Agile Policies

VO: Get ready for your semi-regular dose of random ideas from the guys at Codelation. We like to talk about big ideas companies that are winning, and those that aren't along with current events in our crazy world of software startups. So come along with Erick and Josh, who challenge you to think big, start small and turn your ideas into something on this episode of, from idea to done

Josh: Everyone. I'm Josh

Erick: I'm Erick and today's idea is what to do with me. And so a little backstory on that. I went home the other weekend for my dad's birthday party, and he got a call like at the party, or like right before saying that he tested positive for Corona and that his allergies weren't just worse than normal. And so it was a very weird small birthday party, but now I've been exposed or, I mean, I was at a picnic with someone who has tested positive. And so we get to, I'd like to chat a little bit of our action plan. Um, my plan as of today is to be remote for the next 14 days since the party I got tested. And so we're just waiting for my results to come back and we'll kind of figure it out from there, but if I'm negative, I'd still want to wait the full two weeks to come back to work and realistically the overall safety of our team. It's, it's really the most important thing in all of this to me. And I know you kind of had a similar situation with your daughter's in daycare earlier this spring, you know, what are your thoughts on how we should handle these situations like this now that we're trying to consistently get back to kind of working in the office and normal life?

Josh: Yeah, I, you know, I think it goes back to communication and the example you gave of, uh, my daughter's daycare is our youngest, um, somebody in their class, one of the teachers contracted COVID and they shut down that entire classroom for 14 days. And, you know, sometimes communication decisions don't make much sense, like germs don't know that there's a door there and that they have to stop at the door, you know? And so I think it's, it's really getting out in front of it and communicating it to the team and, you know, having a conversation with our team of what should it be. Um, who's comfortable with what, because you know, what, what Cody on the team may be comfortable with Maddy may not, and you know, Cody's remote and Maddy's in office. So we want to make sure that we're keeping all of these considerations in flight and, you know, at the end of the day, really just default to making sure everyone feels safe and you know, this, this whole thing is going to be with us for awhile. So keep it flexible and adapt to it. You know, I kind of

Erick: Joke on our team that like our policy is never to have a policy, but this is a little different with a pandemic. And I think we should have structure to keeping everybody safe for mystically. And so I know when this first started, I mean, I was really, I, the way you just kind of stepped in late February and said, listen, everyone, everyone needs to feel safe. You can work remote if you want starting right now, do whatever it takes to feel safe. If you need equipment to set up for a home office, we'll get that for you and we'll figure it out. And do you have any like new thoughts on that since that original stance in February?

Josh: I, I think that we're in a changing world and that, um, we, we just need to be in communication with each other and saying, you know, like what you, what happened with, with you and your dad? It's, it's an adapting landscape. And, um, it's, you know, the new normal or whatever, like saying we want to throw it at that everyone's getting sick of, I mean, look at, you've got progressive insurance doing commercials and they're poking fun at zoom meetings. So, you know, something's changed

Erick: When marketers get all of something it's it's real. So I kind of, and I really liked just taking that adaptive, communicative approach. Um, one of the last questions that I have for now kind of about this is, you know, I went on a road trip in July and I visited a national park with my family. Suman, he did the same thing actually last week. And he decided to just kind of stay away this week, just in case. Is there something that we want to like put in place, just kind of, if people are traveling, even if it is to outdoor events.

Josh: Yeah. We should definitely have a plan in place. Uh, you know, for example, I'm going to be out of state next week. Our kids are going to grandma and grandpa's and South Dakota. Um, I, I feel like it's in my best interest to probably be remote, um, until I can get a test done and to be able to report back, you know, negative to the team. The last thing I want to do is to spread something to a team member and have, you know, unintended consequences, whatever that that may be. And I think it's, um, just up to each of us to make sure that we're, we're all feeling safe and, um, and, and part of the team,

Erick: You know, and I, I agree, cause I just, I know that the work that I do in, you know, having guests on our podcasts in studio and, you know, we have in-person meetings with people sometimes because it's a small group and the CDC said, it's okay. The last thing I want to do is bring that back to people that are socially distant. Like if this comes back to the office, I'm going to feel awful. And I don't want to put my teammate at risk or teammates, you know? And so I think it's good for us to have a discussion with the team. And I think that what we have in place is kind of to get a good foundation. I also really like the agile practices that we use in development and taking that to our safety policies and how to handle these and that it's good for us as a business. And that's so important because everything has been changing so quickly this year.

Josh: Yeah, absolutely. I, you know, again, I'll go back to a portion of our team's remote and if, if Tim goes on a vacation or leaves his, his place for awhile, he's coming back to his apartment. So I think having one, you know, one big policy to rule them all is, is the wrong way to look at it. And I think just with anything in, in business and in our startup world is communicate with people and make sure that everyone feels comfortable with what we're doing. Um, because what works for Tim will probably won't work for us in the office. Sure. So thank you all for listening. We're hoping, you know, a startup that could use our advice and random thoughts, send them on over to [inaudible] dot com to hear the next podcast.