How We Stay Connected and Collaborative as a Remote Team

By: Andrew McNiece

When Andrew McNiece first encountered StellarAlgo as a client, he was immediately drawn to the passion and drive of the team. 

Now, he’s the Senior Director, Product Engineering at StellarAlgo and he’s based in Vancouver. He shares how his remote team stays connected and celebrates wins, and how the company is intentional about building connections. 

What interested you in joining StellarAlgo? 

My journey to StellarAlgo began when I was a client. I formerly worked in tech and then moved into sports, where I worked at a professional sports team in Vancouver. I worked in data analytics all the way up to managing the analytics and business intelligence team. We were one of the first clients of the StellarAlgo customer data platform that solved one of our exact pain points. 

During that time, I got to meet people at StellarAlgo from the executive level to the Customer Success Managers and the Product folks. I got to know them well and understand how intellectually curious and driven they were. The people at StellarAlgo are passionate about the problems they’re trying to solve. 

I joined for personal and professional growth, and to work on really interesting problems I’d encountered in my past work in data analytics in sports. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you stay connected and collaborative as a remote team? 

It’s a continuous challenge like any remote team, but we try to be very intentional about it. The Product Impact team is spread out in Calgary, across Canada and the U.S., and our Director, Jessie Niles, lives in Germany part of the year. 

My role is working with our clients to make sure they can get the most value out of the platform so I work closely with the Sales, Product, and Customer Success teams. We have regular meetings and use that time to get to know people, understand what they’re doing, and how we can all work together to solve specific problems. 

One recent example is from a new automations feature that we released in our product. I met with our Product team to review the feature and provide feedback while it was in development. Our Product Impact team then collaborated to provide customer templates that we provided to the Product team to make the feature easier to use.

Context is key and when you’re remote it’s good to over-communicate. We have team weekly and bi-weekly check-ins, not just for work updates but also to build personal connections. The small group of us in Vancouver get together every month for our all-staff meeting and go for lunch afterwards.

We take advantage of every opportunity we get in person, through many events per year where we get together in Calgary with the team and the whole company. It’s focused, purposeful, and intentional time together. 

What makes in-person events at StellarAlgo feel so purposeful?

Although we’re a remote and hybrid team, meeting in person is not just a once-a-year event. There’s the ProBowl retreat, March Madness, holiday parties, and ad hoc events with your team. 

They’re never just one-night events either. For example, the holiday party this year was one night out of a week of activities, team building, and team meetings in person at the Calgary office. 

This year we held a CodeJam, where we got into groups and each person was given a role (account manager, power user, developer, data analyst etc.). We were also given a mock client case with specific requirements. The goal was to spend the day creating a solution for the client and present a demo to our judges at the end of the day.

It was great to work alongside the data and development teams to better understand the challenges they face day-to-day around working with inconsistent data and how to find ways to identify issues early and resolve them.

I realize it’s a large investment to fly everyone in for these events. That says a lot to me about how much StellarAlgo is open to supporting in-person learning and building personal connections that you’re able to build so much deeper when you’re in the room with people. 

How do you celebrate wins as a team? 

We celebrate the small wins in our Product Impact team chat, whether someone did a great presentation, a new report, or thought of a new way of doing something. 

The company events are about celebrating too. At ProBowl we have annual bobblehead awards to recognize people who have gone above and beyond in their work to be innovative and make a big impact. At the holiday party, new employees that year get a jersey with their name on it, which really makes you feel part of the team. We’re all about celebrating the successes of team members who have done exceptional things in a fun way. 

What advice would you give to candidates considering joining StellarAlgo in a remote role? 

Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions, especially when you’re starting and there’s lots to learn. Being intentional about getting to know each other and over-communicating is important, especially on a remote team. 

Take advantage of the in-person opportunities to get to know your coworkers. 

Everyone is open and willing to help, you just have to ask. There’s psychological safety across the team and the whole organization. It’s okay to ask questions and challenge the status quo because you’ll notice that’s how we work and what people do. Everyone wants to improve our product and support each other. 

Learn more about job opportunities at StellarAlgo here. 

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