Like many of you, the team at M13 was asked to flatten the curve and went into mandatory work from home. As our recent webinar on remote work described, not everyone is familiar with working from home and relying on group calls and video conferencing. Our team is accustomed to collaborating with distributed teammates—M13 is located in LA, NYC, and SF—but it was an abrupt adjustment for the many of us used to hanging out in our Santa Monica bungalow five days a week, interacting and working with one another in real life.
With full transparency and in the spirit of community, below are a few practices we’re trying out (some from the People team and others organically suggested by our teammates) to bridge the physical distance. Let us know what you think and what’s working well with your teams.
Schedule daily stand-ups
Each morning, all of M13 convenes for 15-minute stand-ups. The intent is 50% fun, 50% business. We start with something to make us smile (like this gem that Carter shared on St. Patrick’s Day) and end like we’re in the audience of the Ellen show (yes, we all showcase our go-to dance move on Zoom). In between is a speed round of team updates on what we’re working on and where we need help. The result is we kick off each day with face time with the whole team and an update on each other’s work. And no matter how unruly our bed head is, we keep our cameras on.
Support local restaurant and delivery
M13 has given all staff a generous lunch per diem for takeout or delivery. We are spread out across LA, NY, and SF so this is a small way to support our local neighborhood restaurants. Those of us in SF enjoy meals by Shef, and naturally all of our freezers are also stocked with Daily Harvest.
Some of us opt into lunch video conferences to informally catch up and, of course, get more face time. Because what’s better than convening over sandwiches and salads? (Or pizzas—no judgment!)
Keep the celebrations alive
On our second official day of WFH, our beloved Mission Control leader Marie had a birthday. We of course had to up the ante to ensure she felt celebrated and loved, so we all sang “Happy Birthday” over Zoom. We’ll spare you our collective tone deafness, but here’s a screenshot for proof.
Have bring-your-babies-to-Zoom days
We need as much of that positive, cute energy that we can get. Children and pets are an inevitable part of WFH, and we encourage all team members to share their babies (furry or otherwise) during our daily stand-ups.
Come up with team challenges
Our team loves to eat and bake but also cares about health and wellness. We’re also a competitive group, so it was no surprise that two challenges popped up on our Slack channels. The water challenge encourages those who want to participate to log every 8 oz. of water they drink on a spreadsheet (the goal: 8 times per day). Our workout challenge focuses on completing a series of core exercises each day. This may defeat the challenge itself but team members who finish will celebrate with a pizza and champagne party— another thing to look forward to after our lockdown.
Revert to business as usual
Yes, the world in general feels as if it’s on pause and we’re no longer in the same room, but we have kept to our weekly schedule of meetings including our bi-weekly all-hands. If there’s one thing this unusual and uncertain time of health-mandated isolation has taught us, it’s that technology can give us a measure of control and keep us together.
… but with empathy
We also recognize that not everyone is used to working from home, not everyone has an optimal WFH space, and many of us are now sharing our work space with multigenerational family and friends. We’ve equipped our team with tech accessories, tips and best practice guides, and are mindful to be respectful and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. We recognize and accept that our team needs to work in a way that’s best for them, will need to take necessary breaks throughout the day, and should prioritize self-care.
For more tips on working from home and managing remote teams, head over to our recap of our remote-work webinar. And make sure you sign up for our newsletter to receive invitations to future webinars, many of which will be focused on this very topic!
Like many of you, the team at M13 was asked to flatten the curve and went into mandatory work from home. As our recent webinar on remote work described, not everyone is familiar with working from home and relying on group calls and video conferencing. Our team is accustomed to collaborating with distributed teammates—M13 is located in LA, NYC, and SF—but it was an abrupt adjustment for the many of us used to hanging out in our Santa Monica bungalow five days a week, interacting and working with one another in real life.
With full transparency and in the spirit of community, below are a few practices we’re trying out (some from the People team and others organically suggested by our teammates) to bridge the physical distance. Let us know what you think and what’s working well with your teams.
Schedule daily stand-ups
Each morning, all of M13 convenes for 15-minute stand-ups. The intent is 50% fun, 50% business. We start with something to make us smile (like this gem that Carter shared on St. Patrick’s Day) and end like we’re in the audience of the Ellen show (yes, we all showcase our go-to dance move on Zoom). In between is a speed round of team updates on what we’re working on and where we need help. The result is we kick off each day with face time with the whole team and an update on each other’s work. And no matter how unruly our bed head is, we keep our cameras on.
Support local restaurant and delivery
M13 has given all staff a generous lunch per diem for takeout or delivery. We are spread out across LA, NY, and SF so this is a small way to support our local neighborhood restaurants. Those of us in SF enjoy meals by Shef, and naturally all of our freezers are also stocked with Daily Harvest.
Some of us opt into lunch video conferences to informally catch up and, of course, get more face time. Because what’s better than convening over sandwiches and salads? (Or pizzas—no judgment!)
Keep the celebrations alive
On our second official day of WFH, our beloved Mission Control leader Marie had a birthday. We of course had to up the ante to ensure she felt celebrated and loved, so we all sang “Happy Birthday” over Zoom. We’ll spare you our collective tone deafness, but here’s a screenshot for proof.
Have bring-your-babies-to-Zoom days
We need as much of that positive, cute energy that we can get. Children and pets are an inevitable part of WFH, and we encourage all team members to share their babies (furry or otherwise) during our daily stand-ups.
Come up with team challenges
Our team loves to eat and bake but also cares about health and wellness. We’re also a competitive group, so it was no surprise that two challenges popped up on our Slack channels. The water challenge encourages those who want to participate to log every 8 oz. of water they drink on a spreadsheet (the goal: 8 times per day). Our workout challenge focuses on completing a series of core exercises each day. This may defeat the challenge itself but team members who finish will celebrate with a pizza and champagne party— another thing to look forward to after our lockdown.
Revert to business as usual
Yes, the world in general feels as if it’s on pause and we’re no longer in the same room, but we have kept to our weekly schedule of meetings including our bi-weekly all-hands. If there’s one thing this unusual and uncertain time of health-mandated isolation has taught us, it’s that technology can give us a measure of control and keep us together.
… but with empathy
We also recognize that not everyone is used to working from home, not everyone has an optimal WFH space, and many of us are now sharing our work space with multigenerational family and friends. We’ve equipped our team with tech accessories, tips and best practice guides, and are mindful to be respectful and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. We recognize and accept that our team needs to work in a way that’s best for them, will need to take necessary breaks throughout the day, and should prioritize self-care.
For more tips on working from home and managing remote teams, head over to our recap of our remote-work webinar. And make sure you sign up for our newsletter to receive invitations to future webinars, many of which will be focused on this very topic!
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The views expressed here are those of the individual M13 personnel quoted and are not the views of M13 Holdings Company, LLC (“M13”) or its affiliates. This content is for general informational purposes only and does not and is not intended to constitute legal, business, investment, tax or other advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters and should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this content. This content is not directed to any investors or potential investors, is not an offer or solicitation and may not be used or relied upon in connection with any offer or solicitation with respect to any current or future M13 investment partnership. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Unless otherwise noted, this content is intended to be current only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in funds managed by M13, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by M13 is available at m13.co/portfolio.