Office hours

In general, we do our best to keep Seattle hours between 9am-5pm, and London hours between 10am-6pm. Most, if not all, of our projects require collaboration between our studios, so a flexible approach and clear communication across the two is essential.

Both the SEA and LON studios close on alternate Fridays. Closure dates will appear on calendars via the Pilot Admin account.

Out of hours communication

We understand that personal commitments and preferences, or upcoming deadlines, mean that you sometimes work on weekends and holidays, or “out of hours.” No one should feel obliged to do so. Therefore, any emails sent during these times, including alerts auto-generated by Asana, Figma etc., are considered non-urgent and no response is necessary until at least the next working day. In extreme cases where there is a critical business case to reply, individuals will be notified by Slack, WhatsApp, or text message.

Real-time collaboration

We use Google Meet for meetings, and collaborate using online tools, such as Dropbox Paper, Figma, and Asana. We communicate via Slack and email.  

Handoff & handover

Work with the Design Lead, Project Manager, and the rest of the project team to determine handoff processes that work well for everyone. Whatever the process, updates should provide clear instructions about the work you’ve done and what they need to pick up.

Using Asana

Asana is indispensable to our async work environment. It keeps teams aligned, smooths communication, and helps everyone stay up-to-date with the latest developments on projects and related tasks. We don’t want using it to be a burden so our process and expectations around it are intentionally lightweight. But ultimately, it only works when people use it. Luckily, Asana is relatively easy to get the hang of. And you can always reach out to the relevant Project Manager (PM) if you need help or have questions.

Project onboarding & management 

• The PM creates and manages the project board.

• Project kick-off meetings will use the project board to cover the timeline, deliverables, and high-level tasks.

• The Resource column on project boards allows for quick access to project materials, such as the Scope of Work, meeting notes, and links and passwords to the staging site.

• The PM manages task dependencies, deliverable dates, etc., and keeps the project team apprised of all key milestones and meetings.

• At Monday stand-ups:

  • the team discusses tasks to be accomplished for the week and prioritizes tasks in a ‘To Do’ column
  • the PM assigns tasks and records the person responsible for signing off on a completed task
  • unless otherwise noted, tasks should be completed by EOW

• Tasks are also reviewed at recurring stand-ups and the board updated by the PM.

Task cards & lifecycle

The lifecycle of a task can be summarized as: To Do > In Progress > Review > Complete.

• The card is created in the “To Do” column with the name of the task, a short description, an assignee, due date, and the person responsible for sign off (typically, the creative director or project lead).
• The card is moved to “In Progress” by the assignee when they pick up the task.
• The card is moved to “Review” by the assignee when the work is done, and they tag the person responsible for sign off. (NOTE: there can be multiple cycles between “In Progress” and “Review” if revisions are necessary.)
• The card is moved to “Complete” by the person responsible for sign off, and they tag the PM to close out the task.

Everyone should review Asana at least once a day and ensure updates are made to their assigned tasks as appropriate. Team members in LON should ideally make updates before SEA starts their day. Team members in SEA should ideally make updates before signing off for the day. Updates can be left in the comments section on task cards, where team members can also be tagged.

• Use Figma for short discussions or when you need feedback on work in progress.
• Longer discussions should be reserved for stand-ups and work sessions (let the PM know if you need an item added to a meeting agenda).
• Where tasks are block or awaiting dependencies, reach out to the PM.

Working from home

Working remotely has required (and allowed) us to be more flexible. With that, we ask for transparency.

• If you’re stepping out for a walk, it’s a nice gesture to update your Slack status so folks know you won’t be online for a bit.
• Please add any appointments longer than 30 minutes to the Pilot Admin calendar, and be mindful to let colleagues know when you’ll be offline during the day.

We understand the fatigue that remote working, online meetings, and the increased volume and frequency of Slack messages can create. We are doing our best to mitigate those factors, while also making sure our communication and collaboration are strong. Just don’t go dark, so we can all depend on each other.