Few people embody the product team ethos as well as Ananda Robie, who has built a remarkable digital product team at the renowned Center for Action and Contemplation, and in our estimation has helped completely transform what the organization is able to accomplish in the world.

Ananda recently told us about a couple simple and powerful innovations her team made in response to the pandemic.

She and her team are constantly on the hunt for improvements large and small, which cumulatively add up to astronomical returns for the organization.

We love how well the below Q&A with Ananda demonstrates what it looks like to have ally-minded strategic communicators in charge of your technology stewardship. You'll also see what a key role communication and relationship building skills play.

So enjoy the Q&A, and if this speaks to you, come join the next “Unicorn Party” with others in roles like Ananda, and have a chat with some good folks on your wavelength. :)

Getting The Good Stuff When Going Remote

Q&A with Ananda Robie

[The Build Tank] You recently told us about a different way your team started doing “embeds” when you transitioned to remote work. Can we start by asking you to explain why you started doing in-person “embeds” in the first place?

[Ananda Robie] Ha, I started because you guys told me to do them when I first arrived at the CAC! It started as a great tool to understand the complexities of our organization and the different roles each team and department plays, and we've iterated it from there.

How would you describe an “embed”?

Embeds are when you temporarily join or "embed" yourself within another team or department that is on the user side, to learn about their work. It may just involve being a fly on the wall to watch the work they do, or you might jump in and help with some of their work yourself.

I've done embeds for as little as a couple of hours all the way up to a couple of weeks. It’s a great way to learn the work of people you are supporting with their technology. But I also love that it gives them the opportunity to get to know me personally and to feel my curiosity and investment in the work they do.

I think doing this showed everyone that I'm approachable and "on their side" so that they were more willing to trust and reach out with questions, concerns, or requests as the work starts.

How often does your team do an embed?

Pre-COVID, members of our team would ideally embed with their “gold team” partners at least once a year. This helped us maintain strong working relationships and be proactive about identifying system issues or needs rather than reactive. It can be hard to carve out the time for it, but when we do it’s massively helpful for making sure new systems are adopted, teams are successful using them, and that we get immediate feedback.

So how did you adjust when the COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone into remote work?

When we all moved to working remotely, our team noticed a decline in requests and a feeling that we had lost some of the pulse on how things were going across the org.

Since we couldn't just sit in someone's office or next to them and watch them work, we started asking users to simply log into a Zoom call by themselves, share their screen, and record themselves for an hour while they work on something specific. If they want, they can just work silently or narrate what they're seeing, liking, disliking, confused by, wish was on a single page, wish was moved, etc.

We then watch the recordings and it's honestly SHOCKING how much information we can pull from them. Even if they're silently working, seeing their page navigation patterns and the various workarounds they have to do to get the information they need is eye opening.

Such a smart innovation to have people record themselves. So how often do you do it?

It ebbs and flows but we utilize this a lot when we have a new employee and want to learn from their learning process without it making them nervous to have us watching. Or when we release something new and want to see if the ways users navigate around match our expectations. Or even when someone reaches out with an issue and we can't get back to them right away; sometimes a recording allows me to review and usually solve the problem without a lot of back and forth.

It doesn't fully replace the power of a true, in-person embed but we've found it super valuable and efficient!

Do you mainly use this technique with Salesforce, or other platforms too?

Our Web Product Manager, Jessie, also installed HotJar [user analytics and recording platform] on our main website and our online bookstore. It is incredibly informative (and fun) to watch the screen recordings of users who come to our sites. We've learned a lot about how they navigate, what they're looking for, where they get stuck, what they struggle with on forms, etc.

Besides having people record themselves, are there any other processes you’ve been able to put in place to keep a healthy flow of improvements active?

Now that we’re remote we try to consistently schedule meetings where we simply ask people to share their wisdom or frustrations. We do those with entire teams but I especially like doing them with new employees.

We started because, since moving remote, I was hearing a lot less of the small gripes or ideas about the system people had. I knew they didn't magically go away. I just wasn't getting those random comments or questions in the kitchen or while sitting next to someone before a meeting started.

So cool. How often do you do that? And are you ever nervous that you will dig up problems that you won’t be able to solve?

My goal is to have at least one meeting a quarter with every team to hear about their frustrations or ideas. We don’t always meet that goal but once we’ve had a handful of these kinds of meetings, we’ll notice a marked increase in their proactive outreach to our team. And, they have incredible feedback.

Some of the changes can be made on the spot and we just ask them to refresh their screens. Others we take away for a couple of weeks, and it might completely change a core process for the better.

Other feedback we’ve heard before and may even be on the roadmap but we can’t move on it yet. But at least it allows us to hear it in person, and we can offer our sincere sympathy, and provide an explanation for why, unfortunately, it has to remain that way for now. We just make sure we’re super transparent about our approach and setting timeline expectations.

How have those meetings been received?

I’ve heard feedback from managers that these meetings have gone a long way towards making these new employees feel seen and heard. And since then, those team members have been reaching out to our team on our inter-office chat (something they had never done before) to ask little questions or send additional ideas.

Curious how you approach people to seek out this kind of feedback? I can’t imagine most people are used to it.

Ha. Well, below is an example letter that I recently sent to a couple of new employees, that’s probably the easiest way to show you.

Subject: Share your wisdom? Or frustrations too!

Hey [Name],

I'm reaching out because, if you're willing, I'd love to meet with both of you next week to hear how things are going. As the newest team members, you have the freshest and most critical eyes when it comes to using our systems. So, I'd love to hear your experience! I did this with [colleague] a few months after he was hired, and his insights and fresh perspective were so helpful for improvements we then implemented.

I'll put a meeting on your calendars for late next week. Between now and then, if you could keep a critical eye (or even better start a list) of anything that feels confusing to you, takes you 3 clicks but maybe it could be 1 click, a layout you'd prefer was rearranged in a different way, or cases you get a lot of and it would reduce your workload if we could figure out a way to better deflect them, etc, etc, etc. Really, we want to hear any wisdom you're willing to offer from your time here using our systems so far.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!
Ananda

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