Post barryclark#4

_posts/2020-06-01-update-3.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title: Tools for Remote Work
+lang: en
+ref: update-1
+author: David Ranger, Jude Park, and Jared Chadwick
+---
+
+Whether you are working from the office or working from home, you’re going to use software to work collaboratively with your team. Working from home means that we can only use software to work collaboratively. We aren’t in the same room to be able to read each other’s notes or talk face-to-face.
+
+---
+## Tools For Remote Work
+Whether you are working from the office or working from home, you’re going to use software to work collaboratively with your team. Working from home means that we can only use software to work collaboratively. We aren’t in the same room to be able to read each other’s notes or talk face-to-face.
+
+It is a new experience for all of us, and that means needing to find software we are unfamiliar with to handle tasks we used to do in person. For those times when we are using software we are already familiar with but our government partners aren’t, we have facilitated teaching and helping them. When using software we aren’t familiar with, we’ve had to help each other along as we figure it out.
+
+Here is a list of software tools we are using, and some of the things we have learned.
+
+## [Microsoft Teams](https://products.office.com/en-ca/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software)
+What it’s used for: Communication, Video Conference, Scheduling, Demonstrations
+
+This is an easy adoption for us. Transport Canada is already using Microsoft Teams across the organization, and we were provided accounts and access with our Transport Canada onboarding. It’s a tool designed for working in configurable teams inside an organization. We are members of several teams, and we get to view and participate in conversations for each of those teams. You can plug-in external apps such as Trello, and you can upload files for sharing.
+
+We have 3 primary uses for Microsoft Teams:
+- Keeping up to date on what other groups are doing in Transport Canada that have relevance to our work.
+- Communicating with our government partners and stakeholders.
+- Conducting interviews with Transport Canada staff
+
+Microsoft Teams has been very useful for conducting interviews. Because of the organization wide adoption, all our internal users already have an account and are familiar with Microsoft Teams. The most useful feature Microsoft Teams provides is the option to record these interviews. Recordings are uploaded automatically to Microsoft Streams and a transcript is generated automatically. This allows us to revisit interviews and ensure that our notes are accurate and that nothing was missed.
+
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-04-01-teams-pgs-walkthrough.png)
+
+Here we are doing an interview with our government partners to walk through the PGS process. Jared is using the screen-share functionality so everyone can see what is being worked on, and our interviewee can provide feedback on what is being recorded.
+
+## [Slack] (http://slack.com)
+What it’s used for: Communication, Video Conference
+
+Where Microsoft Teams is used across the Transport Canada organization, Slack is used across the Code For Canada organization. They are very similar in what they do. Slack is our primary method of communication with Code For Canada and other fellows. It is also our primary method of communication for internal team discussions and planning. The best part of Slack is being able to reach out and talk to fellows from earlier fellowships, as well as being able to reach out across the entire Code For network.
+
+Like Microsoft Teams, Slack also has an app you can download to your phone. I once had to participate in a stand-up while sitting in a car (as a passenger. Don’t use your phone while driving), and I could thanks to the Slack App. It was exactly like participating in a conference call.
+
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-04-14-slack.png)
+Here we are doing our daily stand-up.
+
+## [Google Forms](https://www.google.ca/forms/about/)
+Google offers a suite of tools for online collaboration. GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Drive are all tools we are using on a regular basis. These were all tools we were using before COVID-19. Code For Canada chose Google as their platform of choice. Google Mail hosts our Code For Canada email address, and Google Drive is where all documents are stored. This allows for a natural integration with Google Docs and Google Calendar. Google Docs in particular has been very useful because of its optimization for collaborative work.
+
+We also made some use of Google Forms to create a survey. Before choosing Google Forms as our tool, we did research on other survey services. Most online survey services are free but with a limitation on the number of participants. We chose Google Survey for their unlimited number of participants who can take the survey, and their easy integration and distribution. The creator of the survey can invite gmail accounts to also edit the survey, allowing for collaborative work. It is a service that is free to anyone with a gmail account, and it can be filled out by anyone with access to the survey link. It is an optimal choice for survey creation and distribution.
+
+The data collected from the survey participants are made available to the creators of the survey. The data can be seen in a spreadsheet format to view each individual responses allowing you to correlate different fields together. Basic data visualization, such as pie charts, are also available which can help in communicating the results of the survey visually to stakeholders. These features make Google Forms ideal for our survey research.
+
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-05-19-survey.jpg)
+Here is a snippet of a survey Jude has been working on. It hasn’t been sent out yet.
+
+## [Mural](https://www.mural.co/)
+What it’s used for: Data Collection, Data Visualization, Mapping, Brainstorming  
+
+Mural is best described as collaborative post-it notes. You have a blank canvas and you add post-it notes to it. Those notes are also just as easy to rearrange as their paper equivalent without the potential of falling to the ground. It has eight colours to choose from and 3 different shapes & sizes to help with organizing and grouping your ideas together. It also supports uploading images, adding shapes & lines, or just giving you a pen to draw as you want. It also comes with a collection of keyboard shortcuts that can speed things up if you invest the time needed to learn them.
+
+It’s a handy collaborative tool because you can have several people working together on the same board. You can also share the link to your board and have people join you on your board and post their own ideas. The best part is they don’t need an account; they can collaborate anonymously.
+
+We used Mural for sketching out the PGS blueprint. We used a sticky for every step, contact point, and idea. We also used Mural for a collaborative “how might we” session, where we shared our board among the core PGS team at TC to get ideas on things that can be improved. Mural is also a versatile enough tool that we used it to create our Personas
+
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-05-19-personas.jpg)
+The personas we created on Mural. Mural is very versatile in what you can use it for.
+
+## [AirTable](https://airtable.com/)
+What it’s used for: Spreadsheet, Data Analysis, Data Organization
+
+AirTable is a very powerful spreadsheet tool. It’s a pretty Excel, with built-in features designed around organizing large sets of data. As you enter the data, you can add tags and links to other data points and organize it into a format that is easier for people to understand and process.
+
+It is a tool that is new to the three of us. Jude has taken the initiative to invest time in learning how to best use AirTable. Its powerful functions are very useful for our discovery and UX research. We collected a lot of data from our interviews and we used AirTable to organize it all. It mitigates a difficult job and gives us more options in showcasing the data we need to those who need to see it.
+
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-05-19-airtable.jfif)
+These are the cliff notes from our interviews. We are using tags to group the interviews together, and we’ve included some high level takeaways. There is also a tab where we have all the pain points listed and tags for which interviews experienced that pain point.
+
+## [Trello](https://trello.com/)
+What it’s used for: Alignment, Accountability, Working in the Open
+
+Trello is a task management tool for team scheduling. You can list all the tasks that need to be done, tag them by category, and track the status of those tasks. You can have deadlines, and everything is colour coordinated. It is a very visual tool that lets you click and drag tasks around.
+
+One of the pillars for Code for Canada is working in the open, and Trello is a tool that allows the Code For Canada fellows to accomplish this with government partners. The Trello board is integrated into the MS Teams chat so government partners are able to see what we have next in the pipeline, what we are currently working on, and what is done. Each card has links to the appropriate documents for seamless collaboration.
+
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-05-21-trello.jpg)
+This is what our Trello board looks like. We are using 4 columns for the backlog, things to do, things we are working on, and things we have finished. You can also see that it’s asking me to confirm my email address.
+
+## [Calendly](https://calendly.com/)
+What it’s used for: Scheduling and Coordination
+
+Calendly is an appointment scheduler. The user configures calendly to define when they are available for appointments, and calendly takes care of the rest. The best part of calendly is that a person can share a link, and the person who receives the link can schedule an appointment that suits them.
+
+Being responsible for multiple calendars and coordinating with stakeholders’ availability is a pain. Calendly allows the Code For Canada fellows to share a link with stakeholders and allows them to schedule a time slot that is best for them. The appointment then gets synced with all of our calendars. This has been particularly useful when conducting our user interviews.
+
+One of the downsides to Calendly is the limited awareness of its purpose and existence. Transport Canada has its own meeting scheduler and when we started sending out requests to TC employees to schedule interviews, people didn’t recognize it and reported it to security. It is comforting to know that, when confronted with an unrecognized link, people chose to not click it and instead report it. I’m sure TC’s IT will be pleased with that.
+![_config.yml]({{ site.baseurl }}/images/2020-05-21-calendly.jpg)
+Here is a screenshot of Jared’s calendar for our user research interviews. The names have been blocked out to maintain their privacy but, I can assure you, they are visible to Jared.