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“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” -Steve Jobs

This quote perfectly summarizes the importance of collaboration in any organization. No matter how skilled or talented an individual is, they can’t achieve great things alone. Success requires a team effort, where every member has unique skills and perspectives to contribute towards a common goal.

As a remote worker, collaborating with team members efficiently is one of the main aspects of working remotely. When I joined my new team as a Product Designer, I quickly realized that I had 3–4 meetings daily to catch up with team members and update them about designs and implementation. However, after a few months, I spent more time in meetings and less time on design, as I got more involved in user research.

Since our company was using Confluence, I decided to start using it as my main tool for documenting the design process. But as our database grew, I struggled to find my notes or link them with others. I wasn’t happy with my stack of tools, and as I was promoted to Lead Designer, I knew that I needed to choose a reliable tool to collaborate better.

To cut down on meetings and optimize my time, I started using Loom. This has helped demonstrate ideas, feedback, and implementation of designs with juniors, project managers, marketers, and developers asynchronously. I also started using Notion for the design team, as we come across many design ideas, articles, themes, and prototypes. Notion helped me manage these at the team level, so only the design team could view them. Once the designs were finalized, we would put them in Confluence for the whole organization to explain why and how we did this.

Recently, I discovered Gemoo. It’s a promising tool that helps me make my collaboration tool stack lean. With Gemoo, I can record videos, take screenshots, make notes, provide feedback, and organize them in calendar view. Since everything is in one place, it’s easy for me to document everything quickly.

As I grow more as a designer, I realize that I design less and collaborate more. Choosing the right stack of collaboration tools is crucial for productivity. The right tools can reduce time and effort, allowing for more productive work. Instead of using 10 different tools, invest in 2–3 tools and focus your energy there. This helps other team members adapt to the tech stack quickly, rather than spending time figuring out how to use multiple tools.

It’s important to document everyone’s thoughts, questions, or comments, as many great ideas can get lost in conversations. Collaboration tools help keep everyone on the same page and reduce the time spent in meetings.

However, when an organization scales, different teams emerge, and so do their needs. In such cases, robust tools are needed to bring all team members to the same page. It may seem overwhelming, but as we start using these tools and understand their use case, it becomes easy to use them daily.

In conclusion, choosing the right collaboration tools can make a significant difference in optimizing workflow and improving productivity. Whether you are part of a small or large organization, finding the right tool for your team is crucial. Tools such as Loom, Notion, and Gemoo can help you communicate ideas quickly, organize tasks, and collaborate efficiently.

So, invest in the right collaboration tools to generate great ideas, improve the design, and optimize workflow.