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What “async” tactics or tools will you try with your team this year?

Andrew DeBell

"Async collaboration" may be the way of the future...but it's still a new concept.

This powerful form of teamwork helps move projects forward, regardless of your team's time zones or geographic locations. It allows you to get work done more efficiently, reducing face-to-face meeting time and freeing up schedules.

Successful async collaboration, however, requires thought, planning, and effort. And with any new concept, there's a lot we can learn from each other. That's the purpose of this post.

Please comment below to share and discuss your "async" tactics or tools you plan to try with your team this year.

Here's the prompt: Name two "async" tactics of tools you plan to try with your team this year. Explain why and how.

If you're enrolled in the Atlassian University course on Async Collaboration for Distributed Teams...once you've shared your comment below, return to your Atlassian University browser tab to complete the course.

If you're not enrolled in the full course, but would like to be, you can enroll here for free.

Thanks all! Looking forward to reading your thoughts and ideas.

Note: this article is a prompt within an Atlassian University course, Async Collaboration for Distributed Teams. In this activity, learners have the opportunity to provide their advice and suggestions on Community. Even if you haven’t taken the course, you’re still welcome to respond to this post and give your advice.

Comments

Thet Aung_cr7242

I intend to use confluence for project initiations:- brain storming of ideas, ranking and deciding which ideas will be used and planning of the project such as what are the deliverables, deadline and who will be doing what. I will use Atlas for tracking the summary status of the project, whether is it progressing well or otherwise, bottle necks and risks.

Distributed team with async tools is going to be future working environment. This whole package will provide equal opportunity, fair distribution of wealth and breaking the geographic boundaries. Eventually we all will be global citizen.

Andrew Tenney

The Async Collaboration for Distributed Teams course at the Atlassian University is a must for new starters. Especially loved the way they proposed to do async status reports and the async-prework for sync meetings. I you haven't already suggest you check it out at the Atlassian University

Mr Travis Kerslake

Jira and Confluence

Kekke Hyvämäki

I'd love to increase the use of video for async collaboration as presented in the course. It's a quick and effective way to visually show stuff to team members. And it's efficient to add collaboration tools like Confluence to it.

A second way for me would be to use meeting pre-work to add the possibility of planning and collaborating on the agenda with upcoming meetings. An individual working with the agenda adds plenty of wisdom to the table and it's possible to continue working together in a sync meeting.

Bill Jovcevski

This year, we're looking into implementing asynchronous communication tools like Slack and project management platforms such as Trello to enhance collaboration and productivity within our team.

James Chan_q10pyl

Will try Atlas to see if this can make the multi-team weekly sync more effective.

hayden.doty

My team is using JIRA for project tracking and Confluence for knowledge sharing to help us work more efficiently across timezones and with several people being involved in projects. Using these asynch tools will help us all stay on the same page while maximizing productivity

Suzanne Defache

I plan on using a whiteboard and Trello.

Warwick Hook

The two areas of focus for async collaboration I think we can act on now is firstly, eliminating status meetings by employing a tool such Atlas and secondly, providing short videos of walkthroughs of design and/or developed product posted on Slack(or within the related Jira issue) for comment and review. Currently we mostly wait for sync meetings to demo and review and I think things can be missed or assumed to have been captured.

Our review/feedback system is one of our greatest challenges and getting everyone using the same tools & methods is our goal. For the most part we have good ways of working but after going through the course I can see our review/improvement mechanisms are slow so there is plenty of fertile areas where we can improve our collaboration and communication.

Klaas Jan Boersma

I will introduce to my team an experiment of using a 'statuschat' to allign on user story status combined with our weekly meeting where everyone is physicially present

Obaid Sabir

Our organization is using Atlas and Jira task management system to improve Async communication. I have also implemented the confluence whiteboard for brainstorming and planning sessions, which will hopefully be helpful as the team has ample time to jolt down ideas before the actual meeting. This also reduced the meeting time significantly and helps the team to focus more on the work rather than just talk about it.

Michelle Goldbach

Planning on using links to Confluence pages and whiteboarding for meeting prep, to make sure that we get the most out of our time and that people who aren't as comfortable speaking up in meetings have the chance to fully participate and have their ideas noticed.

Rafael_Silva_3cnbsf

Using whiteboards for some ideas and brainstorming moments is great, and also using Atlas to share status can be really helpful. Looking forward to it.

Henry Chang - ICPW

I will try whiteboard and Confluence with my team.

Thomas Gallagher_11odcu

Using async status meetings and whiteboard tool for brainstorming

Gonçalo Gregório

The Async work its needed every day, more and more. Do the job you have to do and share with your team in the best possible way, does not obligate a call or a meeting.

There its so many ways to do that effectively, with a short video for example. Force weekly meetings its a not natural way to make things done.

Barry Crowley

1. Do a async prework before the sync meeting so the sync meeting is more successful.

2. Link the Confluence page to my jira item so it allows people to async and collaborate and provide responses on their own time.

Heidi Vanderholm

My team uses Jira, but we have a 15 min daily standup meeting to review progress on each issue. I am thinking through the usefulness of this and if we could do this async instead. I do plan on sending our Retro document out sooner so that everyone gets the opportunity to start filling it out on their own time and possibly shorten the time we're taking in Retro.

Bryan F_g1ed7w

Confluence is great for removing the lure to collaborate on a 'live' document, I've never had much luck with people updating a PPT or Word doc asynchronously.

Atlas seems ideal for removing unnecessary status meetings too - particularly limiting the characters so the updates are brief and not to onerous for others to read/review.

Damilola Oshinowo

Been using Jira WM and Trello to track work but I will be adding these to async meetings moving forward. I would also want to use Atlas for high level async meetings, keeping everyone/stakeholders abreast on the status of the work/project

Sylvia Eibl

My no. 1 priority for async tools and strategies is to free up time for actual work by having fewer and shorter meetings, which I expect will save time and speed up our workflow/throughput.

Many people are so used to having meetings with everyone present that it can be a challenge to introduce new ways of working. But I expect the benefits to become apparent soon enough: Not everyone works full time, and those who don't sometimes have to cram all sorts of status meetings into the little time they have, maybe two days a week, leaving very little time for their actual work. Others have busy schedules and multiple project assignments, and will be just as grateful to be able to do more things on their own time.

The new cloud features make it easier to use Jira and Confluence together, and Atlas will add even more useful features to the mix. I have yet to explore how to combine Jira work management and Jira software features in a single project, which I believe is now possible.

My first step in the process is to start a new project using Confluence whiteboards for async ideation, and then demonstrate how easily we can turn this into Jira issues. There will be a kick-off meeting to warm everyone up to the idea of trying new ways of working together.

Neeta Lal

Reduce the number of meetings for status updates

Try Atlas

Craig Oliver_j0oe3h

Prework saves so much time. Working to get information onto proposed timelines and tasks without focusing on targeted due dates but on the work needed to be completed is key to focusing on enhancing value. Using quick video recordings (2 to 5 minutes) with key Calls to Action is another way to get easy to digest information in a visible and easy to digest manner.

Katrina_czjxgc

I enjoy having asynchronous prework activities where we can collaborate and brainstorm independently before our scheduled meetings or events. It's a great way to come prepared, share valuable insights, and make the most of our time during the actual meeting. I also appreciate Trello for our team stand-up where we can visualize our meetings and tasks and easily update our cards/boards.

unknown

Confluence and Jira Work Management

Katheen Casicas

I love using Jira on project management to track updates of task and Confluence to document progress and status.

Aziz Smith

Asynchronous Playtesting (like PlaytestCloud):
- Why: Playtesting is super important, but getting everyone together at the same time can be a hassle. With async playtesting, we can gather feedback from players without the scheduling headaches.
- How: We can upload our game builds to platforms like PlaytestCloud and have players share their thoughts through recorded sessions. This way, our team can watch the feedback on our own time and discuss it when it works for us. I think this will help us get richer insights without the stress of coordinating everyone’s availability.
Collaborative Design Docs (using Google Docs or Notion):
- Why: Keeping our ideas organized is key, and working together asynchronously can really help with that. It allows everyone to contribute without needing to be in the same place at the same time.
- How: I’m thinking of setting up a shared document where we can brainstorm game mechanics, character designs, and other concepts. Everyone can drop in their thoughts and comments whenever they have a moment. This way, we can build on each other’s ideas without the pressure of a live meeting.

Micah Lafoon

Two "async" tactics or tools I plan to try with my team this year are:

1. Confluence for document collaboration – I will use Confluence to share documents and gather feedback asynchronously. This allows team members to review and provide input at their convenience, fostering deeper collaboration without needing constant meetings. By doing this, we will save time and streamline the decision-making process, as all stakeholders can see and comment on the latest version of the document.

2. Loom for video updates – I plan to use Loom to record quick video updates instead of holding meetings for every minor update. This helps keep everyone informed while respecting different time zones and schedules. Team members can watch the updates whenever they are available and leave comments or questions if needed, reducing the pressure to attend live meetings.

These tools will promote flexibility, improve productivity, and reduce the number of unnecessary meetings, helping the team focus on work while staying aligned.

Ryan Beets

One tool I intend to use would be Confluence, which will allow me and my team to post updates to our project and keep each other up-to-date without needing dedicated meeting days. One tactic I intend to employ would be async brainstorming ideation. I hope that by having team members brainstorm and post their ideas into a confluence page or board, this will help the brainstorming process when developing ideas to move our project forward.

Raymond Hobble

In my work, we use pre-work a lot. Creating PowerPoints, short how-to videos, and PDFs with necessary information everyone should have prior to the meetings helps them to flow more smoothly and saves time. I am also learning a lot about using Jira to manage projects. Using proper notation in each Issue saves time explaining things when it is time to meet.

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