VideoAsk

How to get to know your team better remotely with VideoAsk

How to get to know your team better remotely with VideoAsk
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Hello lovely Community,

 

I hope you’re having a great start to the week. Today, I’d like to share with you some tips on how to stay connected with your teammates, and get to know each other better in this whole remote situation - without much effort or time investment. 

 

Background

 

Why did I feel the need for something like this in the first place?

 

Let me explain. Last year, like most of you, we had to transition into working remotely due to Covid. 

 

Now, when this happens while you are already in an established team where everyone knows each other, that’s not too big of an issue. The collaboration keeps on flowing, and the only difference is that all communications move to online channels. But what if you have a new team forming in such a situation? That was our case. 

 

My previous team, the Demand Generation Team within Marketing, came to life early 2020, and we started working together from an all-remote situation. And because 95% of our online interactions were work-related, we didn’t have a chance to get to know each other properly in the beginning, like we would under normal circumstances.
 

That made me think: “How could we come together as a team, without having to invest a big amount of effort or time?” (It was a tough quarter, and not everybody could dedicate 1-2h every week for casual video calls, understandably.)

 

It suddenly hit me that we could use one of our own products - Typeform's video interaction tool, VideoAsk - to bring us closer together. In case you don't know it, it's a tool for recording video messages (like saying hello, or answering questions) and sharing them with your audience, who can then reply through video, audio or text - directly through your link, without the need to download anything. (You can check it out here, if you’re curious.)

 

Step forward our new tradition: the weekly “Getting-to-know-each-other” videoask.

 

How did it work? 

 

Every week someone from the team would create a videoask, asking a random, but personal question like “What’s your favourite film?”, or “If you could eat only one dish for the rest of your life, which one would it be?” and share the link. The rest of the team would have the whole week to reply to the videoask (via the video option, of course :wink: ). 

 

At the end of the week, the question creator would then post the video with the answers in our Slack group, and nominate another teammate to create the next videoask question.

 

Real-life example

 

Curious about how that looks in reality? Here is a recent example we did with our Community and CS teams. My question was:


“If you won the lottery, what would you do?”  https://www.videoask.com/fcahvi1mt

 

And here is what @James , @Gabriel , @amy.carlson , @Maya , @Msquared , @ish  and myself replied:

 

https://www.videoask.com/rbprb3eh0fhv2e3l0f54xbix2o4v5qmgeehjc1pw

 

The result? 

 

Everybody loved it! I think what appealed to them was this casual and fun way of interacting while learning curious facts about each other, in a time when there was this lack of human connection. And yes - it might sound like a cliché - but week by week, videoask by videoask, I had the feeling I knew my team a little bit better.

 

Get involved 🗣️

Question to you folks: how do you guys feel about having a regular videoask to answer here in our community, for more personal interactions? It could be either business-related for the exchange of tips and learnings, or personal questions like in the example above to get to know each other better.

 

Curious to hear your thoughts! And also, here is a test videoask, in case you want to give it a try:
 

 

 

 

 


17 replies

Userlevel 7
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Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful initiative @Nasia I enjoyed taking part and I think this is a great way for teams (and communities) to stay in touch remotely. Definitely wanna keep this going!

BTW I love that the whole team is so aligned with what we want to do with our dinero 🏖️🏖️️ 🚁✈️🏩 And also... “I would never quit working, even if I won a billion dollars” – @Gabriel  it’s  down here in writing, so I believe Typeform can legally hold you to that. You ain’t going nowhere when your numbers come in...

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@James - even Forrest Gump kept working (but he cut that grass for free!) … 

very cool idea @Nasia and good way to get everyone to share a little of themselves and any lockdown-related hairstyles they choose to share.. lol.. 

well done to all of you … cheers.. 

des

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Thanks @john.desborough ! Let's see how many of you community folks are up for trying it out :grin:

@James When I saw how thoughtful and generous everybody's elses responses were, I felt so selfish with my "I'd buy an island and open a bar” :sweat_smile:

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@ish taking a nap first, sounds like a great idea right now - having my 2nd coffee already :laughing::sleeping:

and @Gabriel Love how you say "well depends, are we talking about billions or millions” :sweat_smile:  didn't go that much into detail in my wishful thinking…
And yes to your invitation!!:heart_eyes: Count me in for your luxurious world trip whenever you win the lottery :earth_africa:

Userlevel 7
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Thanks @john.desborough ! Let's see how many of you community folks are up for trying it out :grin:

@James When I saw how thoughtful and generous everybody's elses responses were, I felt so selfish with my "I'd buy an island and open a bar” :sweat_smile:

@Nasia - i will be testing it out today… was having a bad hair day yesterday lol.. 

Userlevel 7
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Thanks @john.desborough ! Let's see how many of you community folks are up for trying it out :grin:

@James When I saw how thoughtful and generous everybody's elses responses were, I felt so selfish with my "I'd buy an island and open a bar” :sweat_smile:

@Nasia - i will be testing it out today… was having a bad hair day yesterday lol.. 

 

 

ok.. so i did the screen test version @Nasia lol.. hopefully the bad hair day (which seems to be a pandemic of it’s own) doesn’t ruin the effects lol

cheers

des

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Thanks a lot @john.desborough ! 
Loved your reply. 

Also - come on, this is what you call a bad hair day?! You haven't seen mine :joy:   

Userlevel 7
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Thanks a lot @john.desborough ! 
Loved your reply. 

Also - come on, this is what you call a bad hair day?! You haven't seen mine :joy:   

Stop moaning you two @john.desborough @Nasia I’ve had a bad hair life – and it’s getting worse :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

 

 

Userlevel 7
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Thanks a lot @john.desborough ! 
Loved your reply. 

Also - come on, this is what you call a bad hair day?! You haven't seen mine :joy:   

Stop moaning you two @john.desborough @Nasia I’ve had a bad hair life – and it’s getting worse :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

 

 

we definitely need a “laugh” selector and not jus like and quote.. lol

 

according to my former wife, i have had more bad hair days than Tom Hanks .. but am thankful that i have all mine lol.. 

 

y’all have a great friday and a fabulous weekend

des

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@Nasia - how many folks from the Community were brave enough to try out the VideoAsk test drive?? curious curmudgeon over here.. lol

 

des

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Hey @john.desborough !
You were the only one, unfortunately :sweat_smile:
 

I was going to post the video with the replies if I had received several ones, but the other community members seem to be more camera-shy than you :see_no_evil:
Or maybe not many saw the post, who knows.
 

@James It could be because the callout was hidden at the end of my post.

Maybe worth trying out a plain callout post like "Let's share each other's experience and get to know each other better - here is the question” to give it another try?..

 

Userlevel 7
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@Nasia - maybe a short event that does a walkthrough/integration example into a typeform process would help the community here? Office Hours maybe??  

might also work in the introduction of team members sections @James?(

thoughts??

des

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Oh shucks. What a bummer that we only had one reply @Nasia - although I’m sure @john.desborough gave a rip roaring reply!

I like both of these ideas. @Nasia maybe you can try posting it as a new post in Coffee Talk so we can give it some visibility as a standalone thing?


I also like the idea of running through this particular use case in an event, or in Office Hours (there’s one this Thursday don’t forget!) In general we’re deffo keen to feature more VideoAsk inspiration here on the Community in the future. Speaking with @joannadelaney  @Navit from the VideoAsk crew to work on some sort of regular slot for this type of content so watch this space :eyes:

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might also work in the introduction of team members sections @James?(

thoughts??

des

Yep, that’s a fantastic idea too @john.desborough :) @Gabriel and I are planning to start embedding videoask popups in certain areas of the community, and I think the meet the team page is a great place for a “getting to know each other” type videoask. Looking forward to start experimenting with this!

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@James - thank you sir… i think there are some ‘embedded’ ways to use the tool in the community as you call out. Let me know if I can help from the user end of the spectrum!

 

Userlevel 7
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@James - thank you sir… i think there are some ‘embedded’ ways to use the tool in the community as you call out. Let me know if I can help from the user end of the spectrum!

 

Thanks a lot @john.desborough ! yes, you shall be our first guinea pig I pull out of the cage for any experiments :hamster:

Userlevel 7
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@James - thank you sir… i think there are some ‘embedded’ ways to use the tool in the community as you call out. Let me know if I can help from the user end of the spectrum!

 

Thanks a lot @john.desborough ! yes, you shall be our first guinea pig I pull out of the cage for any experiments :hamster:

anything to get me off this treadmill!

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