Flexible Work and How To Get There

RemoteHQ welcomed Luke Thomas to the Future of Work podcast to discuss flexible work. Dialing in from Portland, Maine where he has worked remotely for several years, Luke is the founder of Friday.app and was previously Head of Product at Crystal and Head of Growth at getAbstract. Self-described as a marketer with a love for building stuff, he chose to create a structured system in which remote and hybrid teams should internally communicate.

🎧Listen Here

To dive right in, click below to listen to the 30-minute podcast or view the longer interview on YouTube.

💨Quick Takeaways

Leveraging his business degree and background in product, Luke challenges himself to think like an engineer and apply such thoughts to marketing tactics. Initially building Friday to strengthen 1:1 relationships and communication styles between managers and their employees, Luke later saw an opportunity to create a systemized way for teams to communicate. If you have any of the following questions about flexible work and efficient meetings, Luke may have the answer!

Why is product-market-fit so important?

Luke looks at successful product-market-fit as if it were a bucket holding water. If you’re missing it, your bucket has holes, and the more you pour effort/money into growth, the more water is going to seep through. Acknowledging the threat of competition, feelings of FOMO, and potential pressure from investors’ timeline, the short solution would appear to sprinkle money into channels to generate top-line growth. However, that method is unsustainable. It will most likely result in a low conversion rate, higher churn rate, and a high cost of customer acquisition. To go about growth correctly, product-market-fit needs to be there!

How do I begin working “flexibly”?

Flexible work brings visibility into individual team members’ swim lanes of how they do work best. To begin enabling your team to work flexibly, Luke says to analyze the frequency and way your company communicates. You’ll most likely find that a lot of time is spent casually chatting and coordinating with co-workers which creates an unnecessary dependency to move the ball forward. Break down the conversations, challenge what can be done asynchronously rather than real-time, and understand how to get the best out of your teammates (i.e. what time of day are they most productive).

How do I strike a balance between synchronous and asynchronous work?

Luke suggests taking a look back at your previous meeting agendas. Could those bullet points have been expanded into written updates? If so, share a more thorough pre-reading document prior to the meeting to cut back on live time spent on updates. There needs to be team alignment as to what meetings should and should not be used for. Live conversations are not replaceable but it is important to recognize what type of content is being shared in them. In meetings, Luke suggests focusing on having fruitful discussions that drive towards getting around blockers and making decisions.

What are the benefits of flexible work?

Allow yourself and your team to better integrate work and life. With flexible work, you are able to do your best work in a way that makes you happy. Luke argues that it is good for society and levels the playing field by enabling people to do meaningful work from wherever they choose.

Those are just a few pieces of advice that Luke has to share. To hear more, listen to the full podcast here and make sure to follow his personal blog.

Thanks for tuning in,

Mia & the RemoteHQ team