Welcome to Weavr - The Game for Remote Teams
Hello! We’re excited to welcome you to Weavr—a browser-based game designed to keep remote teams engaged and connected.
Less than a year ago, we were a few tech- and future-of-work-minded consultants who couldn’t stop thinking about a continual problem our clients faced: team engagement.
When we poked at the topic of team engagement, we found themes like poor onboarding experiences, limited social interaction, a lack of genuine collaboration, and unproductive meetings kept cropping up. These themes are perennial tensions in any workplace, but they’ve all been amplified by the global pandemic and the sudden shift to remote work.
Scanning the marketplace for solutions to this problem revealed that we couldn’t quite find what we were looking for. There are plenty of tools out there focused on optimizing processes to alleviate these tensions, but too few are focused on holding space that encourages genuine interactions and connectivity between teammates on a more emotional and interpersonal level.
That’s when we decided to create a game. Outside of trivia, #justforfun Slack channels, and the odd virtual escape room-esq experience there isn’t a lot of focus on fun as a way to build stronger connections with your teammates. We wanted the game to focus on remote teams and alleviate the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and disconnection they’re susceptible to feeling in a virtual environment. It was important for us to keep in mind virtual meeting fatigue, screen time, and making the game enjoyable and quick to play while you’re at work.
It’s still early, but the feedback we’ve received from teams is that Weavr has been a game changer. There’s something about taking 10 minutes away from your typical remote-work stack of tools to do something fun with your team. Weavr is bringing people closer together on their immediate teams, creating a deeper connection. It’s even helped employees connect with people on teams they don’t regularly collaborate with, which has improved the overall social connectivity across the companies that use it.
How do you play Weavr?
Weavr is an easy, intuitive way for teams to communicate, connect, and build a shared team identity through a fun, interpersonal game. Teams gather in a virtual room and answer questions about life, work, and each other with gifs and text. The game can be played with 3-8 teammates in roughly 10 minutes. (Learn more about the rules, structure, and getting started with Weavr here.)
Right now, we’re building Weavr as a space focused on improving the onboarding experience of new teammates and helping them stay engaged long after. From our experience working closely with teams and trying to solve the problem of engagement, we’ve gathered some insights that are guiding our design.
What we’ve learned so far
We’ve played Weavr with lots of teams in lots of settings. We encourage teams to play a round of Weavr prior to a collaboration meeting, check-in, or retro (or when everyone needs a break from Slack!). In other words, we encourage playing the game at natural ice-breaking moments.
Connecting on a human level as a remote team is hard.
Connecting employees to each other outside of a work context is hard. A remote environment offers little chance for people to interact casually, making it harder for people to know and understand their coworkers on a personal level. Weavr allows people to talk and interact with each other without forcing conversation. It’s a place to get to know the humans behind the Zoom calls.
Onboarding new hires to your team remotely is hard.
Onboarding in most companies, especially in a remote context, is logistics-heavy. It can be dry, boring, and draining for the new hire. Onboarding should be exciting! It should be a reminder to a new hire that they made the right choice and that you’re happy to have them. What’s our mission? Who are we now that you’re here? Weavr has helped onboard new employees, making it easier for them to understand a company’s culture and start building trust and relationships with their team from the start.
Most work-related, remote group activities are exhausting.
Teams looking to re-engage and re-connect remotely don’t have many options. Most remote-friendly group activities ask a lot of participants. They require full attention and can last anywhere from 30-90 minutes, which can be exhausting and feel like a chore. Weavr is designed to be extremely easy and quick to play. You can participate as much or as little as you like.
Casual team-bonding remotely feels impossible.
Remote Happy Hours can be awkward and feel draining. You’re drinking by yourself (or not) and trying to listen or start a conversation is difficult. Some people don’t show up or just turn off their video. Weavr gives you the context and guidance to relax, hear what’s going on, and actually feel like you’re spending time together.
Where Weavr is going
It’s really hard to build genuine relationships with your colleagues over meetings. It might even be impossible. Newly remote teams are feeling this pain more acutely each and every day. Shared experiences, especially those that are emotionally intense, are required to build deeper relationships with your team. Building those relationships in a healthy way will lead to higher performing teams who feel like they are working towards a common goal, which is good for everyone.
We want to make it easy for people to feel connected. And not just to your immediate team but to your entire organization. We want to make it easier to build relationships and bond with one another. Ultimately we want to make the workplace more human. That’s the problem space we’re exploring and we couldn’t be more excited about where we’re going.
Come and play Weavr with your team!