In today’s post we’re going to talk about the tools that we use to integrate ourselves with various client teams.

At Rainfall, we see our partnerships as being an extension of the client and open, easy, and clear communication is key.

Real-time Communication

We use Slack for daily communication, and employ Slack calls or Google Meet internally for quick discussions that are more easily had on a call. Conveniently, these seem to be universally adopted amongst companies in a post-covid world. Creating individual Slack chats and inviting the client team to them gives them a direct line to Rainfall. Paired with regular check in calls we’re able to stay on track with all of our deliverables. We save emails for more detailed communication or when it’s something that we want to track.

File Storage

For files, everything lives in Dropbox. We encourage everyone to work directly out of a project’s associated folder, duplicating files if they must work on something simultaneous to someone else.

For the majority of cases 2 factor authentication with Dropbox is secure enough, and in staying with our theme of a “work anywhere” culture, Dropbox eliminates the potential need for an individual to physically visit the office to troubleshoot issues with a dedicated server.

Chasing daylight - How we communicate across the globe

The key weapon in our arsenal is the procedure we have built around communicating complex ideas to people who might not be readily available, be it in a different timezone, or simply unable to jump on a call.

We call it a “Video Walkthrough” and it is essentially a screen recording where the creator can verbally share thoughts or feedback within the context of an accompanying visual. In other words, a presentation that can be played at the viewer’s convenience.

We have found video walkthroughs to be incredibly effective as both internal and client-facing tools. Often an employee’s first walkthrough is a right of passage, taking hours to complete, but this investment is worth it, as they soon become comfortable with creating walkthroughs without any preparation at all. At Rainfall, we are motivated by iteration and innovation and fostering a culture that encourages creation and feedback helps us develop our team. These Video Walkthroughs are as exciting for the team to make as they are for the client to receive.

How we make and share walkthroughs

Traditionally we would record a walkthrough video with Quicktime and place it in a project’s Dropbox Folder for easy sharing, but we have since transitioned to Loom.com. Not only does this require less storage, but also allows us to play videos at faster speeds, which is great for reviewing feedback more quickly.

In our final post in the series we’ll talk about our physical space and how we maintain the balance between a distributed team and the closeness of an office.