Lead Time Chats

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Range co-founders Jen Dennard and Dan Pupius about how companies can roll-out intentional and effective hybrid work policies.

Jean, Jen, and Dan discuss:

• Some of the more effective hybrid return-to-office rollouts we’ve heard about, and others that…could be better.
• Why in-office work may not actually create more serendipitous interactions for most employees.
• What companies should pay attention to when implementing or iterating on a hybrid office policy.
• Companies that are technically “remote-friendly” but have a reputation of not being great for remote employee career development.

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Nadia De Ala, Founder of Real You Leadership, about managing up in a hybrid work environment.

Nadia and Jean discuss:

• What holds people back from managing up
• Not limiting yourself to managing up - think about managing up, down, and all around
• How to get around the fear or taking up space and advocating for yourself
• Managing up with an absent or even toxic manager
• Asking powerful open-ended questions to build a deeper relationship with your manager and teammates
• How remote work can make managing up easier…or more difficult

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Douglas Ferguson, Founder of Voltage Control, about feedback and performance conversations in a remote work environment.

Douglas and Jean discuss:

• When a large meeting shouldn’t be a large meeting at all — and how to address meeting FOMO
• Ways to break down larger meetings into smaller group breakouts to include everyone in discussions
• Avoiding the one-to-many broadcast of information in live meetings, instead opting for async recorded Looms that people can watch on their own.
• How to make change at your organization when you don’t feel like you’re in a position to do so.

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Joaquín Roca, Founder of Minerva, about feedback and performance conversations in a remote work environment.

Joaquín and Jean discuss:

• Why it’s important to give feedback that’s frequent, timely, continuous, and focused on impact.
• The general rule of thumb to give 5 pieces of positive feedback for each piece of constructive feedback
• Cadences and structures to support regular feedback
• Continuous feedback ensures that nothing in a performance review is a surprise
• How to give feedback on work performance when teammates are dealing with personal struggles

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Brooks Scott, Founder of Merging Path Coaching, about how to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion on remote and distributed teams.

Brooks and Jean discuss:

• How companies commonly start and end their DEI efforts with hiring more women
• Why it’s important to prioritize diversity and inclusion beyond the gender binary
• The inclusion challenge as companies return to office and under-represented people face in-person micro-aggressions
• How to build a foundation of trust in a relationship so that you can have the hard conversations when needed
• Different ways companies and leaders can respond to terrible news events

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Fred Plais, CEO at Platform.sh, about setting up a globally distributed team for success.

Fred and Jean discuss:

• The many advantages of hiring a globally distributed team, including round-the-clock support all during office hours
• The importance of spending limited synchronous time very intentionally
• Limiting individual teams to 2 timezones (i.e. Europe and America) to maximize team overlap
• How a globally distributed team empowers Platform.sh build a product that’s used globally

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Steph Mann, Co-Founder of At Your Core, about reinforcing team values in remote and hybrid teams.

Steph and Jean discuss:

• The risk of not taking the time to codify values as your company grows
• Choosing values that are authentic and not overly aspirational
• How to reinforce values (beyond beautiful posters and stickers) with rituals, regular check-ins, and external acknowledgment
• The shadow side of values and how values can be misconstrued

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Andy Detskas, most recently Design Leadership at Strava, about navigating conflict on remote teams.

Andy and Jean discuss:

• Bringing an experience design mindset to meeting design
• How to build an inclusive culture on a hybrid team
• How to mitigate the risk of remote employees feeling like second-class citizens
• Taking into different cognitive approaches when planning for meetings
• How inclusive teams and meetings lead the way to inclusive design and products

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Suzan Bond, Leadership Consultant and Executive Coach, about navigating conflict on remote teams.

Suzan and Jean discuss:

• How conflict shows up differently on remote teams (more conflict avoidance than outbursts)
• Being curious about areas of disagreement, rather than being terrified of conflict
• Designing upfront how you want to be in disagreement in your work relationships
• How simply naming the tension or disagreement can help create a path forward
• Why you should avoid resolving conflict through a third party - and how to coach people to speak directly to each other first

In this episode of Lead Time Chats, Jean Hsu, VP of Engineering at Range, chats with Jori Lallo, co-founder of Linear, about working effectively across different timezones.

Jori and Jean discuss:

• How to divide projects and work across timezones to reduce overhead
• Unexpected ways to connect socially while working on a distributed team
• Benefits of spanning vastly different timezones (no overnight on-call!)
• Figuring out how to spend async/sync time effectively