Obviously the pandemic was difficult for everyone. And I’m sure there are thousands of blog entries out there on how to be productive whilst locked down. My team had a surprisingly productive pandemic despite the fact that we were absolutely not prepared for remote working (relying on desktop computers and physical sculpting).

Here are some of my takeaways from trying to manage a product design team during the lockdown:

Trust your team.

Remote micro-managing will drive you crazy as a manager. When locked up at home everyone is going to find their own rhythm to suit their home environments. Some people keep their normal work hours, some people are super productive at night, some work longer days with more breaks so they can attend to their kids. As a manager, it’s out of your control. Set the the deliverables and check in regularly, but you have to trust in your team to come through for you. I found that putting faith in was returned with interest. Some teams were more productive remotely than in the office!

Limit the size of the video call

Keep video conferences to as small a number as possible. Ideally under 5 pax. If you think people can tune out in a big meeting, it’s even more pronounced in a big zoom call. For better engagement I found that keeping the call attendees to as small of a group as possible meant that everyone participated and engaged better. I did this even if it meant effectively splitting a meeting group into two and chairing an almost identical meeting twice. I needed my staff to be engaged, so this worked for me. And I’ve taken this attitude back into the office now hosting more, but smaller, meetings with my teams.

Use delivery services

As a company that makes physical products collaboratively, lockdown was extra challenging. We had sculptors creating sculpted masters at home and then sending them to mould makers. We had designers taking home the 3D printers and then sending prototypes to other designers for review. At one point I was receiving samples almost daily for approval/feedback which I would then sent onwards to the next team member. When we couldn’t leave our house we got a lot of value out of Malaysia’s cheap motorbike delivery services for keeping physical workflow moving.

Be flexible and patient

In the crazy circumstances that were the 2020 to 2022 pandemic the big things were out of our control. Trying to manage deadlines with changing regulations on whether we had to stay home, have limited people on site, social distances etc etc meant that often you just had to roll with the circumstances. As a manager I found it best to try to keep plan A as best on track as possible, but calmly expect that it would either be delayed or deviate massively as restrictions adjusted on a week by week level.

Mental health is key

For most of us we’d never been through such a challenging couple of years, and certainly hope not go through something like that again. I personally found my mental health taking a hit with the claustrophobia of being at home so long and the disappointment of having to cancel my wedding. I started therapy during this time and it really showed me how important it is to keep on top of your mental health. A few therapy sessions quickly untangled some thought-balls that I was struggling to get past in my day to day. It really helped give me perspective and to appreciate the mental health difficulties of my team as well as my own, which in term I hope made me a kinder boss.