Adapting to a work-from-home model has been difficult for companies of all sizes and types, but here at Rainfall, distributed teams are part of our DNA.

The way we work has the benefits of allowing us to be nimble and quick while also allowing us to integrate ourselves with our client partners in a seamless way. We see ourselves as an extension of a client team, and our structure makes new client relationships and communications structures easy to get off the ground.

Throughout this series, we’re going to highlight the different parts of our business that serve as the framework for this structure. Everything from the tools we use, to our physical space, and the culture that serves as our foundation to support Rainfall.

A “just deliver” culture

The foundation of our work style is embedded in our company culture and how our team lives it out. We operate with a “just deliver” mindset built upon mutual trust between employees and management, and the open-mindedness to understand that work might not happen in alignment with a traditional office job.

An impending afternoon deadline might require that a designer needs to be unavailable for an entire morning. A developer might have really hit their stride and found themselves working late into the night, thus needing a late start the next day. We understand that these realities exist and we create the space within our team to support them. With open communication, we are never left wondering what someone is doing if they aren’t at their desk. In fact, the desks in our Seattle office can often sit empty for days at a time.

In order to manage the client needs within this environment we have dedicated producers who guide our projects and deliverables and serve as a point of contact for the client. Flexibility is a two way street, so the flexibility we show with our team has to also be communicated to our clients. Our producers own that relationship, keeping both Rainfall and our clients on track and accountable to deadlines.

We believe that the teams we are putting together for our clients are the foremost experts in their specialty and are best positioned to make decisions about how they create and deliver their work. That confidence and trust in our team allows us to focus on the deliverables and their overall quality.

In our next post, we’ll be sharing the tools that we use to manage projects and integrate with our client teams.