
  <p>At Cardinal we say we're "Structured Communication for Deliberate Teams," but what on earth is structured
    communication? And how can it help teams be more effective?</p>

  <p>At its core, structured communication is about people agreeing on how they'll communicate with each other -
    systematizing it. It's about teams helping each other out by clarifying how the process they use to share 
    information, which in turn helps those teams communicate more efficiently.</p>

  <p>Whether they intend to or not, most teams operate with some sort of structured communication. For example, if a
    team member doesn't know who to talk to about taking a day off, they'll normally operate under a de-facto assumption
    that they should ask their manager. That manager fallback is a structure. "Don't know the answer? Ask your manager."
  </p>

  <p>As teams grow, though, the number of these non-deliberate, assumed structures also grow. They usually take the form of asking
    other people where things are, where things go, and who to talk to. That leads to a ton of interruption at work -
    interruption with good intent but interruption all the same. Researchers at UC Irvine found that <a
      href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/CHI2005.pdf">people are interrupted on average every 11 minutes and take on
      average 25 minutes to get back on task</a>. Another study at UC Irvine found that interruptions surprisingly don't
    tend to slow us down so much, but they do <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/~gmark/chi08-mark.pdf">drastically
      increase our stress and frustration levels</a>, and <a
      href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Effects-of-Interruption-Length-on-Procedural-Errors-Altmann-Trafton/f288c011a7771c06220f4601845b7d5c4c5ccba9?p2df">they
      increase errors in work dramatically</a>.</p>

  <p>We live in an age where we carry all of the world's knowledge in our pockets, and yet somehow at work we're
    resigned to the idea that all we can do is ask someone. At Cardinal we think by changing a little about how we work
    we can challenge that assumption.</p>

  <h3>Documents and Discussions - Structuring the Unstructured</h3>

  <p>Documents and discussions or chats are at their core unstructured. They can be about anything, and for the most part
    they can hold anything we can type, and even information like images and other files. Despite their unstructured
    nature, though, they have some huge benefits over an un-recorded conversation or an idea that never gets documented.
  </p>

  <p>Documents and discussions give us the ability
    to search. That helps with recall because anyone on the team can search for document or discussion that they have
    access to and find what they're looking for. And that search that ends in discovery of already documented knowledge
    most likely just helped the team avoid an interruption.</p>

  <p>Second, documents and discussions trade structure for expressiveness in a way that's amazingly helpful. They help
    us communicate ideas when they're not ready to be fully structured into a stronger system, or we just don't know
    about the stronger system. As an example, think of asking for time off like we mentioned before. Initially a team
    member may just ask their manager in a 1-on-1. The next iteration of that can be the person asking the manager in a
    chat or discussion app in a space where others on the team can also discover the answer: "Hey, how do I ask for a
    day off?" Creative work is very often ideal in these unstructured formats where everyone can play off of each others
    ideas without strong boundaries due to the medium being used.</p>

  <h3>Structured Knowledge</h3>

  <p>As teams progress, though, they'll find some communication methods become so strongly structured that they can be
    set almost in stone. We call this structured knowledge - knowledge that's able to be recorded with a clearly
    structured schema to help streamline communication and search-ability. Structured knowledge tends to be a very
    powerful form of communication that we tend to almost stop thinking of as communication because we're exchanging
    data to communicate.</p>

  <p>Going back to the time off example yet again, once a team knows exactly how time off should work, they may end up
    settling on using software to ask for time off, get approval, and track time taken off. That doesn't end the
    likelihood of someone asking how to ask for time off, but given a searchable discussion tool or great onboarding
    documentation it should reduce those interruptions.</p>

  <p>Another example of a great candidate for structured knowledge is issue trackers for software or other related task
    management systems. Over time teams will find that they end up with a large backlog of work to be done which tends
    to have a very specific structure - who needs to do it, what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done by.</p>

  <h3>How Does Cardinal Help Teams with Structured Communication?</h3>

  <p>Our focus at Cardinal has been on helping teams structure their communication. We provide documents and
    discussions, built in, to help teams optimize unstructured communications. Everything in Cardinal is searchable. We
    purposefully focus discussions on a single topic rather than around audience to improve their ability to be
    searched.</p>

  <p>Templates in Cardinal are our technique for helping teams move into structuring their knowledge in customizable
    ways. With our Template Designer teams can easily drag and drop fields to set up the structure of their data, and
    then once records are recorded they're also fully searchable, even against against specific fields. Teams can create
    as many templates as they, allowing them to create customized, structured records for anything they like. Moreover,
    once templates are created they are adaptable, so teams can tweak them as their work and companies evolve.</p>


At Cardinal we say we're "Structured Communication for Deliberate Teams," but what 
is structured communication? And how can it help teams be more effective?


What is Structured Communication?


<p>
  We're excited to announce that this week we launched our new template library. It lets teams add new templates with a click.
</p>

<img src="/blog/template-library.png" alt="The Template Library UI" />

<h2>The Library</h2>

<p>
  We're launching with several pre-built templates, and have plans for many more. Initially the Template Library includes:
</p>

<ul>
  <li>Task</li>
  <li>Contact</li>
  <li>Link</li>
  <li>Competitor</li>
  <li>Performance Review</li>
  <li>Retrospective</li>
</ul>

<p>
  You can access the Template Library from within the Templates tab in the app.
</p>

This week we launched our new Template Library. Teams can now add pre-designed
templates with a click.


The Template Library


<p>
  I've worked on a few teams where I'd say the majority of our communication happens via direct messages (DMs) in chat.
  "How can I reduce back channels?" was one of my core motivations when I started thinking about building Cardinal. I want
  to tell you a little about why I think DMs in most team communication tools are a big problem and how we've set out to
  improve things with Discussions in Cardinal.
</p>

<p>
  DMs come from a good place. Channels in most communication tools start to get pretty noisy, and DMs help everyone
  organize what they're talking about. Also, DMs help teams gel. We all need personal connections with our teammates, and
  DMs give us space to get to know each other without interrupting others. These are good things. But, there are a few
  downsides we all have to keep in mind.
</p>

<h2>Locking Knowledge Up</h2>

<p>
  I don't think anyone means for this to happen, but operating primarily in DMs hides team knowledge over time. My
  experience has been that it's not at all unusual for someone to ask a quick question that transforms into a deeper
  discussion, and all of the sudden a ton of new ideas and learning are hidden from the rest of the team.
</p>

<p>
  That's one big reason why we built sharing the way we did at Cardinal. It's not impossible to have a private discussion
  with someone, but that discussion has a focused topic, and you can expand who can see it from there. That means that if
  a quick private brainstorming discussion turns into something that feels valuable you can gradually expand who it's
  shared with until it grows to the point of everyone on the team seeing it.
</p>

<p>
  In Cardinal DMs aren't locked down. You can have a one-on-one discussion with someone in public or in private. As the
  idea expands you can easily add more people to the discussion. And because discussions in Cardinal are focused around a
  specific topic you can also easily search for, and discover, the discussion after the fact.
</p>

<h2>More Interruption</h2>

<p>
  There is an informal network of connections between peers in your company. DMs tend to cause a reliance on that informal
  network in terms of how information moves through the team. When team communications lean heavily on private
  discussions, that bleeds into almost every situation. I've been to all-hands meetings where I'm receiving dozens and
  dozens of private messages in real-time as the meeting proceeds, providing running dialog and differing opinions about
  the meeting as it progresses.
</p>

<p>
  I remember running an experiment in one job I had. I was the 6th person at the company when I joined. Over time I felt
  more and more stress from being contacted constantly via DMs in Slack. My manager mentioned that I should set my account
  to away, because if I did, no one would contact me. I was skeptical but thought it was worth a try. I turned it off for
  one hour. In that time I received 17 DMs asking if I was around and then proceeding to start a conversation.
  Unsurprisingly there was a lot of overlap in those DMs.
</p>

<p>
  DMs generate a ton of noise for teams as they're built in most tools. Rather than managing a single discussion about a
  topic it's easy to end up being involved in several at the same time.
</p>

<p>
  In Cardinal we try to reduce the interruption even in one-on-one messages by enforcing asynchronous messaging. We
  purposefully don't show if someone's typing and we deemphasize real-time communication in Cardinal so that everyone
  feels comfortable taking a few minutes (or hours) to respond. That delay pushes teams to include more people in
  discussions and helps everyone manage communication time.
</p>

<h2>Less Cross-Team Collaboration</h2>

<p>
  The Pixar offices are legendarily designed around 
  <a href="https://woodhouseworkspace.com/steve-jobs-the-ideas-behind-the-pixar-office-design/">the idea that people will bump into each other in central areas</a>, and
  because of that they'll interact and share ideas that wouldn't typically happen. With remote work becoming more and more
  prevalent, and virtual interactions being more and more the normal situation, it's important for teams to build up ways
  to communicate across the organization chart.
</p>

<p>
  DMs are great for virtually bumping into someone, but they're ridiculously locked down. In a physical space a couple of
  people can start chatting and then call someone else over really easily to get their input. Most chat tools lock down
  DMs such that as soon as you send a message one-on-one it's probably going to stay that way. 
  
<p>
  Discussions in Cardinal are focused around a single topic, and that makes it easier to add someone 
  to a discussion while maintaining context. It's the equivalent of calling someone to join your 
  conversation in physical space, and them being able to get caught up without having to repeat everything.
</p>

<h2>More Top-Down Leadership</h2>

<p>
  The end result of less cross-team collaboration is more top-down leadership. As teams grow I've seen their DM culture be
  a critical part of creating more and more insular teams that are less able to spread ideas. It's inevitable to some
  extent that teams become more focused internally as a company grows, but I've also seen that the best opportunities for
  growth in companies tend to come from the places where multiple teams overlap.
</p>

<p>
  We tend to DM with who we know, and we tend to know people in our same roles or on our same teams, and that leads to
  less sharing of ideas between teams. If teams aren't collaborating to grow the company, the people who connect those
  teams higher up the org chart ends up doing that work. That tends to create environments where managers are calling more
  of the shots and guiding more of what happens day to day, rather than simply helping facilitate how the teams operate.
</p>

<h2>A Symptom of a Deeper Issue</h2>

<p>
  What I've felt in general is that when people spend most of their time sending DMs is that they're uncomfortable with
  communicating in public due to a general distrust that they're safe to share ideas on the team. They know who will blast
  them for sharing an idea, and they also know who will validate them. It feels much better to send a DM and get that
  validation without the risk.
</p>

<p>
  One of our hopes with Cardinal is that with small tweaks to how communication happens on teams we can help facility huge
  improvements to communication and knowledge sharing. If you're interesting in giving it a try, <a href="/get-started">let us know</a>.
</p>

"How can I reduce back channels?" was one of my core motivations when I started thinking about building Cardinal. 


The Difficulty of DMs


<p>
It's been a very busy few weeks, and we've got lots of new features to share as
a result!
</p>

<h2>Updates</h2>

<img alt="Updates Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/updates-screenshot.png">

<p>
First up is a new feature, called <strong>Updates</strong>. And yes, it's
awkward to announce the update that includes a feature named Update.
</p>

<p>
Updates lists updated cards you are watching. Each update includes a quick
summary of the latest change. You can click on the update to view it and mark
it read, or mark all updates read.
</p>

<p>
This is the new default page after you log in, so you can't miss it.
</p>

<h2>Card Types Are Now Templates</h2>

<p>
We've renamed Card Types to be Templates. It's one less character to type and
keeps us from having to say weird things like "Make a card from the new card
type."
</p>

<h2>Navigation Improvements</h2>

<img src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/updated-navigation.png" alt="Navigation Screenshot" width="342">

<p>
We've also restructured Cardinal's navigation. We now include three links in
the sidebar for Updates, Search, and Templates.
</p>

<h2>Search Enhancements</h2>

<img alt="Search Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/new-search-tab.png" width="1280">

<p>
Search is now only on the Search tab, rather than on every feed. You can still
filter feeds by clicking the Refine button from any feed.
</p>

<h2>Team Menus</h2>

<img alt="Team Menus" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/team-menu.png" width="268">

<p>
Finally, we launched <strong>Team Menus</strong>. Team menus let you add fields to cards
that allow you to select members of your team. Configure them to allow you to
select people, groups, or both. They're great for things like marking the
assignee for a card.
</p>



Our latest release includes a new feature called Updates, Updated Navigation, 
Search Updates, and a new Team Menu field.


Introducing Updates, and More


<p>
Back in December, right before the holiday, we shipped a new feature enabling
the ability to duplicate any card. When duplicating a card all the content of
the card itself will be duplicated, but comments won't be duplicated, and you
can choose whether or not to duplicate the current sharing configuration for
the card.
</p>

<img alt="Duplicate Card" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/duplicate-card-modal.png">

<p>
Duplicating cards is handy for cases where you want a template to reproduce a
common data configuration for cards. We've seen cases where that's useful over
the long term - like a document template with a series of questions that need
to be answered, but can also be helpful in the short term, like if creating
several custom task cards for a project.
</p>

<hr>

<p>
Card duplicating became a feature due to customer feedback. Is there something
we could build that would make Cardinal work better for your team? Let us know
by <a href="mailto:support@withcardinal.com">sending an email</a> or tweeting to us at
<a href="https://twitter.com/withcardinal">@withcardinal</a>.
</p>



Back in December, right before the holiday, we shipped a new feature enabling
the ability to duplicate any card.


Duplicate Cards


<p>
Today we launched a new field type for custom cards - toggles. Toggles have two
states - on or off, but allow you to re-label those states to whatever you
need, like "Yes" and "No" or "Enabled" and "Disabled." Toggle fields are fully
supported in search as well, so you can filter by toggle state.
</p>

<img alt="Toggles" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/toggle-focus.png">


Today we launched a new field type for custom cards - toggles. Toggles have two
states - on or off, but allow you to re-label those states...


Toggles


<img alt="Everyone can edit user interface" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/everyone-can-edit.png">

<p>
Today we launched a new "Everyone can edit" option for card visibility, to work
alongside the "Everyone can view" and "Invite only." When you create a card
that you want everyone on the team to be able to edit, "Everyone can edit" is
much more convenient than having to share the card with each person in your
organization.
</p>


Today we launched a new "Everyone can edit" card visibility option for teams that want to share edit access to cards with everyone on the team.


"Everyone can edit" Visibility Option


<p>
This week's release is focused on Cardinal Groups. Groups is a feature that
lets you define and then communicate with groups of people.
</p>

<p>
The Groups admin interface lets you define and manage groups:
</p>

<img alt="Define and edit groups from the admin interface" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/groups-management.png">

<p>
Within the interface you can name your groups, specify the handle you'd like to
use to mention the group, and add and remove members for the group.
</p>

<p>
Once you've defined a group you can mention that group anywhere you would
normally be able to mention an individual:
</p>

<img alt="Mention a group like you'd mention an individual" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/groups-mentions.png">

<p>
Cards can also be shared with groups, allowing you to share to more than one
person and modify the share automatically as the group changes:
</p>

<img alt="Share with groups" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/groups-sharing.png">

<p>
We're very excited about the flexibility that groups give teams to share and
mention without having to list out each individual. Groups make it even easier
to get organized and track everything in Cardinal.
</p>


Announcing Cardinal Groups! Groups let you create groups of team members and mention and share with them as if they were a single person.


Groups


<p>
We have a lot of cool work in flight, but in the meantime one piece was ready
for release, and hey, who ever said it was a bad idea to ship something on a
Friday (everyone).
</p>

<p>
We've added the ability to delete cards that you create under the Options
section on each card view. For now only card owners can delete cards, but that
will likely expand to include team admins in the future as well.
</p>

<p>
To delete a card that you are the owner of navigate to it and click delete in
the right hand Options section. You'll have to confirm deleting because it's a
permanent action.
</p>

<img alt="Delete Card Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/delete-card.png">

<p>
Be sure you truly want to delete a card. It's a permanent action and cannot be
undone, and also deletes any attachments, comments, and activity on the card.
If you want to keep a card out of search results but also want to retain its
data, you can Archive it.
</p>


This week we have a small release, adding the ability for card owners to 
delete their cards. Deleting cards allows your team to keep information tidy.


Delete Cards


Over the past month we've been building something we're really excited to share
- the new Card Designer!

<img alt="Card Designer Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/card-designer.png">

<p>
The Card Designer is focused on making it easier to define and customize custom
card types. With the new designer you can drag and drop new fields into your
card type design and customize them by clicking Edit on any field.
</p>

<p>
  We've also updated custom card types to include a new feature called
  Properties. Properties allow you to include up to five select menus in your
  card design in the left column of the card, under the labels.
</p>

<img alt="Properties Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/card-properties.png">

<p>
Properties are great for emphasizing organizational fields. We use them for
Issue tracking at Cardinal, with properties like status and issue type.
</p>

<p>
  We hope you enjoy with the new Card Designer. If you have any card types
  you're especially proud of, we'd love to hear about them at
  <a href="mailto:support@withcardinal.com">support@withcardinal.com</a>.
</p>


Our new Card Designer is focused on making it easier to define and customize custom
card types to solve any problems your team has in tracking data.


Card Designer


<img alt="Card View Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/card-view.png">

<p>
Today we're releasing a huge visual update to the card view. It exposes a lot
more information, like sharing settings, at a glance and sets up future updates
to the card view, especially relating to custom cards.
</p>

<p>
At the same time, we're updating how labels work. They're now only manageable
from settings, and only by team administrators. That cements their role as a
team-wide feature for card organization.
</p>

<p>
We're excited to show you how things fit together in the next few releases!
</p>



We're releasing a huge visual update to the card view. It exposes a lot
more information at a glance and sets up future updates to the card view.


New Card View


<img alt="Comments Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/comments.png">

<p>
Over the past few weeks we've been improving the document commenting system. We
launched with a system that worked well but was complex and a rough around the
edges. The new system makes commenting much more consistent between desktop and
mobile web, and also adds the ability to review resolved comments.
</p>

<p>
We also did a few more card list updates this past week. If you're on a wider
screen you'll notice that the card list now displays as full width.
</p>

<p>
In general we're incredibly grateful for the feedback we've received during
the preview, and can't wait to show you the next few updates we have in
store!
</p>


Over the past few weeks we've been improving the document commenting system. We
launched with a system that worked well but was complex...


Comments!


<p>
When we talk about how to be successful in the workplace, it doesn't matter
if your team is remote or not. 
</p>

<p>
This post started as a post about remote best practices. Then we realized that
a lot of the best practices we identified for success in remote work are also
applicable to non-remote work.  
</p>

<p>
  Clearly, there are things that are amazing about remote work
  (<a href="/blog/2021-04-05-remote-work-pros-and-cons">see our previous post on
  the pros and cons</a>). But at the end of the day, the key behaviors that
  make you successful in a remote work environment are the same in-person. 
</p>

<h3>Mise en Place</h3>

<p>
Good cooks will set the stage for the meal they are about to prepare. They make
sure they know where everything is, and that as much prep work as possible is
done in advance. The tools they will need to prepare the meal are clean and
readily accessible. 
</p>

<p>
For work, making sure your desk setup is dialed-in makes a big difference to
your productivity. Disorganized and cluttered spaces aren't inspiring. Even if
you aren't onboard with that, they do make it harder to find things.  
</p>

<p>
On-site workplaces that are well designed for focused work are better than
spaces full of distractions. We're starting to hear more and more about people
moving away from having ping pong tables in the office for that very reason.
Indeed, some people are far more productive in a quiet home than a noisy
office. The flip side is when you're at home and constantly getting interrupted
by family or neighbors.
</p>

<p>
This might sound silly, but people seem to take office supplies for granted
when in the office. Whether in person or remote, is your team prepared to
handle someone's laptop dying? There's a lot of thought that goes into making
sure the tools that people need are readily available. People who overlook this
when working remotely will pay a price in productivity. So you have to make
sure the tools you need to get the job done are prepped and accessible. 
</p>

<h3>Communication Agreements</h3>

<p>
Communication is critical to any successful relationship. This is true for both
remote and in-person work. When you're working remotely communication can seem
harder because of time zones, schedule conflicts, and people being away from
their desks. A best practice for ensuring good communication is to set clear
deadlines and expectations.  
</p>

<p>
If you're a manager, make sure you discuss with your directs or colleagues what
the expectations are around how people communicate. If there is a deadline,
make sure it's clear and accepted. We also strongly recommend developing
Communication Agreements. At Cardinal, this is what our company wide
communication agreement looks like: 
</p>

<blockquote>
It's important to be clear and communicate with the appropriate level of
urgency. When using email be concise. When receiving an email, respond within 1
business day, and at the very least acknowledging receipt, share what the next
steps are, and/or drive to resolution. If something is urgent, we call or text
by phone at any time. That shows it's urgent. If we send something outside of
normal working hours, and it's not an urgent high priority project we've
already discussed, we don't expect a response until normal working hours.
</blockquote>

<p>
It's meant to be concise and does not cover everything that someone acting in
bad faith may try to take advantage of. We think this communication agreement
would be the same regardless of how we based our team. You'll need to tweak
communication agreements for your own circumstances, but hopefully you see how
this can be really useful. Communication is critical, and clearly setting
expectations and boundaries will improve your relationships and productivity. 
</p>

<h3>Writing is Important</h3>

<p>
  There's a lot of Zoom fatigue going on. 
  <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/04/jamie-dimon-fed-up-with-zoom-calls-and-remote-work-says-commuting-to-offices-will-make-a-comeback.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=Main&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1620138615">Just recently Jamie Dimon said he's
going to cancel all of his Zoom
meetings.</a>
This is the unfortunate outcome of similar problems that non-remote teams
experience: the meeting that could have been an email.
</p>

<p>
Writing skills are crucial to success in the workplace. It doesn't matter if
you are remote or not. Your ability to share ideas, advocate for decisions,
tell stories, and document lessons through written communications strengthens
your ability to contribute on teams. People complain about colleagues who drop
in all the time or want to jump on a call for everything, and rightfully so.
We're all super busy. There are certainly circumstances where jumping on a
video call makes a ton of sense, but leveraging good written communication can
create efficiencies that can be leveraged in evergreen ways. 
</p>

<p>
That is a central tenet of Cardinal. It's a platform where written
documentation of core business knowledge can be easily organized, discovered
and extended. 
</p>

<p>
The behaviors that make you successful in the workplace are by and large the
same whether you are remote or not. You need to create an environment where you
can be productive and focus. You need to set clear expectations around how and
when you communicate with co-workers. Cultivating your written communication
skills will be extremely valuable to your long term success. There's of course
nuance in all relationships, but keeping these best practices top of mind will
take you a long way.
</p>


When we talk about how to be successful in the workplace, it doesn't matter if your team is remote or not.  


There's Nothing Special About Remote Work


<p>
  This week's work was focused on a smaller update that we still think will
  be quite helpful. We've added a help menu to the app. You can access it from
  the card list and from the settings pages, and future updates will get it
  onto the card views as well.
</p>

<img alt="Help Menu Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/help-menu.png">

<p>
  Within the help menu you can click to get to our help documentation,
  product changelog, and send us feedback. We also added a nice new feedback
  form:
</p>

<img alt="Feedback Form Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/feedback-modal.png">

<p>
  We've felt the need to be able to archive cards from the card list for a
  while, so we also went ahead and added a new overflow menu on the card list
  that will let you open less used operations. The first and currently only
  option in the menu is Archive, but there will likely be more in the future.
</p>

<img alt="Card List Overflow Menu Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/card-overflow-menu-2.png">

<p>
As always, we're excited to hear what you think, so feel free to use that new
feedback form from the help menu to send us your thoughts.
</p>


This week's work was focused on a smaller update that we still think will
be quite helpful. We've added a help menu to the app.


Help Menu and Archive from Card List


<p>
  Over the past few weeks we've been building a new way to create cards. The
  new creation flow takes significantly fewer clicks than the old one did.
</p>

<img alt="Card Creation Screenshot" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/new-create-modal.png">

<p>
  In the process of building the new card creation flow we also made a lot of
  updates to general design elements in Cardinal. You'll notice that most
  elements feel a little more square and that we've simplified a few other
  interactions.
</p>

<p>
We hope you enjoy the updates!
</p>


Over the past few weeks we've been building a new way to create cards. The
new creation flow takes significantly fewer clicks than the old one did.


New Creation Flow and General Design Updates


<p>
  Remote work has been a particularly hot topic since the COVID-19 pandemic
  began. Large companies like Microsoft have switched to 
  <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlypage/2020/10/09/microsoft-will-let-employees-work-from-home-permanently/?sh=62d9e231172a">permanently remote friendly policies</a>,
  while others like <a href="https://product.costar.com/home/news/shared/190621044?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personalized&utm_content=p1">Amazon have stated their plan is to stay office-centric</a>.
  Either way, it does appear that we have entered a new era that is generally
  more open to remote work than previously. Even before the pandemic started,
  remote work was an often discussed subject that seemed particularly trendy
  among technology companies. Historically commentators on remote work
  typically fall into two different, highly opinionated camps. Some are
  extremely skeptical (and remain so), others are dogmatic champions.
</p>

<p>
  Here at Cardinal, we default to remote friendly. Now that that's clear up
  front, we do want to dive into a deeper examination of why. We get questions
  about this all the time based on our decades of experience learned leading
  remote, hybrid, and in-person teams. Many management teams have been dealing
  with for the first time, and in the middle of a pandemic. It hasn't been
  easy, and from recent conversations many people are still struggling.
</p>

<p>
  Before we get started we do want to acknowledge explicitly that for some
  jobs, and in some industries remote just simply is not possible. Many
  service industry jobs are like this. You have to be there in person to do
  the work. There are also some jobs that people imagine one day to be remote
  friendly, like surgeons, but we're still a way off. Lastly, there are always
  going to be trade-offs with any decision relating to how teams work, so you
  will ultimately have to make an assessment for yourself and your team. With
  that out of the way, let's jump in.
</p>

<hr>

<h2>The Positives</h2>

<h3>1. No Commute</h3>

<p>
  The general assumption is that people who are remote work from home. That's not always the case, but for team members who do work from home there are numerous benefits to avoiding a commute to work. Obviously, there is the time saved both ways getting to and from your office. Depending on your salary, how often you go to the office, and other factors, this can easily add up to thousands of dollars in value. That is before taking into account the value you get out of reallocating that "recaptured" commute time. Do you work out more? Spend more time with family? 
</p>

<p>
In addition, there are other savings beyond time. Car insurance companies like Geico will factor in how often you commute to your insurance costs. You will save money on fuel, parking and maintenance costs. You might not even need a vehicle anymore! Those savings aren't just good for the worker, they are also good for the employer since your worker will have increased income to use. At Cardinal, we strongly believe that a happier team makes for better customer experiences.  
</p>

<p>
When lots of people work remotely, the strains on our transportation
infrastructure are drastically diminished. This was made quite clear at the
beginning of the pandemic with mandatory shelter-in-place orders in markets
like Seattle and San Francisco. Less cars on the road mean faster commutes for
people that don't have an option to work remotely. There are also fewer
accidents, which has follow on benefits for law enforcement, healthcare and
more. Finally, there is also a clear positive impact on our environment. 
</p>

<h3>2. Inclusivity</h3>

<p>
  There are many people who have valuable skills who cannot commit to an
  in-person, 9 to 5 job. The classic example are parents who have to take care
  of children and manage their schedules accordingly. There are other
  situations, though. Think of people who have to be caretakers for sick
  relatives. That is often a very demanding situation that doesn't allow them
  to work the conventional, in-office gig. In a similar vein, perhaps someone
  has a disability, and needs to stay inside the house or close to home (for
  example, a person with a compromised immune system). By allowing people to
  work remotely you can open doors to additional segments of the population
  that otherwise would be excluded from your team. 
</p>

<p>
The operating assumption above is that you are hiring people who already have
those life circumstances. That's great, but sometimes people who are already on
your team are experience a life changing event. By offering remote friendly
work, you are significantly increasing your ability to retain team members who
are confronted with such realities in their personal life. Retaining good
people is always positive for any company. Reducing complexity at work for
people who are navigating change on the personal front is a win-win. 
</p>

<h2>3. Larger Talent Pool</h2>

<p>
  Recruiting and retaining talent is a very immediate challenge for most
  companies. When you require people to work from your office, and live within
  a commutable distance to said office, that is a limiting factor. The cliché
  example is a company trying to hire software developers in San Francisco.
  There is a war for that skill set in SF, and companies are paying through the
  roof to hire. Convincing people to move to San Francisco is not easy, because
  the cost of living is so much higher there than most other markets in the
  country. On the flip side is a company in a "undesirable" geography. We don't
  need to call any place out, but just imagine a company based in a place you'd
  never want to live. How hard is it for them to recruit talent if they require
  people to live there?
</p>

<h2>4. Diversity</h2>

<p>
At Cardinal we believe diversity is important. Diversity is often focused on
race and gender, for understandable reasons. We think cultural diversity is
also relevant. Being remote means that you are increasing the likelihood of
having some cultural diversity. Anybody who has traveled around the US can
likely relate. Life in Boston is different than it is in Austin. Chicago, New
Orleans, Tulsa, Los Angeles, New York, Cheyenne, the list goes on and on. Of
course there are many things that Americans share in common, but there is also
beautiful variety to be found across the country. Having people who work
remotely, across the country, means a higher likelihood that those perspectives
will be included, and you won't encounter any potential geographic bias by
being located in just one place. Of course, global remote teams are potentially
even more culturally diverse. 
</p>

<p>
  Of course the fact is that different groups of people tend to cluster in
  different places. Remote work enables those groups to work within your team.
  Let's say your goal is to have your workforce match the diversity of the
  United States. Well, depending on what location your company is based, it's
  going to be exceedingly difficult to make that a reality if you're requiring
  everyone to work in-person in the office.
</p>

<h3>5. Balance</h3>

<p>
  At Cardinal, our goal with our team members is that they are motivated,
  diligent, and happy people. We expect people to work hard, and take pride in
  what we do. That said, we also very much realize that a lot of happiness is
  driven by pursuits and relationships outside of the work place. We've already
  discussed how remote work frees up time for team members to do more of what
  they choose, and as a result lead a more balanced work life. We believe that
  remote friendly work adds an additional layer of balance to the
  employer/employee power dynamic. You're saying to your team members, "I'm
  fine with you picking where you live and work from." That is an inherently
  different relationship than the butts-in-seat dynamic.
</p>

<h3>6. Focus,</h3>

<p>
Offices can be highly productive work environments, but they can also be very
distracting. There are lots of example of start-ups with offices that sound
more like a playground than a work environment: videos games, ping pong, and
kegs. That aside, there are things that are often distracting in a more
"normal" office environment. Let's name a few: colleagues popping in to ask
questions, people talking loudly on sales calls, laughter in the conference
room or around the water cooler, delivery services dropping stuff off, and
phones ringing. Remote work gives people the option to dial in an environment
that is optimized for their own productivity. 
</p>

<h3>7. Safety</h3>

<p>
When your workforce is remote, it is much less likely that your team members
will get each other sick. There won't be any lost time to people being anxious
about whether or not they need to go into the office tomorrow. School closures
don't automatically mean your team is going to have to scramble for childcare
solutions. You also don't have to worry about an earthquake or other natural or
man-made disaster significantly impacting your workforce because your team is
more likely to be spread out. 
</p>

<h3>8. Overheads</h3>

<p>
One of the biggest, locked-in fixed costs for companies are their office
leases. If you are remote friendly, then you won't need as much office space
for your team. You might not even need an office depending on the needs of your
business. There isn't just rent savings, there are also savings in equipment,
reduced tenancy improvement, utilities, and insurance costs. 
</p>

<hr>

<h2>The Negatives</h2>

<h3>1. Lack of Face Time</h3>

<p>
This is a regular challenge for people who are working remote, feeling isolated
from their colleagues. It's tough to get to know people on a personal level
when you're not able to eat lunch with them on a daily basis, or grab coffee.
For many personality types, particularly those who are more people oriented
than task oriented, this lack of face time can be really challenging. There are
lots of creative things remote companies can do to try and overcome this, but
ultimately face time is face time. 
</p>

<h3>2. Cost of Compliance</h3>

<p>
Having team members in remote locations can materially impact compliance
burdens. These costs are often statutory. Every team member you have in a
different state usually creates a tax nexus. This means that not only are you
potentially making your business subject to sales tax in those jurisdictions,
you are also potentially creating nexus for personal property and income tax.
Aside from the actual cost of paying tax, there is also the cost of preparing
and filing returns. Tax laws are complicated, and vary widely state to state,
and country to country. 
</p>

<p>
In addition to tax, there are additional compliance costs to consider. What
about data privacy? If you're a company based in Texas and you hire a team
member in California, how does that impact your requirements to comply with
California privacy laws? What about GDPR? We're not here to provide tax and
legal advice, but the chief point here is that by offering remote friendly
work, you are potentially opening up additional compliance costs to manage.
This might be something you have to get in-front of when you set up any
conditions on what type of remote work you are able to offer. 
</p>

<h3>3. Communication</h3>

<p>
Communication is always hard, in any human relationship. Opportunities for
miscommunication or misinterpretation increase the further removed you are from
face to face. The general rule is that face to face is the most effective, then
video, then voice, then long form text, then short form. Working remotely means
that team members have to be more diligent about communication and
documentation. Working remotely effectively isn't something that comes
naturally to people, so companies need to be proactive about training and
on-boarding team members on how to communicate effectively in remote
environments. This is hard. Providing an amazing solution to these challenges
is part of the reason we are creating Cardinal.  
</p>

<h3>4. Early Career</h3>

<p>
For many people early in their career, learning from colleagues in-person is an
important part of development. We learned a lot of valuable skills from mentors
in the office, who not only taught us lessons explicitly, but also through
observing how they worked. We have seen how it is challenging for a person
early on in their career to get the direction and guidance they need in a
remote environment. They don't feel as comfortable asking questions. It's not
as immediately obvious to colleagues that they need help. Think of your early
jobs, assuming it was theoretically possible to do them remotely, would that
have been good or bad for you? Think about the less experienced people on your
team today? Would being remote be good or bad for them? 
</p>

<h3>5. Time Zones</h3>

</p>
A negative or potentially positive depending on how you look at it is being
spread across time zones. That can make collaboration more difficult because
you have to wait to hear back from someone on the other side of the planet.
Perhaps you have to regularly or occasionally work odd hours to attend a
meeting with a colleague. That can be annoying. The flip side is that by having
people in different geographies you can provide better support coverage to your
customers, and be more responsive to changes in the market.
</p>

<hr>

<p>
As you can see, there are many things to weigh and manage when it comes to
remote work. To be fair, that's also the case when you have an in-person team.
Coming up with policies and procedures that make your team the most productive
they can be is what matters most at the end of the day. 
</p>

<p>
It is absolutely true that some jobs just don't work remote. That said, many
jobs do, and at Cardinal we think that whenever possible, remote friendly work
is the way to go. We've built our platform to foster a productive, pleasurable
work experience regardless of what setup you choose.
</p>


We hear about remote work constantly. We've been building great remote teams for a while and wanted to share some positives and negatives for working remotely.  


Remote Work Pros and Cons


<p>
  Over the past couple of weeks we have been hard at work on some big user
  interface updates based on everyone's feedback. We still have a lot of work
  to go on those updates, so we decided to switch gears for a bit and ship a
  small new feature we've wanted for a while.
</p>

<h2>Workspace Switcher</h2>

<p>
The Workspace Switcher makes it easier for people with multiple workspaces to access all of them. Each time you sign in we note what teams you know about, and then once you know about more than one team we show a handy workspace switcher in the Account menu:
</p>

<img alt="Workspace Switcher" src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/workspace-switcher.png" />


<h2>Bugfixes</h2>

<p>
  This release also includes bugfixes for an issue where the delete button for
  saved searches wasn't hiding and displaying on hover for some browsers, and
  we made some style changes to make the default state for avatars nicer to
  look at.
</p>


Today we're releasing our new Workspace Switcher, which makes it easier for people with multiple workspaces to access all of them.


Workspace Switcher


<p>
Saved searches are finally here! We've been refining the saved searches design
for a while and were finally ready to finalize it all and ship it!
</p>

<h2>Saved Searches</h2>

<p>
  With the flexibility around defining custom cards and search that Cardinal
  has, we've always known that saving a search for later would be important.
  Our first iteration of saved searches was simply making sure that search
  URLs were consistent so that we could bookmark searches and then re-use
  those bookmarks with the latest data. We used that technique as we worked
  toward launch a few weeks ago to manage lists of release issues and other
  launch details.
</p>

<p>
  We think creating saved searches is about as simple as it could be. Simply
  refine a feed with the search bar, enter a name in the sidebar, and hit
  enter to save the search. Saved searches make it so that you can always come
  back to a perfectly refined list of cards for ongoing work.
</p>

<video autoplay loop>
  <source src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/saved-searches.webm" type="video/webm" />
  <source src="https://cardinal-production-blog.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/saved-searches.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>

<h2>Bugfixes</h2>

<p>
  This release also includes bugfixes for an issue where the color selector in
  the label edit modal would lose focus on change, and an issue where
  attachment file downloads were downloading with our internal ids as the
  filename, rather than the original filename.
</p>


Saved searches are finally here! We've been refining the saved searches design
for a while and were finally ready to finalize it all and ship it!


Saved Searches


<p>
We've been working since the preview launch two weeks ago to set up some UI
improvements and bugfixes, and prepare the way for the upcoming saved searches
release.
</p>

<h2>Card List UI Updates</h2>

<p>
In preparation for saved searches and some other improvements we have planned,
and to generally improve the card list user interface, we've moved the create
button to a more prominent position and made the account menu more obvious.
</p>

<img src="/blog/new-card-list.png" alt="Card List UI Updates Screenshot" width="297" height="596" />

<h2>Data Loading Improvements</h2>

<p>
We noticed some small improvements we could make around data loading with the
card list and general session info, so we rolled that out. It should yield
smoother interactions in the app, especially when first logging in or starting
a new session, and they should make our lives easier while building Cardinal.
</p>


Cardinal v0.15.0 is out, with an updated card list design and data loading
improvements that should make using the app a lot smoother.


Card List Updates


<p>
  We published this letter as an open letter about why we were building Cardinal
  before our preview launch. We're sharing it here primarily for historical
  purposes.
</p>

<hr>

<p>
  Hi there!
</p>

<p>
As you know, communication and collaboration at work have become harder than
they should be.
</p>

<p>
First, "software is eating the world," and it feels like it's devouring all of
us in the process. There are apps for everything we can imagine, but we're
forced to dive in and out of each of them every day.
</p>

<p>
The engineers on your team want to use JIRA, GitHub Issues, or Clubhouse for
project management and issue tracking, but your marketing team prefers Asana.
Your sales team wants to use Salesforce as the CRM, but marketing likes
HubSpot. Your product team would prefer to keep documentation in Drive, but the
developers want to use a GitHub repository. It goes on forever.
</p>

<p>
Deciding on tools is a political battle, even on the most well-intentioned
teams. We're having these battles over and over.
</p>

<p>
Secondly, we've got too much information to keep track of. We're creating more
and more information, but the constant firehose contributes a lot of
unnecessary noise and makes it impossible to focus. It is no wonder we are
seeing more anxiety and stress at work.
</p>

<p>
Slack is great in many ways, but as teams grow the cost of being a good Slack
citizen becomes unbearable. It's practically impossible to do your job and
keep track of all the conversations and channel updates. How do you know
what's important and what can be ignored? If it can be ignored, why are you
even being notified about it? It's overwhelming!
</p>

<p>
Lastly, there is the black hole. We are being bombarded with information and
tools, but often can't find what we need when we want it. That post mortem
from two years ago? I can't find it in Drive. Those design mockups we made a
few months ago? I'm pretty sure they've just disappeared. Remember when we
talked about the hiring plan in Teams? Well Teams doesn't seem to remember.
I can't find it anywhere. It's easy to put information in, but so hard to
get it back out or keep it organized.
</p>

<p>
We've had these problems on our minds for years now, and we know there has to
be a better way, so we're building Cardinal.
</p>

<p>
We want technology to empower teams, not hinder them. We want people to enjoy
interacting with our software, not dread opening it. We're excited to help
teams move more deliberately, communicate better, and ultimately work happier.
</p>

<p>
  <strong>- Cardinal</strong>
</p>


We published this letter as an open letter about why we were building
Cardinal before our preview launch.


Cardinal Blog