Early in my design career, I walked into my first meeting with a new team as they held a videoconference with developers from an office in China. I was ready for a new challenge and followed my passion for mobile design, moving from web-based projects to mobile applications. In one way it was a small move—from one side of a San Francisco office to the other. In another way it was a big leap into mobile design and cross-border collaboration. I was eager to get involved and to learn more about what it means to collaborate in these unique situations.

I quickly learned how much stress international collaboration can put on a team. Our daily routine included a scrum call in the evening (Pacific Time) to catch the developers in China at the start of their workday. I recall the feeling of tension building in the room as it got late and discussions moved to topics such as expectations, miscommunications, and missed deadlines.

Over the next few months I watched frustration build as team members—UX designers and developers—struggled to communicate the subtleties of design across borders. Long email chains began to fill inboxes, videoconferences went late into the evenings, and iterations and revisions seemed never-ending. The project finally shipped and it was a success. I learned a lot from my first cross-border collaboration, and have applied the lessons learned to subsequent projects. Despite the obvious language obstacles, my colleagues and I felt that the communication issues with our team in China arose from cultural differences and failure to bond prior to working together.

The following year I was again part of an international collaboration when my local team was paired with teams in Canada and the UK, tasked to create a new mobile application. We looked closely at our design process and made changes based on what we’d learned from the previous project. These adjustments, coupled with the fact that we shared the same language and were from similar cultures, allowed us to overcome the shortcomings of the first collaboration. As a result, the second was a much more successful and enjoyable experience.

Following the second project, and in consideration of all that I have learned, I can make a number of recommendations to teams who are considering, or getting ready to begin, a cross-border collaboration.

Bond in Person

My San Francisco-based team had experienced a real disconnect with the team in China primarily due to distance, and we didn’t want that to happen again. In the second project, we organized to meet in person. Team members from Canada traveled to our office in San Francisco to officially kick off the project. Working together in person, bonding over meals and outings, and getting to know one another on a personal level helped establish a great atmosphere for teamwork. We learned that this was an integral first step in a successful collaboration.

Hold a Daily Scrum

After the team returned to their home offices, we maintained close ties through daily scrum calls and videoconferencing. The latter made our conversations more personable as it allowed us to observe facial expressions, body language, and hand gestures.

Our daily scrum calls provided transparency, encouraged open flow of communication across disciplines, and enabled the team to align their efforts at the start of each day. Remote and local team members actively participated in product discussions and we were as productive as if we were all sitting in the same room.

Set Clear Expectations and Milestones 

Jhilmil Jain and Catherine Courage noted in their article, “Global Design Teams: Managing Distributed Teams Effectively” in UX 13.1, “The larger and more distributed the team, the more important it is to identify objective metrics of success and get everyone to internalize the value of these metrics. Doing so will facilitate working together toward the same goals, and cultural perspectives will be less challenging.”

To avoid mid-project confusion and misunderstanding, my team set clear expectations and milestones at the start of our project with Canada and the UK. This made a huge difference. Team members were able to set realistic expectations, meet and beat deadlines, and communicate issues more effectively. This process was streamlined by our use of daily scrums.

Explain Design Changes

Another challenge we experienced was communicating the subtleties of design across borders. This is especially challenging when there are multiple cultures and languages involved.

Traditionally, we had added documentation at the end of the design process in the form of design specifications, which were given to developers. We realized that for distance collaboration we would need this level of detail throughout the design process, so we thoroughly annotated all of our designs from the start. We documented the goals and objectives of each iteration and included clear and detailed rationale for each revision.

Pair up with a Remote Teammate

Communication between designers and developers can be challenging enough when they’re in the same office, but it is even more so when they’re in different offices in different parts of the world.

We alleviated the effects of the latter by pairing up with remote teammates: in my case, a co-designer. The onsite designer worked closely with developers to explain the details of the design and the desired experience, and oversaw implementation. This helped reduce long email chains, long videoconference sessions, and other communication challenges.

Streamline Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback at a distance can be difficult. Initially, we included feedback sessions as part of our daily scrum. Everyone participated. But as the team grew, this forum became more difficult to manage. Designers, developers, and product managers all contributed unique opinions and feedback on the design.

As a result, feedback was neither concise nor actionable, and the confusion and lack of direction cost the team vital time. To be more effective, we began to run feedback sessions with smaller groups. We consolidated the feedback and then held videoconference calls to discuss and decide together how to handle each suggestion.

Being willing to pick up the phone at the right time is also important. Disagreement is part of a healthy collaboration, but if things get tense or there is a misunderstanding, a videoconference is likely your best bet for a quick and easy resolution. Being able to communicate face-to-face breaks down defense mechanisms and helps both sides see things from the other’s perspective.

Enjoy the Collaboration

The processes and communication techniques described above have helped make my cross-border collaboration experiences enjoyable instead of stressful. The experience has also helped me learn to adapt. As Jain and Courage stated, “There is no doubt that working with remote teams comes with a unique set of challenges. To be successful you must embrace the situation.”

The changes my team made allowed us to fully embrace our collaborative experiences and to view them as unique opportunities. I now look forward to my next international project and to learning and growing with new teammates around the world.
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Us Versus Them: Distance Makes a Difference

When a team has a strong face-to-face work process, it can be hard to include remote colleagues—whether they are around the world or just a few blocks away. Whitney Taylor’s story of learning how to bridge geographical and cultural distance shares the experiences of one team. Whitney and her colleagues are not alone in facing the challenges of distributed teams. And with a problem this common, researchers can’t be far behind.

A recent research article by Privman, Hiltz, and Wang looked at the dynamics of distributed teams to learn whether they could work as effectively as those located together. In their interviews and surveys, they found many of the same problems Whitney’s team experienced:

• Working in different time zones makes it harder to have quick, casual conversations.
• Communication channels are not all the same and misunderstandings are easier over email.
• It’s easy to fall into a habit of thinking of your immediate colleagues as “us” and remote team members as “them.”

It makes sense that all of these problems can lead to frustration, confusion, and wasted time—less effective work all around. But, can “us versus them” become one big “us?” The researchers focused on teams that were rated as highly effective, looking for insights into how they overcame these challenges. Their recommendations reflect the solutions Whitney’s team devised, the suggestions from Jhilmil Jain and Catherine Courage on managing global teams, and the experiences reported in interviews with practitioners around the world by Whitney Quesenbery and Daniel Szuc:

• Be clear about goals and responsibilities.
• Make sure everyone has equal access to information.
• Respect cultural differences; provide training when necessary.
• Be creative about managing time zone differences.
• Use technology to add social interaction to team communications.

Read More

• “In-Group (Us) versus Out-Group (Them) Dynamics and Effectiveness in Partially Distributed Teams” by Robin Privman, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, and Yiran Wang, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 56.1, 2013.
• “Global Design Teams: Managing Distributed Teams Effectively” by Jhilmil Jain and Catherine Courage, User Experience, 13.1, 2013.
• Global UX: Research and Design in a Connected World by Whitney Quesenbery and Daniel Szuc, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012. (See a review in this issue)

—Ed.

[/bluebox]通过改变团队流程、行为和时间表，能够改善不同地方团队之间的沟通，确保不会遗漏设计的微妙之处。
通过调整思考和沟通的方式，团队可以学习如何跨越国界传达设计的微妙之处，确保没有差异或误解。

只需要对一些团队行为、流程和沟通技巧做一些基本的改变，就能促进成功的国际协作。可以亲自面商，组织不同地点的专家共同合作，以及每日团队争论和小组视频电话会议相结合都会能产生很大影响。一起工作会是一种愉快而非令人紧张的体验。

文章全文为英文版팀 프로세스, 행동, 일정의 변경은 다양한 곳에 있는 팀원들 간 소통을 개선할 수 있으며 디자인의 주요 사항을 놓치지 않게 합니다.
사고방식과 소통 방법을 조율함으로써 팀은 의견 차이나 오해 없이 전세계에서 디자인의 주요 사항을 명확히 파악하는 방법을 배울 수 있습니다.

팀 행동, 프로세스, 소통 기술에 대한 몇 가지 근본적 변화만 있으면 성공적인 국제적 협력을 촉진할 수 있습니다. 직접적인 만남, 다양한 사무실에서 전문가 팀을 만들고, 일상적 팀과 소규모 그룹 화상 회의를 통합한다면 개선을 이룰 수 있습니다. 협력하는 것은 스트레스가 아니라 즐거운 경험이 될 수 있습니다.

전체 기사는 영어로만 제공됩니다.Alterações nos processos, comportamentos e agendas das equipes podem melhorar a comunicação entre equipes localizadas em diferentes lugares, garantindo que as sutilezas do design não se perderão.

Ao ajustar as formas de pensar e se comunicar, as equipes conseguem aprender a articular as sutilezas do design entre fronteiras sem lacunas ou erros de compreensão.

São necessárias apenas algumas alterações fundamentais nos comportamentos, processos e técnicas de comunicação da equipe para facilitar uma colaboração internacional de sucesso. Reuniões presenciais, encontro de especialistas em diferentes escritórios e a combinação de alinhamentos diários da equipe e chamadas de videoconferência de pequenos grupos fazem a diferença. Trabalhar em grupo pode ser uma experiência agradável, em vez de um estresse.

O artigo completo está disponível somente em inglês.チームのプロセス、行動、スケジュールの変更により、デザインの機微を失うことなく、異なる場所に存在するチーム間のコミュニケーションを向上することができる。
思考と伝達の方法を調整することにより、チームは、ギャップや誤解を招くことなくデザインの機微を明確に表現する能力を得ることができる。

チームの行動様式、プロセス、およびコミュニケーション手法にわずかな基本的変更を加えるだけで、国際協力の成功を促進することができる。対面式による会議、異なる事務所/支社の専門家とのチーム形成、日常的なチーム・スクラムと小規模グループでのビデオ会議の組合せによって好影響がもたらされる。協働は、ストレスの素ではなく満足のいく経験であり得る。

原文は英語だけになりますLos cambios en los procesos, comportamientos y calendarios de equipo pueden mejorar la comunicación entre los equipos en distintos lugares, lo que garantiza que las sutilezas del diseño no se pierdan.

Al adaptar las formas de pensar y comunicarse, los equipos pueden aprender a articular las sutilezas del diseño a través de las fronteras sin vacíos o malentendidos.

Sólo se necesitan algunos cambios fundamentales en los comportamientos, procesos y técnicas de comunicación del equipo para facilitar una colaboración internacional exitosa. Conocerse en persona, unir especialistas en distintas oficinas y una combinación de scrums de equipo diarios y llamadas de videoconferencia de pequeños grupos hacen la diferencia. Trabajar juntos puede ser una experiencia agradable en vez de una presión.

La versión completa de este artículo está sólo disponible en inglés.