A distributed team, Sloyd is building a simple to use 3D creation tool for game developers. Co-Founder Andreas B. Myrvoll Edesberg speaks to us about his experience as a member of a hybrid team
As a company, we value flexibility very highly. The option to work from home is something that most of the team take advantage of, and especially not having to commute saves a lot of time. However, several of us also have spaces in co-working spaces to have a community around us with other founders and entrepreneurs. I think this combination is really powerful — the flexibility of distribution and sharing learnings with other people and companies.
Using Teemyco has really shaped how we interact with each other as a team. The ability to quickly jump into a discussion on video is very powerful for us. We try to work like we would in a physical office, by being able to just turn on the mic for quick questions or jump into a separate meeting room for clarifications. Team building is really important for us as a team. We try to have a bit of fun together by playing games and have dedicated hang-out time during the week. We have weekly planning meetings, bi-weekly retrospectives and town hall meetings. Other than that we do ad hoc meetings in Teemyco. We also have a weekly lunch together for those that want to join and Hot Beverage Fridays, a chill morning session not only for coffee drinkers!
In terms of how we currently use Teemyco, we mainly use our virtual office for common rooms so that we can work together; being able to just turn on the mic and talk with your co-workers. Feature request: mic and video stays on when you switch rooms. That feeling when you see everyone being in the office, having meetings and conversations in real time is just really great for building that feeling of being connected and part of a team
Looking towards the future, I think we will see a lot more hybrid workplaces. Having a digital first culture will be particularly important in this case, to be able to have a level playing field across locations and ensure that everyone can communicate with each other even though some are co-located and some are not.