
2. Miro : As a digital whiteboard platform, we use Miro for research, concept development, and documentation. It’s particularly valuable for visually representing ideas and collaborating on projects, even when we’re not in the same room. The best thing about it is, that also our customers get rights for editing and viewing the boards as guests. We use Miro every day, same like Figma. It is our garanty, that nothing gets lost about our work. And another good thing about it is: 100% transparency. In our meetings with our customers they get a fast proof of what happened so far.
3. 微软 Teams & Outlook: Communication is the backbone of our remote work model. Microsoft Teams serves as our primary communication platform for daily exchanges, meetings, and team collaboration, as well as workshops in combination with Miro. Yes, I know, there might be better tools but in the end it is the one and only tool for us. We kicked out Slack as a Chat-Tool, so all the team is using Teams for the daily communication. Always. And of course we use outlook as our eMail programm, also to manage meetings.
4. Adobe Creative Cloud: For creating icons, illustrations, and image editing, Adobe Creative Cloud is our standard. It provides us with the necessary tools to produce high-quality visual content. But to be honest: the licenses are very expensive and we need to think about if it makes sense to keep it. Figma already has the functionality to build vector graphics, the only thing is, it is not prepared for complex things like Illustrator.
5. absentify : Managing leave in a remote office can be challenging. With Absentify, a Teams add-on, we keep track of our team members' absences. We have approval processes behind, as well as reminders for birthdays. It is 100% free! By the way: when a new employee starts we can define, how many days for holiday are set in the contract as well as we can edit the days for the actual year (if someone starts f.e. in July). Easy to use!
6. Mite: Time tracking is essential for measuring productivity and managing projects efficiently. Mite helps us accurately document and evaluate working hours and keep an eye on the budget / hours we have signed with our customers. We can easily track the rest of the hours to notify our customers just in time, if we need more budget or we are nearly finishing the contract. After a normal working day, our employees track the times they worked for the projects which are related to a customer.
7. sevdesk : For our accounting and invoicing, we rely on SevDesk. The tool enables us to automate financial processes and ensures everything is handled efficiently and in compliance with legal standards. We can easily share the things with our tax consultant, Datev and also we can import the hours of mite directly into the next invoice. It is a smart tool with the possibility to share things within the team to organize all invoices and offers.
8. 微软 OneDrive (with German server location): Data security is our top priority. We store our data in OneDrive, hosted on German servers, ensuring the highest security standards. We have a kind of structure that our employees can find everything easily. A good folder and data structure is mandatory. We have folders for internal things, projects and libraries with a collection like icons or photos. Also you can find pictures about the team events ??

But the more important is our Workflow - we are obligated to a structured communication and regular meetings

Our workflow is organized to ensure that we function as a strong team, despite the physical distance:

Weekly Check-ins aka. Weeklys

Once a week, we hold a team-wide check-in to align on many things. First, I talk with the team about the latest things from the past week as well as the next challenges for the upcoming one. For me as a CEO it is important to talk about everything which is happening in the company. This are things like talking about potential customers, requests, learnings, new employees or plans I make for shaping the future. After I handover to the team, so everyone gets the updates of all the projects. Yes, all the team knows about the projects of the team mates. It is a very important synch between the team so we can also benefit of the experience of other projects to build the best out of it. Mostly in the beginning we are talking about the weather or some private things until the whole team joined.

Virtual Team Lunch

Once a month, we enjoy a virtual team lunch via Lieferando for business . All employees can order food online to their homes and receive a 15€ voucher of the company. In my opinion it strengthens the team spirit and creates a pleasant working atmosphere. Mostly we talk about holidays, great countries, some design trends and other stuff.

Monthly One-on-One Retros

To address the individual needs and challenges of each team member, I, as the leader, conduct monthly one-on-one retros. We review the past month and discuss goals for the upcoming month with a view to the end of the year. I try to guarantee that everyone can learn more things, constantly. But the more important thing is the mood. For the retro we use mood boards to track if everyone is fine in the work and also in private things. A clear mind is the most important thing to avoid psychological issues, so with the monthly synch we can prevent things going into the wrong direction. Mental health is absolutely indispensable!

Monthly Team Retros

In addition to one-on-one retros, we hold monthly team retros where we collectively reflect on our progress and identify areas for improvement between the company and the wishes of the team for the future. Talking is the best way of communication when it happens immediately. We don't wait until things happened many times, no, we talk latest after a couple of days. After our Team Retro we normally have some tasks to improve the company step by step within the opinions of every single team member. I don't decide things on my own, the team is always involved.

Spontaneous Meetings

The exchange of knowledge and expertise among colleagues is essential. We encourage spontaneous meetings to quickly and easily share ideas and experiences. Someone is stalled in progress of a concept or design? No problem, with sharing the work with the team, we can get support of everyones view to help out in a situation like this. We have experts in every UX+UI area, so the learning curve for the team is high, even if the main focus of one person is not f.e. concept. What I want to say is, that all the time it is possible to pick the brain of someone or the team for making design more grateful.

Offsite Team Meetings

Several times a year, we organize offsite meetings where the team gathers in person. These events are crucial not only for strategic alignment but also for team building and fostering interpersonal relationships. When you know each other only virtual, the more important it gets to get together with all the team. There a surprises like "I have never thought you are that tall" when the team mates meet each other the first time. It is a kind of funny "Wow Effect" ??

Offsite Project Meetings

Additionally we want to connect more with our customers as well, so we also organize meetings with the team of a project. Where? All over Germany, it depends on where the customers is based.

Trust in the company, trust in your employees

As a CEO, I firmly believe that trust is the cornerstone of our success. It’s essential that each team member feels empowered to make decisions, particularly when it comes to selecting the best UX methods for our projects. I trust that everyone on our team has the expertise and insight to evaluate the unique needs of each project and choose the most effective approach. This trust not only fosters a sense of ownership and accountability but also drives innovation and ensures that we are delivering the best possible solutions for our customers. By empowering our team to leverage their skills and judgment, we create a culture of confidence, collaboration, and excellence. Also about the To-Do's - I trust in that everyone can organize the open tasks the way how it is the best.

Conclusion

By leveraging the right tools and maintaining a well-structured workflow, we succeed as a remote office company. The key to our success lies in continuous communication, flexibility, and the commitment of each team member. With these principles, we can achieve excellent results and promote a positive work culture, even without physical presence. But in the end, the time together in real life becomes more important than ever. We cover that. You also should if you are not on the same track right now!

So please always think about, how you can make the collaborativ work possible for your employees.