Summary
You'll come away knowing How to collaborate without borders — workflows and tools to successfully execute high quality designs (Dropbox, Sketch, Figma, etc) Management techniques for remote leaders and how to establish trust and goals. Best practices for team alignment, particularly when you’re not in the same office or time zone. What work-life balance means to Ana, particularly now that WFH is the global norm.
Key Insights
-
•
DeWist differentiates between remote work and emergency work-from-home during the pandemic, despite longstanding remote experience.
-
•
Trust is fundamental; DeWist avoids employee monitoring software and focuses on work quality, not hours logged.
-
•
Employees at DeWist design their own flexible schedules based on natural productivity rhythms and life needs, like Gonzalo's night schedule or Becky's gym breaks.
-
•
Transparency is practiced by making nearly all internal communications public, including leadership discussions and post-mortems.
-
•
The company experienced a 50% expansion in work cycle times during 2020 while keeping scope constant to accommodate human stress.
-
•
Asynchronous communication via a custom tool without 'online' indicators helps reduce pressure for immediate responses and supports global time zones.
-
•
Meetings are minimized, short, and focused on brainstorming or personal check-ins, never used as primary decision-making forums.
-
•
Care for mental health is open and normalized at DeWist; burnout is publicly acknowledged to foster understanding and support.
-
•
Detailed documentation (product, design, implementation specs) is key for knowledge sharing and onboarding across teams and time zones.
-
•
Effective remote leadership means creating safe space for vulnerability, encouraging self-care, reminding about vacation usage, and promoting accountability with clear task ownership.
Notable Quotes
"Remote work is totally different from working from home during a worldwide pandemic."
"Without trust, no relationship can prosper, yet many companies still install tracking software that employees try to circumvent."
"We evaluate the work and not the amount of hours."
"We do not have online indicators in our communication software, so people know they shouldn’t wait for an immediate response."
"We organize our work around our life, instead of our life around our work."
"Asynchronous communication allows us hours of deep and focused work."
"Meetings don’t exist for decision making but for brainstorming, catching up, and one-on-ones."
"We openly talk about burnout and mental health so people feel comfortable reaching out when they need to."
"We document everything from product specs to implementation and design specs to prevent knowledge silos."
"Start with trust by default; most people won’t disappoint you and will deliver responsibly."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Every major brand has a dark side brought to you by design on purpose, 40 hours a week."
George AyeThat Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
November 16, 2022
"You either give money as an unprofessional civilian or you do your job and offer professional services to help the crisis."
Xenia Adjoubei Sean BruceEmpowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program
March 29, 2023
"Our fraudulent participant rate is about 0.3%, compared to the industry average of 20 to 22%."
Benjamin Wiedmaier Annie MayfieldRedefining Toolkits: Unbundling to Create a Perfect Match
March 11, 2025
"You can’t measure long-term relationship value with KPIs meant for short-term performance indicators."
John DevanneyThe Design Management Office
November 6, 2017
"If you're changing workflows in experiments, you need to keep track of impacted teams like call centers to avoid resistance."
Steve Sanderson Alissa Briggs Jeff Gothelf Bill ScottDiscussion
May 14, 2015
"Vasilio Sampalis’s program at LEGO is so interesting and successful that it has attracted the attention of Gartner."
Jemma AhmedTheme 2 Intro
January 8, 2024
"Our jobs as researchers isn’t really to do research. It’s to influence people and help them make decisions."
Megan KiersteadYou Are a Badass at UX: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
March 10, 2021
"We have weekly meetings with implementation teams to design APIs, discuss progress, and address issues to ensure alignment."
PJ Buddhari Nate BaldwinMeet Spectrum, Adobe’s Design System
June 9, 2021
"Designing community is more like gardening than building a machine."
James LangIf you can design an app, you can design a community
May 22, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What organizational structures make it difficult to integrate UX research insights with growth metrics?
What are the core UX research tools essential for managing participant recruitment and study logistics in large companies?
Where can UX researchers find reliable, up-to-date information and recommendations on research tool options?