Guidelines

Use video calls if you find yourself going back and forth in an issue/via email or over chat. Guideline: if you have gone back and forth 3 times, it’s time for a video call. There are also times where it’s better to not have a video call. Consider these tradeoffs:

  • It is difficult (or impossible) to multi-task in a video call.

  • It may be more efficient to have an async conversation in an issue, depending on the topic.

  • A video call is limited in time: A conversation in an issue can start or stop at any time, whenever there’s interest. It is async.

  • A video call is limited in people: You can invite anybody into an async conversation at any time in an issue. You don’t have to know who the relevant parties are ahead of time. Everyone can contribute at any time. A video call is limited to invited attendees (and those who have accepted).

  • You can easily “promote” an async conversation from an issue to a video call, as needed. The reverse is harder. So there is lower risk to start with an async conversation.

  • For a newcomer to the conversation, it’s easier and more efficient to parse an issue, than read a video transcript or watch it.

  • Conversations in issues are easily searchable. Video calls are not.

Video call practices

  • Try to have your video on at all times because it’s much more engaging for participants

  • Don’t worry if you can’t pay attention at the meeting because you’re doing something else, you are the manager of your attention. The flip-side of being the manager of your own attention is that others should not hesitate to request your attention when it is needed.

  • During internal calls, it’s okay to eat on video if you’re hungry or the call is during your lunch time (please turn your mic off). To maintain professionalism, if you are presenting or facilitating a customer call please try to avoid eating. If eating during a customer call is unavoidable, please turn off your video and mute your mic.

  • You should ensure that you are properly dressed for all video calls. Properly dressed means that you are wearing clothing that covers the top and bottom parts of your body. We do not have a strict dress code policy, but want to make sure that all participants on video calls feel comfortable. If you cannot be properly dressed for the entirety of the call, you should not join, but watch the recording at a later time.

  • Having pets, children, significant others, friends, and family visible during video chats is encouraged. If they are human, ask them to wave at your remote team member to say “Hi in your native language”.

  • Do not feel forced to have your video on, use your best judgement.

  • Green screens are a great background solution. It’s great to work in your garage or basement! Just get a green screen behind you and put up a professional background image to present well externally and still use the rest of the room how you want!

  • We prefer Zoom.

  • Outlook also has a Zoom plugin where you can easily add a Zoom link for a video call to the invite.

  • For meetings that are scheduled with Zoom:

    • If you select to record meetings to the cloud (setting within Zoom), please include the text [REC] in the meeting title.

  • After a meeting ends, Zoom may take some time to process the recording before it is actually available.

  • As a distributed organization we are always striving to have the highest fidelity, collaborative conversations. Use of a headset with a microphone is strongly suggested, as computer speakers can cause an echo and accentuate background noise.

  • Consider using a utility to easily mute/unmute yourself, such as Shush.

  • Hybrid calls are horrible

  • Always be sure to advise participants to mute their mics if there is unnecessary background noise to ensure the speaker is able to be heard by all attendees.

  • We start on time and do not wait for people. People are expected to join no later than the scheduled minute of the meeting (before :01 if it is scheduled for :00). The question ‘is everyone here’ is not needed.

  • It feels rude in video calls to interrupt people. This is because the latency causes you to talk over the speaker for longer than during an in-person meeting. We should not be discouraged by this, the questions and context provided by interruptions are valuable. This is a situation where we have to do something counter intuitive to make all-remote meetings work. Everyone is encouraged to interrupt the speaker in a video call to ask a question or offer context. We want everyone to contribute instead of a monologue. Just like in-person meetings be cognizant of when, who, and how you interrupt, we don’t want manterrupting.

  • We end on the scheduled time. It might feel rude to end a meeting, but you’re actually allowing all attendees to be on time for their next meeting.

  • Do not use the chat of products like Zoom to communicate during the call, use the linked document instead. This allows everyone to contribute additional questions, answers, and links in the relevant place. It also makes it easier for people in conflicting timezones to contribute questions before the call and makes it easier to review questions and answers after the call, which can be before watching the recording.

  • You do not need to remind other people to vocalize their questions. Just say their name and a keyword of the question. ‘Jay about credit-cards’

  • Every comment is document worthy, even small support comments such as +1 or Very Cool!.

  • It is unusual to smoke in an open office or video conference, vaping is associated with this. For this reason we ask that you don’t vape during calls, and if you absolutely have to, kindly switch your camera off.

  • Speak up when you notice something is not working. If you notice someone’s microphone, web cam or latency is causing issues for them it is good to speak up. On a video call it can be harder for the speaker to notice that they aren’t being understood compared to a face to face conversation. As such you will be doing them a favour by speaking up early to let them know that they are having a problem.

Note taking

  • Write down your questions in the agenda before vocalizing. Always ask people to vocalize their questions to provide the most detailed context and for any people that only use audio, for example listening to a recording of the call later while running.

  • If there isn’t a note taker listed in the document at the start of the meeting, people should self-note-take. If you’re not talking in the meeting, at any given time, help take notes.

  • Consider asking other people to write down the answers in real-time to allow the person who asked the question to focus on the answer. The person asking the question can touch up the answer when the conversation has moved on to something less relevant to them.

You are the manager of your attention

You are the manager of your attention, and you decide when you do or don’t pay attention in a meeting.

You will always have more work than time in your life. If you get invited to a meeting you don’t think you should go to, you should decline the meeting. It is better to cancel than to show up and not pay attention.

On the other hand, not every part of a meeting is relevant, but it can sometimes be helpful to have more people in a call. If you only have one discussion point, if possible, try to reorder the meeting agenda to have your point first and then drop from the call. If you get asked a question when you’re not paying attention, it is an okay use of time to repeat a question every now and then. If training if required for one’s role, team members should plan to give the training full attention–especially if engagement in discussions or breakout rooms is required. If training is ’nice to learn’ or ‘optional’ for team members, multi-tasking can be done at the team members discretion.

We don’t use the first 15 minutes of a meeting to read the materials like they do at Amazon. You can use the start of a meeting to review the materials for the meeting if you need to, given you do not have to be paying attention, but that should not delay the start of the meeting for the people that already have questions based on the materials. Meetings should start on time in Roivant IT.

Don’t use your camera to signal you’re not paying attention. Cameras should always be on by default.

First post is a badge of honor

You should take pride in being the first person to add a question to a meeting agenda, however unlike the First post meme, we do want the first post to be more than just “First!”. The meeting DRI will be happy to see there is a question ready before to kick off the meeting. The Meeting DRI should remember to thank the person for asking the first question.

Hybrid calls are horrible

In calls that have remote participants everyone should use their own equipment (camera, headset, screen).

When multiple people share equipment the following problems arise for remote participants:

  • Can’t hear the sharing people well.
  • Background noise since the microphone of the sharing people on all the time.
  • Can’t clearly see facial expressions since each face takes up only a small part of the screen.
  • Can’t easily see who is talking since the screen shows multiple people.
  • Hard getting a word in since their delay is longer than for the sharing people.

The people sharing equipment also have problems because they don’t have their own equipment:

  • Can’t easily screen share something themselves.
  • Trouble seeing details in screen sharing since the screen is further away from them.
  • Can’t scroll through a slide deck at their own pace.
  • Sharing people can’t easily participate (view or type) in a shared document with the agenda and meeting notes.

The disadvantages for remote people are much greater than for the sharing people and hard to notice for the sharing people. The disadvantages cause previously remote participants to travel to the meeting to be in person for a better experience. The extra travel is inefficient since it is time consuming, expensive, bad for the environment, and unhealthy.

Theoretically you can have multiple people in a room with their own equipment but in practice it is much better to be in separate rooms:

  • It is annoying to first hear someone talk in the room and then hear it over audio with a delay.
  • It is hard to consistently mute yourself when not talking to prevent someone else’s voice coming through your microphone as well.

Meetings are about the work, not the background

One’s appearance, surroundings, and background can be the source of great stress and anxiety when preparing for a video call. At Roivant, we encourage team members to bring their whole selves to work.

  • Don’t waste time trying to find the perfect backdrop for your video call.

  • Celebrate unique surroundings. It’s not uncommon to see Roivant IT team members participate in a video call from the back yard, coffee shops, or even while walking.

  • Focus on your internet connection and your audio quality (use headphones), reducing listening fatigue for others.

  • Encourage others to say hello! All-remote employees invite others into their homes via video call, creating a unique opportunity to share their lives with colleagues.