This article is to note down my learnings and experiences of running meetings with remote team as a product manager (PM). It isn’t a textbook or a source of truth because every person has their own style.

Background

About me: In my past job, I had a chance to work with a remote team for nearly 1 year. My job is to run projects with the team and help them work along side with the main team in Singapore.

About the team: The remote team I’m working with consists of 3-4 people in Vietnam and 1 person in Eastern Europe. The team members are matured and professional (which I think it helps a lot with the team’s dynamics). Me being a Vietnamese helps build relationship with the Vietnam side more easily.

What’s so special about meeting with remote team

Well, first off, the team is not physically there so it takes out the body language, sense of what’s happening, pressure of participating from the conversation.

Second, if a meeting consists of a remote team and a non-remote team (physically in the room), non-remote people tend to (1) discuss among themselves (because they don't see/feel the presence of remote team) and (2) refer to topics/terms/decisions that were made without the remote team knowing. In my opinion, running a meeting with both teams is the hardest to handle.

Third, as for the remote team, since people don’t face the pressure of being in a meeting, it’s easy for them to get distracted with other tasks (e.g. using phones, working on something else). It actually happens very often with physical team but I notice it’s more serious in remote team. That would reduce the effectiveness of the meeting.

Fourth, culture and time zone issue, working with a remote team who don’t speak English on a daily basis and lives in a different time zone pose challenge to run a good meeting. It can be as silly as because they are shy (or they just wake up), they are not ready to participate in the meeting. Also, I know how scary it is to speak and listen to a foreign language that you’re not familiar with in a call conference. Hence, it’s actually easier to go along by saying yes.

What is a good meeting in my opinion and what I do

(1) Main stakeholders need to know what is the expected outcome BEFORE the meeting (e.g. to get certain decision made).

• Meeting agenda has to be written in the calendar invite EVERY single time (this applies to non-remote meeting as well)
• Meeting agenda should be repeated at the beginning of the meeting by the organiser. It’s as simple as “So this meeting is to answer some questions we have with project A. The list of questions can be found in the calendar invite”.
• Remote special: The agenda should include who’s in the meeting and what role do they play. This will help the remote team understand the current meeting dynamics. I usually say “Today, in Singapore, we have Mark from business side and Joe from technical side. In Vietnam, we have the team that will be in charge of project A”.

(2) Relevant stakeholders prepare for the meeting BEFORE the meeting

• Unfortunately, even when details are sent in calendar invite, it doesn’t mean people would read and prepare accordingly. That’s because what I need them to prepare is not their priority.
• Depending on the importance of stakeholder’s involvement to the decision (and how important the decision is), I will even message them prior to meeting to remind.
• I also do that with the remote team. When English is not their main language, preparation brings more confident in express their opinions later.

(3) Organiser prepares communication methods (e.g. slides, image, call, notes taking during meeting) to facilitate the meeting (No one would want to spend additional 15 mins because of some technical issue) This point actually consists of a lot of small admin tasks but I see a lot of people tend to ignore. A good meeting’s baseline is people need to understand what’s being discussed, what’s being agreed upon (regardless of any disagreement)

• Meeting notes: For almost every meeting I host with remote team, I create a note (I usually Sublime or a JIRA ticket) that highlights the agenda and what’s being discussed/decided of each point. I will share screen and note down at the same time. This aims to (1) Clearly communicate what’s the decision (2) No miscommunications, and (3) Offer basis for remote team to ask question in case they couldn’t hear clearly. Another small effort is I would highlight the point being discussed for ease of reference.
• Screen sharing: Every meeting has a context behind, a design or a ticket to refer to. I would spend at least 5 mins to preload all the relevant tabs/interfaces for sharing. In an miscommunications-prone environment like call conference, having all possible cues shared would give clarity to everyone. And for me, preparation of such tasks makes sure I don’t face technical issues later in the meeting (e.g. Not logged in) and make the meeting smoother.
• Voice sharing: Makes sure if there’s a physical team in the meeting, they would talk to the mic. Because the screen is shared in the main TV (at the middle of the room), I see people have a tendency to lean back, look at the TV and talk from there. That makes the sound quality very flaky, thus reducing inability to hear from the other side.

(4) There are meeting summary and follow-up (if required) sent out. I don’t want to spend 1 hour in a meeting and have no clue what’s the takeaway.

• I would usually use the notes (being shared in the meeting) and send out later. Or, if there’s a JIRA ticket to refer to, I would comment straight to the ticket and tag relevant people.

Other practices

• Talk slowly and clearly. Sometimes, when I’m not familiar with meeting content, I even practice talking as if I was in the meeting.
• Always schedule. Please don’t waste people’s time.
• No more than 1 hour meeting. If I’m working and I can’t even focus on a task for 1 hour straight, I can’t expect people to focus for 1 hour of their time listening and talking to other people.
• Meeting, regardless of its professional nature, is also a good place to build rapport among team members. It doesn’t mean that we should laugh or make jokes to reduce efficiency. If I run a meeting, I would allow few seconds (lesser than 1 minute) of jokes in between (if any). I would remind the team to focus if the discussion goes off track.
• My remote team has a team name. We call ourselves Avengers, and everyone chooses a superhero name and has a story behind it. That really helps create non-work yet work joke, like “Thanos (a team member) can wipe up half of the sprint with his fingers”.

Those are my tips for running a good meeting with remote team. I would update here if I find any better practice :)