Empowering (introvert) tech teams through asynchronous work

In the evolving landscape of the tech industry, the shift towards asynchronous (async) work models represents a significant leap in fostering employee autonomy and flexibility. This approach, resonating deeply with MarsBased's work in web and mobile app development, is not just a trend but a transformative strategy for empowering diverse teams and enhancing productivity.

In fact, during 2022, we decided to adopt async as a strategy to optimise for productivity and also to make our employees happier. That's why we wrote Betting hard on async one year after taking that decision.

Far from exploring the general balance of whether it's been a good or a bad decision for us, I want to single out a few good things we have discovered in two years of running (mostly) asynchronously.

Addressing Challenges in Remote Work

While remote work offers numerous benefits, it's crucial to address its challenges, such as the tendency towards micromanagement, characterized by excessive meetings and employee surveillance. This contrasts sharply with the inclusive opportunities that remote work has opened up, particularly during the pandemic, for adults with health issues or struggling families/environments. By understanding and mitigating these challenges, organizations can adopt the advantages of remote setups.

Micromanagement is something I've always struggled with as an employee. While remote helps to avoid the so-called managing-by-lurking-around, there are people who are extremely invasive in controlling their workforce.

We have seen it a few times when some former clients of ours would DM our employees asking them to work more or to provide immediate updates to their tasks, which contravenes our ethical guidelines. If it's work related, it belongs to public channels. DMs are only for personal matters.

In my case, I suffered this when I was an employee of a few firms, in the past. My brain is wired differently than most people, and I get stuck when someone becomes very bossy and/or insists too much too often. I get blocked, and I don't react nor act, resulting in an immediate loss of focus and therefore of productivity too.

Luckily, I had the option to work not only remotely when I was writing my final year project at the University of Munich, Germany, but I could also work asynchronously, checking in whenever I wanted with my boss. We ended up agreeing in once or twice per week. As a result, I was able to be more productive, being able to focus on the work at hand rather than on providing useless status whenever someone else needed them.

At MarsBased, we check with the client to see what they want to have. Some clients want to do sync meetings, and that's fine, but a lot of them don't. Therefore, while the whole industry defaults to sync, we're happy to say that we've got a fair amount of clients that don't require videocalls at all.

Meeting Diverse Workforce Needs

Async work models are exceptionally beneficial for various workforce segments, including people with dependent family members, the neurodivergent, and individuals with health conditions. This approach allows for a more balanced and inclusive work environment, accommodating different lifestyles and needs. At MarsBased, we've seen firsthand how such flexibility can enhance employee well-being and job satisfaction.

In fact, we employ people who don't enjoy much being surrounded by too many people or that have a hard time speaking with other people. Strangely enough, they ended up working in a services company like ours, which might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it isn't, when you take into account that we have the roles of the Project Manager and the Tech Lead in projects, so developers have to focus on development, and development only. PMs and Tech Leads lead communication with the clients, doing the sync work, and then there's the async checks with the developers over tools like Linear and Github.

Outside of MarsBased, the async-first approach is a game-changer, especially for employees who might have been underappreciated in conventional work setups and companies. Traditionally, people with certain characteristics outside of the normative mental schemes were confined to not having jobs, or having to work in family businesses and so on, leaving them with little to no opportunities in the job market.

For instance, consider Bryden Larsen's journey as explained in the Twist blog. As a former Apple store manager grappling with bipolar disorder, Bryden found new opportunities at an education technology firm, Torch. This shift was made possible because async work models accommodate varying health needs, allowing individuals like Bryden to contribute effectively without the constraints of a traditional work environment.

I have seen firsthand many cases of people in my family and close circles that have found jobs in family businesses because they wouldn't have had the same chances in other companies, due to their own struggles (family situation, health, etc.), so I can really speak about this at length!

I myself have hired neurodivergent people (depression, anxiety, ADHD) to work with me and in projects because I am a firm believer in equal opportunities, and because I also don't believe in the bullshit of having to hire the top performers that bring their best selves to work every day. This is not the fucking Olympic Games. We can be more performant when we are at our happiest.

Diversity is much more than sexual orientation, race or gender. In a male-dominant field like programming, I feel like we at least can contribute to bring more diversity by giving opportunities to neurodivergent people (but of course, we acknowledge that we can do better in other areas and are working actively to amend that!).

Organizational Benefits of Flexible Work

Beyond individual benefits, flexible work models offer substantial advantages to organizations. A healthier, more well-rounded life for employees translates into improved performance and productivity. This is particularly relevant in the tech sector, where the nature of work often demands high levels of creativity and problem-solving abilities.

You can't be creative nor performant if your working schedule is cluttered with meetings and check-ins with other people. We need time to get into the zone. Context switching is one of the biggest enemies for productivity, creativity and - ultimately - happiness at work.

If your performance, as a developer, is measured by the outcome of your programming hours, why is your shift filled with meetings that work against this KPI? Async helps with that.

We ask our devs that they check their notifications twice a day to mainly unblock their colleagues (once at the start of their day, once before they wrap up), and to provide updates on when they are going to work on their tasks, so we can all adapt to each other.

Reframing Flexible Work in the Tech Industry

In the context of MarsBased and the broader tech industry, it's essential to view flexible work not just as an accommodation but as a strategic asset. Implementing async work models can significantly boost innovation, productivity, and employee satisfaction.

At MarsBased, our experience in integrating these models into our development projects has shown a significant increase in team efficiency and it has definitely contributed to keeping our employees happier and longer in the company. The average MarsBased employee tenure is around five years, which is unheard of in the industry.

Of course there are also things we've gotten wrong, we have overlooked or simply don't apply to us, but I feel like they belong in a separate blog post, where I will write about what hasn't worked for us, doing async work.

In conclusion, asynchronous work models are more than a trend; they are an influential component of a successful, inclusive, and innovative tech environment. By embracing async, companies like MarsBased are not only accommodating diverse workforce needs but we have also learnt more about how to conduct work and how not to conduct it to keep growing as a company.