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Vp Product Management & Flexible Work At Zillow

Experimenting in our Cloud Hq: Changing an Industry Starts With Changing How we Work Together

Working toward a company’s shared mission no longer has to happen in a shared location. At Zillow, we call this concept “Cloud HQ” — that is, we’re headquartered in the cloud instead of tethered to a traditional, physical office.

Since we made this transition in 2020, we’ve been boldly reimagining how we work and listening to employees at every step to allow their input to inform our Cloud HQ strategy. Early surveys showed that employees loved the new model but still saw collaboration as a top reason to come to an office. So, although we do gather in person at Zillow offices for less frequent, more impactful events, we also have to continue to translate what was great about office collaboration to our day-to-day digital world.

For that, we need two things: the right tools, and a set of working norms that allow everyone to use that technology effectively

There’s no one-size-fits-all collaboration tool, making it vital to understand the unique needs of different teams. We’ve done that by trying out various programs and gathering feedback to inform our choices — testing, then investing. For example, to emulate the classic whiteboard brainstorm, Zillow has started to experiment deeper with digital whiteboarding tools, such as Mural, that can be used asynchronously to edit and collaborate.

Google Drive tools like Docs, Sheets, and Slides are one critical way we create and share documents across Zillow, but other teams need particular tools that are tailored to their type of work. For instance, designers are used to workshopping ideas in person with a canvas, allowing their creativity to flow onto a single medium where they can add real-time input to sharpen a concept. To translate this to Cloud HQ, we’ve been using Figma, an easy-to navigate, digitized canvas that gives designers a single source-of-truth document.

These tools allow everyone to jump in and sync up sooner in the process, which builds trust among teammates, gives visibility to what colleagues are working on, and ensures consistency across all of Zillow’s design elements, ultimately making the visual experience of using Zillow products better for consumers.

Using technology to take what’s historically been only effective as an in-person collaboration process, and bringing it to the cloud, can make a huge, positive impact on the creativity of a team that is spread across multiple time zones. But building a Cloud HQ is about more than the tools themselves. In many cases, it’s also about reimagining how we work, sometimes by using technology already available to us in more equitable and sustainable ways.

Video calls have been crucial for connecting distributed teams, but the experience can be quite different when some meeting attendees are together in person while others are remote. To ensure each person has an equal voice, no matter what room they’re in, we removed TVs from conference rooms and implemented a “one Zoom, all Zoom” approach — if just one person isn’t physically in a meeting, everyone calls in using their own laptop and headphones. And we continue to experiment with upgraded technology solutions to improve the meeting experience and prevent a “two-class system.”

There’s no one-size-fits-all collaboration tool, making it vital to understand the unique needs of different teams. We achieved that by experimenting with various programs and gathering feedback to inform our choices to first test and then investing

To maximize efficiency and equity during certain meetings, we’re leveraging designated Slack channels where people can share perspectives and leaders can respond to questions in real time, without disrupting the flow of the presentation on the screen. This space gives introverted employees an alternate opportunity to speak up and be heard, and keeps record of the conversation, notes, and action items for ongoing progress on a topic.

We are also testing working norms to provide employees with clear, actionable behaviors designed to enable us to work more effectively together when we’re physically apart. These are rules of the road, so to speak, but more broadly part of our mission to enable our employees to build their schedules with purpose and maximize business outputs. “Core collaboration hours” (meetings limited to a window of 1-5 p.m. Eastern time), for example, are designed to accommodate employees in different time zones. And we recently piloted and are planning to implement the “F.A.N.” principle to ensure each meeting has a facilitator, agenda and follow-up notes.

These new tools and norms are just a few examples of how we’re supporting alternate working environments equitably, continuously iterating on the Cloud HQ model and experimenting our way into a new reality. Just as we’re building the housing super app to help customers navigate the real estate transaction with more simplicity and ease, Zillow is also making it easier for our people to connect, innovate and collaborate from anywhere. Revolutionizing an industry starts with revolutionizing how we work together.

The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.