the partnership. The frequency of visits depends on the project phase, geographical distance, and team budget. It could vary from one week per month to two weeks per quarter.

While the activities in the kickoff visit are mostly intended to establish the partnership, activities in recurring visits should focus on getting things done, especially those tasks that require face-to-face interaction, like agile UX fit-and-finish and usability lab studies.

3. Quality is more important than
quantity when setting up a partnership.

Focus on a few remote champions— people in the distributed sites who will advocate your ideas in your absence— when connecting with distributed teams. Good candidates are team leads or individual contributors who are passionate about user experience.

Make good use of the kickoff and recurring site visits to let them know what you can offer. Activities like the design process workshops mentioned earlier are good ways to communicate your role in the project. Use great deliverables to substantiate your message to the teams. Having strong, close working relationships with colleagues in your distributed teams, particularly developers, is essential for implementing your ideas when you are not physically present.

4. “The medium is the message”
–Marshall McLuhan. The way
you communicate is part of the
message itself. People have a set of
expectations that depend on the
communication channel. Therefore,
use the appropriate channels tailored
to different contexts and goals. Here
are the channels I use often and their
considerations:
• Email. For relatively non-urgent
matters. Expect more than a day’s
turnaround time, especially for
international teams, due to time
differences. Try to be brief, but
more contextual information can be
included compared with, say, instant
messaging. Be smart about who to put
in the To: line for the most impact.

• Instant messages and phone calls.

Because of their instantaneous nature,
they tend to be used for quick check-
ins on timely issues. However, keep in
mind your correspondents’ local time
to avoid sending it at an awkward time.

• Online meetings. They allow for more interactivity with video and audio and are thus suitable for real-time collaboration (e.g., UX fit-and-finish, lab-study result presentation). At Microsoft, we use Lync, a videoconferencing and instant-messaging application, for all online meetings and presentations. If some stakeholders cannot attend at the set time, the recording function in most online meeting applications nowadays is useful for archiving and sharing afterward.

• Microsoft SharePoint. It’s a team collaboration tool that we rely on at Microsoft. Among the many collaborative features, versioning control enables partners to get the most up-to-date design and research documents, all stored in one location.

• Microsoft OneNote. This application is useful for capturing non-linear discussion, like brainstorm ideas, decisions, and follow-up actions from online meetings.

• Site visits. Despite all the capabilities that technology provides, for activities that are highly collaborative in nature, physical visits are still more efficient. For example, in the case of equipment setup for usability studies. Moreover, the visits allow both sides to have more candid talks through the off-the-record nature of face-to-face conversation. It’s particularly helpful to catch up on the “hallway conversation” happening at regional sites.

5. Share your work early and regularly. In order to foster a strong working relationship with your distributed teams, share your design ideas and prototypes early and often.

Try to involve your distributed partners in brainstorming.

It encourages them to have a stronger sense of ownership of your proposed ideas.

For distributed collaboration, it is
useful to have transferrable and self-
explanatory work deliverables (e.g.,
PowerPoint decks or click-through
prototypes) to document your design
thought process. Designers can use
storyboards and wireframes to lead the
design discussions. Researchers can use
lab study task lists and study results
to drive study logistics and UX change
requests into the product teams.

6. Be thoughtful when setting up meetings. Scheduling meetings in advance, avoiding last-minute changes, and including a clear agenda with the meeting invite are all well-known office meeting etiquette. I’d like to emphasize their significance when interacting with distribution teams in different time zones, as those teams may have to stay up late or come into the office early to attend the scheduled meeting.

Be considerate: If you are working at the headquarters, avoid making the distributed teams always compromise by choosing a meeting time that’s convenient to you. They will recognize and appreciate your effort to respect their need for work-life balance. Also, be aware that holidays, even work weeks, may not be the same between different regions.

7. Be aware of cultural differences. When interacting with teams in different cultures, be collaborative and open-minded. Interpersonal awareness is an important skill to have, particularly for teams that are used to working at headquarters and making autonomous decisions.

Working with distributed teams introduces both technical and cultural diversity to the company, which is integral to excellence. As with any collaboration, mutual respect and open communication can go a long way toward a project’s successful completion. Fortunately, most of the challenges mentioned here can be alleviated by recent improvements in technology and data-connection speed. Initially, you may find there is more preparation work needed for distributed collaboration. But over time, the effort you spend will be well worth the creativity and insights you might not have gained otherwise.

Charles Yiu is a senior program manager at Microsoft’s Next Generation Devices group. He has been leading products across U.S. and international product teams, defining and delivering user experience for next generation consumers, information workers, and IT professionals. He has a master’s degree in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University. → [e-mail] DOI: 10.1145/2627341 COP YRIGH T HELD B Y AUTHOR. PUBLICATION RIGH TS LICENSED TO ACM. $15.00