Distributed teams are hard. Distributed teams, where some people are in office and others at home, are harder. Widely distributed teams with people working across countries and time zones are exceptionally hard. Widely distributed teams in a pandemic are damn near impossible to get right. Culture clash alone is an enormous challenge. I once had a fantastic American product manager piss off an equally strong director of engineering (in India) by complaining that the tool the PM needed “had fallen and can’t get up.

6. Prepare your intent. A little preparation goes a long way toward saying what you wanted to say and having a conversation achieve its intended impact. Don’t prepare a speech; develop an understanding of what the focus of a conversation needs to be (in order for people to hear the message) and how you will accomplish this. Your communication will be more persuasive and on point when you prepare your intent ahead of time.

The Cult of Design Dictatorship is bad because it so easily appeals to every human’s ego, and it gives bad designers an excuse to always be right. Alex Cabal, The Cult of Design Dictatorship