Hybrid Work Experience V2: "America is for early risers" and AI the future

Interview: Experience report Hybrid Work

In our Founder & Managing Director Ishan Don seems to have the spirit of a digital nomad. After his stay in India he was on the road again at the end of August, beginning of September. For two weeks, he roamed the western United States - and worked via the cloud while he was there. He reported on his experiences in an interview.

Ishan, where exactly were you in the USA?
‍FirstI landed in Los Angeles. Then I took the car through the wine-growing region of Paso Robles, via Monterey and Santa Cruz to San Francisco. There I met Kevin and Liam. Together we were on the Google Cloud Next, we explored the city and visited the Napa Valley.

That sounds like a lot of adventures, especially since work was also part of your trip. How did you organize your day and what were the biggest challenges?
‍Because ofthe jet lag, I got up around 4 or 5 a.m.. That corresponds to about 2, 3 p.m. in Switzerland. I worked until noon and could then enjoy my free time because I knew that no new e-mails were coming in. In Switzerland it was already night. The disadvantage was that the mails came in while I was sleeping, so that in the morning a well-filled inbox was already waiting for me. However, this had the advantage that I could work through everything in one go.

It turned out to be suboptimal that I could only reach certain people who work mornings after Swiss time asynchronously and not optimally. Likewise, I missed out on all activities that took place in the mornings in Switzerland. Phone calls also proved to be inconvenient, as there was only about a four-hour window for working together. I was therefore happy that the support organization at home held the fort.

What were the technical requirements like this time?
‍Oh, I had forgotten my second display at home and therefore only had my MacBook. That led to losses in productivity. I also struggled this time with the condition of the chairs, which were not always suitable for prolonged sitting. They depended on the respective hotel rooms and were sometimes so bad that I actually worked out of bed once.

Also, you have to keep in mind that there is far from good Internet everywhere, even if California is considered a center of the tech industry. But I was able to solve that quite well by buying data packages.

What kind of work did you do on the road?
‍Itried to take care of only short tasks: Work off emails, take care of customer correspondence and internal matters. Otherwise, Google Cloud Next was an important station.

What was it like at the conference? How did the event differ from other events here?
‍Wewere at the source of answers to all questions about the cloud and, above all, AI. Because that's what it was all about. Whether senior management, product owners, solution providers or partners - the who's who of the scene was in San Francisco to network. It was a very informative event with great knowledge transfer and a great feeling. We received many fresh impulses and collected inspiration.

Are there any insights that StackWorks customers can benefit from?
‍Fromthe presented roadmap with features that are coming, we can conclude which customer can benefit from what. We will communicate this. In advance, it can be said that Google is betting everything on AI and has the potential to gain immense market shares. There will be functions such as the automatic summary of chats and meetings. Soon, it will even be possible to send a bot into a meeting as an assistant with questions or have it search for documents. What's coming up is mega! In addition, we have received interesting ideas for expanding partnerships from which our customers will benefit.

Can you give companies any recommendations for hybrid work based on your experience in the USA? If so, what are they?
‍In short, America is better for early risers, Asia better for night owls. In particular, it's important to pay attention to the type of work and when it needs to be done. I do not recommend time-critical or customer-facing activities over a longer period of time from America, provided you want to see something of the country.

Oh yes, you don't really need the Internet on the plane. It's not that stable and only offline activities or activities that don't require much bandwidth, such as working through e-mails, are possible.

Where will you go next?
‍I don't know yet. But I'm convinced that my next hybrid work trip will be in 2024.