Remote, Together: Craft and Collaboration Across Disciplines, Borders, Time Zones, and a Design Org of 170+
Summary
For a rapidly-growing company like Wayfair, scaling in all functions and optimizing at both micro and macro levels, a constant state of change is normal. Wayfair’s hiring landscape has exploded in the past two years with new offices in CA, Austin, Toronto and Berlin, requiring new ways of working, across disciplines, timezone and borders to be effective. In order to ensure connections and best practices across disciplines (product design, user research, content strategy) and end-user teams, strategic ways of working must be put in place to successfully serve our customers, and each other. We not only instituted ceremonies and best practices that have proven to successfully accelerate shared learnings in the last 2 years, we continually optimize those practices, as changes inevitably present themselves. In this talk, we’ll take a closer look at the practices in Wayfair’s Supplier space (also known as Partners), which has 50+ team members.
Key Insights
-
•
Wayfair’s Global Experience Design team stretches across six locations and speaks 27 languages, requiring mindful and inclusive collaboration strategies.
-
•
Traditional in-office rituals like sticky notes and whiteboard sessions did not translate well to remote work, prompting new collaboration methods.
-
•
The team intentionally designed rituals to avoid screen fatigue and to be inclusive across time zones and cultures.
-
•
Collectives, or communities of practice, allow individuals with shared interests to deepen skills and support each other organically.
-
•
Formal growth programs, like a nine-week UI growth course and the Research Empowerment Program, provide structured skill development and build confidence.
-
•
Informal 'coffee chat' bots pair team members randomly every two weeks to recreate spontaneous in-person connections and cross-team knowledge sharing.
-
•
Biweekly show and tell sessions encourage sharing work-in-progress to foster alignment and build presentation confidence without critique pressure.
-
•
Small design review sessions (XD Collabs) create tighter networks offering deeper, ongoing feedback among peers.
-
•
Global meetings (GXT quarterly all-hands, mentorship programs, and internal mobility initiatives) strengthen company unity and career growth.
-
•
Intentional experimentation, feedback collection, and willingness to scrap ineffective rituals are key to balancing connection and deep work in a distributed team.
Notable Quotes
"I love analog as much as I love digital—physical analog and digital coexist for me."
"One day we were in the office, the next day suddenly remote—there was no choice but to adapt."
"Sticky notes and whiteboards just wouldn’t translate online, so our collaboration rituals had to change."
"We were like islands with no bridges, trying to connect while remote, but it wasn’t so easy."
"Sharing unbaked pots and showing vulnerability is central to our process—it helps us collaborate through uncertainty."
"The coffee chat bot pairs two people every two weeks with no agenda, just like a kitchen chat that wouldn’t happen in remote life."
"Show and tells are not critiques, they’re chances to share progress and practice presentation without pressure."
"We broke those islands; now everyone’s connected, which deepens empathy for our suppliers and their journeys."
"Wayfair’s design team is design thinking led, inspiring other functions to form communities and grow together."
"We’re not afraid to scrap rituals that don’t work anymore to protect time for deep work and be mindful of team energy."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"To avoid bias in teams, it’s easier to gravitate toward what’s comfortable, but we need voices that challenge us."
Joi FreemanA New Vantage Point: Building a Pipeline for Multifaceted Research(ers)
March 30, 2020
"Proactive measurement before release combined with post-release evaluation is the ideal approach."
Jack MoffettUX Metrics That Matter and The Future of our Design at Scale Conference: A Community Conversation
September 22, 2022
"Not all learnings lead to crucial conversations, but big insights often do, requiring emotional awareness."
Sara LogelYour Colleagues are Your Users Too
March 29, 2023
"Preventative care UX challenges, like why men won’t come in, are deeply rooted and not solved by prettier buttons."
Theresa NeilDesigning for Wellness: Specializing in Healthcare
May 22, 2024
"Without memorable hooks or riffs in your presentation, executives forget your message the minute they leave."
Christian MadsbjergInfluencing Strategy
March 31, 2020
"Psychological safety means if I make a mistake on our team, the people won’t disconnect from me."
Alla WeinbergDesign Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
September 8, 2022
"All organizing is science fiction; it’s about the imaginations we choose to design from."
Amahra SpenceDesigning for Liberation, Rehearsing Freedom
November 18, 2022
"In-painting allows precise, targeted edits that don’t disturb the rest of the content."
Josh Clark Veronika KindredSentient Design: New Postures for AI-Mediated Experiences (2nd of 3 seminars)
January 29, 2025
"It’s not all sunshine and rainbows; being new and working in a fast-moving startup means our process needs to stay flexible and adaptable."
Anna Nguyen Emily BroganWhy Our Voice of the Customer is Better Than Yours
March 10, 2022
