Video Conferencing tools

We’ve long been reliant on video conferencing tools to allow us to meet clients long distance. Our favorite is Zoom— with a browser toolbar that integrates seamlessly into Google Calendar, this tool offers a virtual face-to-face meeting solution that does great with group calls, conferences, and one-on-ones. Plans start at free, and the free version is fairly robust so give that a try first before opting for one of their paid tiers. Other options include Google Hangouts, and Go To Meeting.

Screen Recorders

Arguably the biggest hurdle to a work from home environment, is finding ways to communicate effectively. So much of how we communicate is far more than words, its our facial expressions, body language, tone, inflection…well, you get the idea. ENTER SCREEN RECORDERS– the next best thing to running over to your co-workers desk to tell them whatever it is you need to tell them! These allow you to capture your face, using webcam, and your screen simultaneously, so that you can share news, provide updates, and more. These are also extremely useful for training and education. 

For quick, less than 10 minute, easy to record videos we love Loom. Once the video is recorded it generates a unique URL that you can share. 

For longer videos that require more than 10 minutes, we swear by the Flashback Express screen recorder. Record your video, export as an mp4 and then give it an upload to YouTube. Your choice on listed or unlisted.

Screen Recorders

Arguably the biggest hurdle to a work from home environment, is finding ways to communicate effectively. So much of how we communicate is far more than words, its our facial expressions, body language, tone, inflection…well, you get the idea. ENTER SCREEN RECORDERS– the next best thing to running over to your co-workers desk to tell them whatever it is you need to tell them! These allow you to capture your face, using webcam, and your screen simultaneously, so that you can share news, provide updates, and more. These are also extremely useful for training and education. 

For quick, less than 10 minute, easy to record videos we love Loom. Once the video is recorded it generates a unique URL that you can share. 

For longer videos that require more than 10 minutes, we swear by the Flashback Express screen recorder. Record your video, export as an mp4 and then give it an upload to YouTube. Your choice on listed or unlisted.

Communication Tools

Once again on that communication note, communicating with your team members changes drastically in a remote-team environment. It’s important to have clear communication channels that allows your team to feel connected and still part of a team. For this reason, Slack is the real MVP. Slack is a “collaboration hub that replaces email. It’s designed to support the way people naturally work together, so you can collaborate with people online as efficiently as you do face-to-face.” With channels, great search functions, calling features, and a great app-connection hub, Slack is amazing for keeping your teams in contact with each other, without it being a productivity distraction.

Project Management

If you’re the type to have a big white board to keep track of to do lists and projects, and find your self wondering what the [insert choice of profanity] here you’re going to do now, this section is for you. Let us be the ones to show you the marvel that is Asana. Asana is a free, web-based platform for up to 10 team members, that keeps everyone on the same page with deadlines, to do items, project benchmarks and more. With an easy to use, intuitive user interface, this is one of our absolute favorites that we can’t stop raving about.

Bonus Tool: Bringing Back The Noise

Probably one of the most jarring things about going from a traditional office environment to a work from home space, is the stark lack of white noise. For this reason, we give you, the chillhop playlist of our dreams. Seriously, we can’t get enough.