Students' tips for online teamwork
Discover seven practical tips for better remote teamwork. The recommendations are based on Digital Business Master Class's students' experiences from 2020.
1. Team contract
Aligning expectations and setting common rules at the beginning of the project is crucial. Things to be agreed upon include communication channels and frequency, meetings, collaboration tools, team roles and goals. Have an open conversation about your possible constraints, preferred ways of receiving feedback and decision-making strategies.
Setting clear rules will make sure all team members know what is expected of them, especially as you might not be able to keep in touch as closely as you would on campus.
2. Set a clear schedule
We recommend setting deadlines and outlining the schedule for the entire project at the very beginning. A clear schedule ensures you will be able to fit in all the necessary research for delivering a valuable concept to your client or partner.
Setting internal deadlines before you have to turn in the assignments or do a presentation is a good idea. This way, you have enough time to figure out possible problems and get feedback from the whole team before submitting your work.
3. Communication
Communication is key in all teamwork. Firstly, it’s important to choose suitable communication channels for your team. You should avoid using too many different channels to keep things clear and avoid losing information. However, written communication and online meetings serve very different purposes. Written communication is essential for quick check-ups and organising ideas, but insufficient as the only way of communication. Meetings serve as a natural way of brainstorming solutions and discussing the direction of the work.
Secondly, create practices for sharing information with your team. If someone is not able to attend a meeting, recording it for the absent member is a good alternative. Share your findings and possible solutions with everyone, so all team members have more extensive knowledge of the case. Sharing information can help you avoid a lot of misunderstandings.
4. Regular meetings
We recommend having short but regular, even daily, meetings to align the team. Take a good look at your schedules at the beginning of the project, find a time of day that works for all of you and stick to it. Book the time from your calendar so that you don’t miss any team meetings.
A timezone converter is a useful tool for making sure the agreed time suits everyone. There are plenty of free options available.
When you are in a meeting, make it count. Having an agenda for each meeting helps you be efficient and cover all the necessary matters. Make sure that you have clear action steps, tasks and responsibilities after the meeting and send short minutes about decisions and deadlines to your group chat.
5. Digital co-working
Using digital collaboration platforms is essential for an online project. Platforms that allow both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration are ideal since you will likely want to work on the project both together and individually. Aalto provides lisences for safe online work platforms mentioned below.
Microsoft Teams is a natural option to use, and it gives the possibility to have video calls, chats, team discussion, file sharing and real-time editing all in one place. You are also welcome to use Google Drive, as long as you log in with your Aalto accounts (data ownership!). Try to make sure everyone is at least somewhat familiar with the chosen tools.
To make work more manageable, divide individual tasks for people to work on. This will help make sure everyone contributes to the work equally and knows what is expected of them between check-ups.
6. Respect the common commitment
Committing to the project workload and taking time for the work is one of the most important things you can do for your team and your own learning experience.
Along the same lines, respect the team rules and deadlines you set together. In diverse teams, other people might not think like you. Listening to their opinions and expressing your views patiently is important. Remember that the end goal is a good project outcome, not winning a debate.
7. Get to know your teammates
Last but not least: spend time on team-building and getting to know each other! Having casual talks to get to know your teammates as individuals and not just professionals is time well spent, even when you are working on a tight schedule. Open the camera and have a face-to-face discussion! You will create trust and a more natural working environment, discover new capabilities and most importantly, have more fun working together.