The tools our remote team uses to stay aligned and efficient
Here’s something you might not know about me: I’m not great at adopting new technology. Whenever my team introduces a new tool or platform into the way we work together, I’m usually the last one on board, and it frustrates everyone involved.
Thanks to the self-assessments our team has taken over the years, I understand why I am the way I am: I resist outside structure and processes because I prefer to do my own thing and create my own systems, which rarely make sense to anyone but me. (And sometimes they don’t even make sense to me—ha!) On top of that, I fear that using technology creates the opposite of a people-first, human approach—which is what our whole business is about.
My resistance has been a big pain point for the team over the years, and rightfully so. I know how much more efficient technology can be than pen and paper—especially for an all-remote team—and without me adopting the technology, we can’t use it fully as a team, which impacts how others work.
A great example of this is when I wrote Permission to Screw Up. Instead of using project management software, I saved every chapter and note to my harddrive. And instead of using Google Docs, which would have allowed me and my team to collaborate and see each other’s edits in real time, I insisted on sending Word docs back and forth. As a result, there were a million versions of each chapter, and it was so disorganized. More than once, we found ourselves editing an outdated version. It was a disaster.
So, I get it. I understand why my team has advocated for technology. There are so many apps out there that can help us stay organized, share content and data, and stay in touch, even when we’re working thousands of miles apart. It makes sense that we all use the same system instead of each of us having our own way of doing things. Not to mention that we’re a very small team with only so much bandwidth, and we want our valuable time to be spent in areas where our natural talents really matter (like developing content, building relationships with our clients, writing, etc.).
Honest feedback from the team in several 360 reviews was what finally taught me that I needed to embrace technology and be willing to stretch myself. I remember the specific feedback that finally clicked with me: By not using the systems that everyone else was using, I was creating disorder and slowing everyone down. It also prevented us from having structure, which many people on our team need to thrive. The lightbulb finally went off, and I knew they were right. As hard as it was for me to change the way I’d been doing things, I knew how important it was for the team to have me on the same page, and that mattered most to me.
Since then, we’ve figured out which tools I absolutely must use because they are critical to our workflows and which ones I can skip (the ones that are more for the team than they are for me). We’ve also committed to using technology that helps us be more efficient and that is aligned with our human approach.
People often ask me what tools we use as an all-remote team, so I thought it could be helpful to list the ones we love here and explain what they do for us.
But before I get to those, I just have to acknowledge . . . I can’t believe I’m writing a blog post about this subject. Who am I?! Team, can you believe it?!
Slack: Slack helped us get off of the email hamster wheel for internal communication. We now have a couple dozen different “channels” where we can jump in and out of conversations, send documents, and ping each other with updates throughout the day. (My favorite one is #tootyourhorn, which is a channel where you can high-five yourself.) The thing about Slack is that we don’t expect anyone to check it 24/7. Our guideline is a 24-hour response time during the work week. (If anyone needs something more urgently, we call or use WhatsApp.)
Superhuman: Superhuman is an amazing solution for being more efficient with email. It has an endless number of keyboard shortcuts that save a ton of time, and what I love most about it is that it sets a reminder if someone doesn’t reply to your email so that you know to follow up. I have it on my phone and my computer, and I’m obsessed.
WhatsApp: We’ve found that as a remote team, any time we can communicate in ways other than text or written communication are so valuable for our relationships. WhatsApp is primarily a messaging platform, and we do use it for texting at times, but we mostly use it for sending voice messages back and forth. We probably “talk” to each other on WhatsApp more than we talk on Slack or even Zoom! The voice message is a really efficient way to communicate ideas that you want to save or write down. Plus, WhatsApp lets you pause or speed up messages, so that saves time, too.
Google Drive: We store everything on our Drive, from social content to outlines for speeches to all of our self-assessment results to budgets to book #2! We love that Drive (and, by extension, Google Docs and Sheets) lets us see each other’s edits and updates in real time, and we know that we’re always looking at the most updated versions of things. We can leave comments for each other and collaborate without needing to have a meeting—it’s awesome.
FloDesk*: We switched to using FloDesk for our mailing lists (including this blog!) about a year ago. In addition to that, we use it to create “workflows” for our programs, which means that FloDesk sends emails automatically in a specific, timed sequence once we add someone to our list. We used to do it all manually—I used to ask that we email each person individually—but now that we have thousands on our email list, I know that’s no longer possible.
Squarespace: We use Squarespace for our website. Even though a company called GoLive built the actual site for us, we like Squarespace because it makes it easy to make edits, add pages, and update the blog on our own without having to hire someone.
Asana: The team has been using Asana for more than a decade as a way to manage tasks and projects. It functions like a virtual do-to list and reminds you when your deadlines approach. This system doesn't work for me personally, and the team has given me their blessing not to use it (for now!). Most of the projects on Asana are related to the team, so it works for their collaboration and isn’t necessary for my own work. I keep my to-do list on Google Docs.
Stripe: We use Stripe for payments and invoicing. What we like about it is that it allows our customers to manage their coaching memberships on their own, which means that they can pause their membership anytime. It’s easy to use and integrates well with Squarespace.
Gusto**: We just started using Gusto at the beginning of the year for payroll, workers’ comp, and state payroll taxes. Gusto comes with an app that each person can download, and they can look at their pay stubs and tax records anytime they want. We used to work with a company near our home base in Florida for all of our HR needs, and that was more relationship-driven; we could always call and talk to someone. But we made the switch because we had outgrown that company, and we needed something more efficient. That was hard for me, but now I'm so glad we made that choice because I can see the time that it saves.
Expensify: Expensify is an expense management system that allows us to upload receipts, track and sort expenses, and keep an eye on our general spending. It's a one-stop shop for keeping our expenses in order and allows us to easily export each of our expenses into Quickbooks so our bookkeeper can reconcile everything with our credit card statements. Gone are the days when we would have to make copies of physical receipts or keep piles of scanned receipts in a filing cabinet. Now, tracking expenses is as easy as taking a picture of the receipt on our phones and dropping them in the appropriate Slack channels so we can easily pull them into Expensify.
Wow. If this isn’t a full 180, I don’t know what is.
As leaders, it’s so important to recognize that our way isn’t always the best way. And sometimes, insisting on doing things our way can negatively impact others. I’m learning to be more open and to give things a try before writing them off. And most of the time—if not every time—I'm pleasantly surprised by the results.
What kinds of systems or apps help your team? We’d love to hear about them in the comments!
Big hugs,
Kristen
*When you use this link to sign up for FloDesk, you’ll get 50% off your first year!
**When you use this link to sign up for Gusto, you’ll get a $100 gift card!
This post contains affiliate links. Read our full sponsorship and affiliate disclosure here.
