Team Collaboration Software

Happy Friday! This post isn't about broadband or streaming (and not an ad), but I wanted to share a tool that might interest those running or working in remote teams: Gather. When we started MyBundle before Covid, we were remote from day 1. There are, of course, +/-'s to both in-office and remote work. Remote work geographically expands your talent pool and saves travel time, but many say it can be challenging to foster the same level of collaboration/productivity as in person. As our team grew last fall from 7→16 Bundlers, I first worried about monitoring productivity. But I listened to a Logan Bartlett podcast where the guest said something like, “You can’t monitor people; people messed around in an office too. You need to hire people who you trust to get the job given done, and if they don’t you hired wrong.” Thankfully every member of the team is crushing it without even a hint of monitoring. However, collaboration was still a question. Tools like Slack and Zoom allow for remote work, but was something missing? At our first company offsite in Feb, where we did mostly fun stuff to get to know one another, we did have one 3-hour block of all of us in a room with our laptops. It was only then that Danny Cohen and I (mostly Danny) realized that the way people were able to simply walk over to one another and ask a question or spend 15 minutes working on something small was great. Again - we all can slack each other or schedule meetings but there is something different about that impromptu synchronous experience. And it sort of hit us, it wasn’t that we were “in-person” vs on computers. It was we were all doing the same thing at the same time in the same “place.”  When we got back to our airBnB, Danny went right to his computer to check out a site he had played around with at the start of Covid: Gather. While some people’s first reaction was a little sideways glance “Is that Zelda?” after a bit I realized Gather NAILED the perfect balance of silliness and efficiency. Too serious and it would have been awkward, too silly and it would have been a toy - but instead Gather has clearly thought through what made in-office collaboration work and built it right into the platform. You can create your own office space, stroll over to someone's desk, have open-door or closed-door meetings. Whether at a desk, meeting room, or when you walk by someone in the hallway, your camera and audio fade in and out just like you were there in real life! And Gather, of course, does a fantastic job of making sure you’re not caught off guard when looking at a different monitor/tab. I don’t see this as a 9-5 virtual office replacement. Asynchronous work has its benefits, especially since we span time zones, but making sure we all overlap for some blocks of the week has not only brought us closer as a team, but has brought those “sparks” of innovation and collaboration back. For anyone else working remote, I encourage you to give it a try! https://www.gather.town/

Last quarter, I sat down with a dozen organizations to understand how they're empowering their blended teams to succeed. A fascinating pattern emerged in our discussions about technology. One of the most striking success stories came from a financial services firm that cut their project coordination time by 50%. Their approach wasn’t about using more tools—it was about selecting the right ones and ensuring they were integrated into their workflow effectively. What stood out across industries is the critical role that the right technology plays in team success. Some of the most effective tools include: - Project management platforms (like Monday.com or Trello) that give everyone instant visibility - Communication tools (Slack, MS Teams) that bridge the physical/virtual gap - Secure document sharing systems (O365/Sharepoint, Dropbox, Google Workspace) that balance collaboration with data protection - Virtual workspace tools (Zoom, MS Teams) that empower distributed teams collaborate effectively   What truly sets successful teams apart is how they use these tools. For example, one team standardized MS Teams for all communication and collaboration, creating a unified space for real-time work. They also used AI for automated note taking, generating concise meeting summaries and highlighting key moments in video recordings, ensuring that team members who couldn’t attend could quickly catch up on the most critical parts and stay aligned.   The key takeaway here? Technology isn’t just about having the latest tools—it’s about making the right tools work for your team and using them in a way that enhances productivity and collaboration.   What tools have you found most effective for your blended teams? How do you ensure you're using them to their fullest potential?   #WorkforceTech #DigitalTransformation #FutureOfWork

🚀 From Tools to a System of Work: Atlassian’s Next Chapter Atlassian is reshaping how enterprises work, moving beyond standalone products into a connected system that brings people, projects, and knowledge together. At the center is Rovo and the Teamwork Graph, creating a living network that ties strategy to execution. 🌍 What I’ve Learned from Team 25 Europe From Team 25 Europe I’ve seen firsthand how Atlassian’s vision is unfolding. • Rovo is embedded across Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Bitbucket, Jira Product Discovery, Focus, and Talent. • It guides decisions, automates repetitive work, and connects strategy to delivery. • The Teamwork Graph ingests information across systems and makes context available everywhere, helping teams stay aligned without adding complexity. 🔹 The Four Collections of Work Atlassian is now organizing the System of Work into four collections, each powered by Rovo and the Teamwork Graph. Service Collection Jira Service Management, Assets, Ops, and Customer Service Management. • Faster service experiences across IT, HR, and customer support. • AI-powered incident prevention and proactive analysis. • Omnichannel CSM with embedded AI agents and seamless human handoff. Teamwork Collection Confluence and Loom. • Shared context with Smart Links. • Reduced meeting load with async video updates and AI summaries. • Knowledge that is instantly searchable and reusable. Strategy Collection Align, Focus, and Talent. • Continuous connected planning. • Linking goals to investments and outcomes. • Leadership gains foresight and visibility into execution. Software Collection Jira, Bitbucket, Compass, and Jira Product Discovery. • Faster, more confident delivery. • Connected service catalogs and enriched insights. • Collaboration across the entire software lifecycle. 🔑 The Foundation: The Teamwork Graph The Teamwork Graph is Atlassian’s dynamic map of goals, projects, tasks, teams, decisions, and customers. • Connects data from across Atlassian and over 100 external connectors. • Provides context for Rovo to deliver insights and guidance. • Ensures teams always work with the bigger picture in view. 📊 Outcomes from Team 25 Europe The results are compelling: • 2 hours saved per user each week • 30% less time spent in meetings • 53% faster project completion • $330 average savings per user from tool consolidation Customers are realizing immediate ROI, accelerating outcomes, and doing it with enterprise grade security, compliance, and governance. ✅ The Bottom Line Atlassian is no longer just a set of tools. It is becoming the operating fabric for modern enterprises, where strategy, teamwork, service, and software come together to deliver outcomes that matter. At Atlas Bench , we are excited to help organizations realize this vision — connecting strategy to execution and enabling faster, smarter, more aligned ways of working. #Atlassian #Team25 #FutureOfWork #Rovo #AtlasBench

Virtual Team Rooms ‘If you have a remote team, you can create a virtual team room using online tools. This works for hybrid and partially remote teams, too, but be careful: in-person conversations shut remote team members out. If some people are remote, the people working in person need to use the virtual team room for all their collaboration, too. A decision to use a virtual team room is a decision to act as if everyone is remote. Remote equipment and tools… Remote teams need an electronic version of the team workspace: - Videoconferencing software, such as Zoom, for real-time conversation - Messaging software, such as Slack, for asynchronous conversation - Virtual whiteboard software, such as Miro or Mural, for freeform, simultaneous collaboration - Collaborative versions of task-specific tools, where possible, such as Figma for UX and UI design - A document store, such as DropBox, Google Drive, or a wiki - Inexpensive tablets for collaborative whiteboard sketches - An additional monitor or tablet for videoconferencing, so people can see one another and work at the same time - For Delivering teams, collaborative programming tools, such as Tuple or Visual Studio Live Share, that support pairing or mobbing (see “Pair Programming” and “Mob Programming” for details) As with an in-person workspace, do not purchase Agile Lifecycle Management software or other tracking software. Designing remote collaboration Collaboration is easy when people are colocated. Achieving the same level of collaboration in a remote environment takes careful design. When your team establishes its working agreements during alignment chartering, make a point of discussing how you’ll collaborate. Remember that the goal is to maximize the performance of the team, not the individual. As work progresses, be sure to evaluate and improve your communication techniques frequently. I asked people who had experience with great in-person and remote collaboration experience for their remote collaboration tricks. There were several excellent suggestions: - Make time for personal connections. In-person teams form bonds of friendship and mutual respect, and this allows them to make decisions quickly and effectively. In a remote team, be sure to set aside time to socialize and keep up with each other’s lives. Options include virtual coffee breaks to help ease tension, a dedicated chat channel for greetings and personal updates as people arrive and leave their office, and a 30-minute call every day for chatting or playing games. One team made a habit of reserving the first 5–10 minutes of every meeting for socializing; people could either show up early to chat or just come for the content as their mood dictated. Another set aside time specifically for celebrating successes. - Ensure safety. In an...’ ― James Shore with Diana Larsen, Gitte Klitgaard, and Shane Warden, The Art of Agile Development https://lnkd.in/gEh4acmf