Four Things as a Head of Product, I Learned from Leading a Team Remotely
In March 2020, due to the covid outbreak, Aircall’s employees started working remotely. Two weeks later, I joined the company as Head of Product and manager of a team of 15 people I have never met before and I would not meet in person for at least the next 3 months.
In this article I’m sharing four challenges and learnings from joining a new company remotely as Head of Product.
1. Communication is different remotely but utterly important
Communication is a key aspect of working effectively and it becomes even more crucial when working remotely.
My first challenge when joining Aircall was to get to meet peers fast and build relationships, remotely. I started by scheduling Zoom meetings and making sure I over communicate through slack rather than staying remote and silent. This worked well in the first stage, but the fact of ‘compensating’ remoteness with multiple meetings made my calendar so packed that I became the third Zoom user of the company, just after the CEO! Realising this was a wake-up call, and made me reorganise my calendar: I shortened most of the meetings, I made sure all my invites have a clear objective, I said no to meetings where I wasn’t bringing or taking value from and I started organising some meetings later in time to make sure I don’t overcrowd the current week with non critical topics.
I then shared this with my team and made sure everyone took similar actions that worked for them.
Another challenge I had when joining as a Head of Product was following up on what my team was doing. I still remember in my first week asking someone from my team ‘How do you know what happened on topic x?’ The answer was: ‘You talk to the Product Manager’. But with a team of 15 this was not going to work. And even more when we are all working remotely. So I started a weekly group meeting where each PM presented a quick update with a simple format: what was done this week, next topics to tackle and risks or blockers. This allowed not only myself but also the whole team to be informed of what happens in the product and it also helped spot collaboration opportunities between PMs. In time, we realised that many PMs don’t pay attention to other PMs topics, and even more in a remote setting. So we started rotating the PMs topics in the presentation and we enriched the format in order to make the meeting more dynamic.
I have also complemented this with a second meeting where I share wider topics linked to management & leadership (HR news, leadership ongoing topics, new processes and tools …) and provide space for questions and debate.
One of the key learnings on communication is that even though you think you’ve made something clear to the team, you should communicate it again, and again (…and even more remotely). Stop communicating only when you feel you are over-communicating. And don’t find excuses not to communicate when you have an uncomfortable message to share. An example is the process of defining the 3 year strategy that took quite a few months for the leadership team to converge on. My team knew this was happening and they were waiting for the final communication. During this period it was crucial to communicate, even though it was just to say it’s still ongoing and explain why. Looking back, this is something I’ll definitely do more often next time a similar situation happens.
Another thing to remember is that communication is not always about sharing a message top down. An important part of communication is to listen to your team and to involve them in creating a better future for the company. Don’t hesitate to open debates, start brainstorming sessions or specific workshops to make sure you listen to your team.
2. Good management practices have a real impact
For me being a manager in a remote setting meant making sure I support my teammates in every way I can. And in order to do so I wanted to create an environment where we get to know each other and establish transparent and constructive communication. One of the first steps was to add a special ‘1:1’ once a month where we do not talk about ‘product reporting’ or ‘blockers’ or ‘challenges’ but about the teammate and how they feel. Questions like ‘what did you like or dislike in the last month’, ‘what do you want to learn’, ‘what will you do differently next month’ or ‘what keeps you up at night’ are a few examples of how to create a different level of connexion.
Coaching is another essential aspect of management. Depending on each person, the coaching will be different and it is important to respect the teammates personalities. Understanding the personality aspect remotely is quite a challenge in itself. Alan might want to try something by himself before talking to me, while Luisa might want to talk and be challenged before trying. Adjust and do what works best, while making sure you constantly take a step back and ask questions that will put into a different perspective or challenge the what and the how.
Feedback is another key aspect of growing as a professional and as a human being that I considered intimately linked to good management and a healthy culture. Give feedback and ask for feedback regularly. In remote settings it is even more important. A habit I’ve developed is to send a line of feedback right after the meeting. Most of my teammates appreciate this highly and even ask for more! You can also do 360 feedback campaigns in order to enlarge the feedback spectrum. This creates a great knowledge base to help your teammates grow but also know their strengths better.
In a remote world where we send hundreds of slack messages a week, dropping a message just to check in on someone with no agenda behind is also a good way of creating connection. Try it !
All in all, clear contracting on the expected results mixed with trust and caring about your teammates will have a positive impact on engagement & motivation and on achieving and overachieving the results.
3. Leadership is key in a remote hyper-growth context
Being a leader in a hyper-growth scale-up is extremely exciting but challenging as well because you need to guide your team through change, remotely and day after day.
Even in remote settings, a good leader shows positive energy, inspires and challenges their team.
Show your teammates that they are part of something bigger, share the ambitions and the positive exciting outcomes that are ahead. I am myself naturally excited and very positive about what is ahead and this is at some moments contagious for my team as they can feel that positive energy resonating.
Don’t forget to explain the what and the why, because without direction it will only sound like an empty headline. Also, encourage your teammates to try new things, to do things differently, to push their topics and themselves further every day. As a leader, push people to look beyond their self-interest and enforce the concepts of collaboration and team, to make sure you are creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
But life is not always only sugar and honey, so you will need to show leadership in both good and hard times. And in both situations you need to remember that you are leading by example. The remote work has changed the ways we present ourselves as a model for our team. Remotely, it is less about how you stand tall or about your face mimics or hands gesticulating, it is more about your words, your voice and your energy that are the drivers. Communication skills are even more important as you have less help from non verbal cues. Something I also try to do is to stir emotions by telling stories, as I feel it’s a powerful way of getting messages around.
Another important aspect is to provide support and recognition. For some people this comes natural, but for others the remote setting makes it easier to forget. So make sure you provide feedback regularly, but also that you share shout-outs in team & company meetings.
4. A good leader is a leader that feels good. Do not forget to take care of yourself.
Sometimes while working remotely it’s easier to lose track of time in front of your computer and to be tired of sitting at the same desk by yourself while interacting with your team and peers only over Zoom. I try to be very self aware and acknowledge the way I feel and the times I need a break or a pause outside of the house. I also know that my positive nature helps drive my energy every day but it needs to be complemented with conversations with my team and peers because I get energised by interactions, buzz of ideas and good debates. There is no recipe to this, just know yourself and do what works best for you and your role in the company.
I am intimately convinced that the world will not go back to the before 2020 ‘normal’ office life, and organisations, leaders and teammates will need to adjust and thrive in a new setting. There is still some way to go until we get there completely, but as a leader do not forget to keep a positive mindset, to listen well and ‘humanise’ your interactions as much as possible and to show flexibility and take quick actions in order to keep supporting your team in achieving great results.
