4 ms·

What's your experience with a combination of remote desktop &/or using something like VS Code Live Share? Given the choice between a traditional setting or rem

What's your experience with a combination of remote desktop &/or using something like VS Code Live Share? Given the choice between a traditional setting or remote, I much more prefer the remote session with those tools. -- I'll admit to being biased towards remote but with an understanding many things do work better when together (physically).

alistairSH 5y ago
Pretty good. My team is scattered up and down the east coast (US) and heavily uses Zoom to collaborate. For most work, this is fine. The two places I find tools lacking are... 1. White-boarding new systems/features. I find value in having the team in the same conference room and being able to use an actual whiteboard. So far, I haven't found a virtual whiteboard that was anywhere near as usable. I don't mean for pseudo-coding, but quickly sketching UIs or system architectures, where coworkers can walk up and edit each others work in real-time. 2. Onboarding new employees. Both for "water-cooler" socialization and ease of having the new team-member access other team member for whatever questions they have (Slack and other tools are most of the way there for the latter, but there's still something to be said for reading facial expressions and getting a "feel" for somebody). And I freely admit some of that may just be my own biases. I've hired remotely and locally, both successfully, and with my company spread across 3+ continents, I'm used to remote collaboration. I've worked with remote team-members for 20 years now. The tools today are light-years better. Heck, when I started at this company, many of the remote employees didn't even have stable internet connections - that was "fun".
- ghaff 5y ago
  >White-boarding new systems/features. Although tools like Google Docs actually replace whiteboards well for many purposes, I'm not sure why someone hasn't developed a better tablet-based collaborative tool. I admittedly haven't looked at what's out there recently but you'd think--even given admittedly limited surface area compared to an in-person whiteboard--someone could have given a better run at this.
  - mattferderer 5y ago
    Not to come across as a Microsoft fan boy (I work with MS focused Shops mostly), but the MS Whiteboard tool is pretty solid for a simple collaborative tool that has worked well in small teams when I've used it. I'm sure there are similar tools with more advanced features but sometimes simplicity is best, such as a real white board.
- Dyac 5y ago
  >White-boarding new systems/features I find miro works well for this.
- mattferderer 5y ago
  I'll strongly agree with #2. Physical presence is tough to beat in forming a relationship. But I do think spending lots of time communicating with someone online can form fairly good relationships. #1 I'm curious what you've used & where it's come up short. I have had good luck there.

alistairSH 5y ago

Pretty good. My team is scattered up and down the east coast (US) and heavily uses Zoom to collaborate. For most work, this is fine. The two places I find tools lacking are... 1. White-boarding new systems/features. I find value in having the team in the same conference room and being able to use an actual whiteboard. So far, I haven't found a virtual whiteboard that was anywhere near as usable. I don't mean for pseudo-coding, but quickly sketching UIs or system architectures, where coworkers can walk up and edit each others work in real-time. 2. Onboarding new employees. Both for "water-cooler" socialization and ease of having the new team-member access other team member for whatever questions they have (Slack and other tools are most of the way there for the latter, but there's still something to be said for reading facial expressions and getting a "feel" for somebody). And I freely admit some of that may just be my own biases. I've hired remotely and locally, both successfully, and with my company spread across 3+ continents, I'm used to remote collaboration. I've worked with remote team-members for 20 years now. The tools today are light-years better. Heck, when I started at this company, many of the remote employees didn't even have stable internet connections - that was "fun".

ghaff 5y ago
>White-boarding new systems/features. Although tools like Google Docs actually replace whiteboards well for many purposes, I'm not sure why someone hasn't developed a better tablet-based collaborative tool. I admittedly haven't looked at what's out there recently but you'd think--even given admittedly limited surface area compared to an in-person whiteboard--someone could have given a better run at this.
- mattferderer 5y ago
  Not to come across as a Microsoft fan boy (I work with MS focused Shops mostly), but the MS Whiteboard tool is pretty solid for a simple collaborative tool that has worked well in small teams when I've used it. I'm sure there are similar tools with more advanced features but sometimes simplicity is best, such as a real white board.
Dyac 5y ago
>White-boarding new systems/features I find miro works well for this.
mattferderer 5y ago
I'll strongly agree with #2. Physical presence is tough to beat in forming a relationship. But I do think spending lots of time communicating with someone online can form fairly good relationships. #1 I'm curious what you've used & where it's come up short. I have had good luck there.