Collaboration

At university, collaboration was easy. I'd lean over and ask the person next to me about their work, or they'd ask me about mine, it just happened. No booking a slot, no overthinking it, just proximity and curiosity.

Once I started working remotely, I looked into collaboration more, how it's created, what it means, how it should work.

Proactive and reactive collaboration

In-person collaboration is proactive, remote collaboration is reactive, meaning you need to be more intentional.

Collaboration builds trust and belonging

Every problem solved alone or with AI is a missed chance to build trust and belonging in a team.

Everyone can collaborate

Collaborating isn't limited to designers, some of my sharpest feedback came from people who “know nothing” about design.

Filling the gap

Being more aware of collaboration in a team, I spotted a real gap in our process, and I wanted to fix it. So I created a Slack workflow for the UX team, standing in for the “quick question” habit remote working took away. It's built around framing the problem and saying exactly what feedback is needed, so a request costs the person answering it as little as possible.

Frame the ask

Step 1 of 4

The type of collaboration and how you want to run it are both set before anything is written. An ask arrives already scoped, so nobody has to work out what kind of help is wanted.

Try the dropdowns and the summary field, or just hit Next.

Start a Collaboration

What type of collaboration are you starting?

What do you need help with?

Give a short summary of what you are working on, and what you need help with.

How do you want to collab?

If you want to start a thread, attach your designs in the next step.