What are PandaDoc Offsites and their purpose?

Working remotely seems to be a blessing with all its freedom, time and money savings, and more time with loved ones. On the other hand, it's followed by a bunch of burdens and concerns: 

• How to address an essential topic with team members scattered around the globe?
• Does the communication within the department keep failing?
• How to express your ideas clearly and cut the risk of misinterpretation?
• How to avoid distractions and retain focus while working from home?

If you've ever worked remotely, you have probably had any of those questions in mind. So, it might be an excellent way to leave your cozy home for a while and spend quality time with a team. That’s why our Pandas keep organizing offline team events or 'offsites' now and then. Every Leader at PandaDoc has a budget available for their disposal. As long as it fits the approved budget, leaders are free to organize offsites for their teams without any hustle. 

Still, coordinating offsites in the unpredictable world we live in today might be a real challenge. Denis Salnikov, Head of Agile Practices, shared insights on how not to miss anything in planning and encourage good communication to savor the results.

PandaDoc Offsite in a nutshell

In short, offsite lets the team gather away from ordinary work environments and focus on a strategy as a team. Most PandaDoc Offsites last three days but may take up to a week to cover all the topics. 

Over the last two years, we've highlighted three main issues to address more efficiently offline:

• How to develop a new product and lead a business to its goals;
• How to form a new team (especially a Track Leadership team);
• How to plan a new quarter.

But of course, this list is not explicit and may vary if there are more urgent questions. For example, one time we turned to discussing how to adjust strategy for the rest of the year due to market conditions. 

We recommend all PandaDoc departments and teams get together at least bi-annually. That's a great way to boost interpersonal relationships, re-enforce trust within the group and hang around your inspiring fellow Pandas.

At the Offsite

Facilitation

Driving a discussion in a group of more than five people is always challenging. The presence of one or several facilitators at each offsite makes things much more manageable. Over time, we've learned the importance of good facilitation and now address this in two ways. 

First, any large group, especially at the Track Leadership Offsites, can ask scrum masters for their assistance. Depending on the request, schedule, and other matters, scrum masters can either help with the offsite's facilitation plan or get directly involved, even if they don't manage these groups permanently.

However, we see value in self-organized groups. That's why we conduct regular internal Facilitation Basics classes to make team communication more structured and efficient without a dedicated Facilitator in the room. We believe facilitation is an important skill; the more people have it, the better. One of the things we teach there is: "If something can go wrong, it will." I recall at least three cases when we had to adapt the offsite plan on the go due to a sudden update from the C-level or some exercises not going as expected. 

For example, the Team Canvas exercise didn't go as planned — there were zero to no ideas. The group was relatively new and struggled to develop specific agreements from scratch. Therefore, we agreed to revisit Canvas after planning the next quarter. That enabled the group to specify practical strengths and weaknesses, working agreements, and mutual expectations based on the observations of these three days.

We encourage our Pandas to take the initiative and help the whole group adapt to changing circumstances and not just blindly follow the plan.

With all the proper facilitation, most of our offsites end up having NPS 30+, which proves participants are satisfied with both the content and the format.

Fun during the Offsite (related to PandaDoc Values)

Each PandaDoc offsite is unique. However, the proper balance of focused work and good time spent together never changes. Our Pandas always find time to have fun, be it a GoKart racing, Quiz Night, sightseeing tour, wine tasting, or cooking master class. That helps to get everyone energized, create shared memories and boost interpersonal relations. In the end, 'we're known for our work-life balance, kind co-workers & awesome holiday parties', right? 

While your regular leadership offsite might focus on the future, getting the actual work done works much better for creating team bonds within an engineering team. That’s why they tend to last longer, like one whole week.

This may take the form of writing the code together in Pair Programming or Mob Programming, designing the architecture in the EventStorming workshop, conducting a number of Customer Interviews, or others. For that, you need to ensure there are suitable tasks chosen upfront and the team is either familiar with those practices or there is someone able to lead it for them.

And, of course, don't forget to make sure to have some fun together, like a GoCart racing, hiking, or wine tasting.