Latest news from Rock

Video conferencing and virtual meetings have always been part of remote work. However, in the past year and a half, most people were new to the constant stream of virtual meetings.

Zoom video conferencing became the go-to app for most people in 2020. By June 2020, Zoom was in more than 100,000 schools in the United States.

People all over the world were Zooming with coworkers, friends, and family. Google’s Meet saw a surge of users and so did Microsoft Teams. Many companies are planning on incorporating remote work into their plans permanently.

Since good communication is key to successful remote work, high-quality communication is useful for complicated discussions or important meetings. With video conferencing for virtual meetings, remote workers can stay connected.

Since the rapid shift to remote work in 2020, workplaces everywhere have changed dramatically and video conferencing is a big part of how we work today. A good understanding is key to using it for high-quality communication and avoiding burnout.

The good

Video conferencing (when done right) is a helpful tool because it’s a high-quality communication method. By replicating face-to-face interactions, video conferencing helps ensure everyone is on the same page. Make sure to use actionable meeting agendas to get the most out of the good. Check out these meeting agenda examples if you're not sure how to set those up.

With remote workers in different places, it’s critical to make sure that details don’t get missed. High-quality communication with paid and free video conferencing apps alike helps workers avoid misunderstandings and confusion.

If you and your team are starting a new project, a virtual meeting ensures everyone is on the same page without clogging up your inbox. Video conferencing lets team members ask follow-up questions during in-depth conversations.In addition, it helps you create a similar dynamic to in-person interactions.

For example, use check in questions for meetings to build a culture in remote environments. With remote work, virtual meetings help new team members get to know their coworkers.

Video conferencing platforms also keep all team members involved and included, no matter where they are.

The bad

Virtual meetings are overused, which can hurt your productivity. “This meeting could have been an email” is a joke that (sadly) resonates for too many people.

If your team doesn’t know when using a video conferencing app is appropriate, you might find yourself sitting in unnecessary meetings for hours. That wastes your time, your team’s time, and takes everyone’s focus away from what matters.

Virtual meetings best practices can help your team use meetings when strictly needed. Set up meeting rhythm that aligns with the urgency and importance of topics. Emails or chats work better for quick updates or simple questions. Your team won't be pulled away from their work for a virtual meeting, maximizing productivity.

Information should be organized and accessible to everyone, so everyone is on the same page. While virtual meetings are helpful, it should only be one tool in your toolbox. Just because your team can have a video conference; doesn’t mean they should.

The ugly

Relying on too much video conferencing can contribute to mental health problems like stress, fatigue, burnout, and exhaustion.

Zoom fatigue became a familiar problem in early 2020 when most people switched to virtual meetings for the first time.Video conferencing increases your mental load since our brains are wired for in-person interactions.

Nonverbal cues are often more overwhelming, since virtual meetings are spent staring at other people on-screen. Virtual meetings, while helpful, force your brain into overdrive.

The visual aspect of video conferencing makes it easier for you to simulate a face-to-face meeting but virtual meetings are difficult to keep on track. This can leave you feeling exhausted after only a few meetings.

Even though it's a useful tool, video conferencing can be dangerous since too much can cause burnout, stress, and exhaustion.

The solution

Asynchronous work by default and synchronous when needed is a better approach to video conferences. Asynchronous communication, like an email, doesn’t need instant feedback and is useful for straightforward updates.

Limit synchronous work (including meetings) to urgent and nuanced discussions with your team members. Avoid wasted time or burnouts by more effectively switching between asynchronous and synchronous communication.

‍Rock uses both asynchronous and synchronous communication methods so you can spend time on what matters. Rock recognizes the value of video conferencing in today’s workplaces (wherever your workplace is) which is why Zoom and Jitsi are integrated in every space.

Use tasks, notes and files as a default and keep remote meetings for urgent or creative discussions. Remote work tools like Rock make it easy to jump on a call to answer a complicated question. You won’t need to dig through your inbox to find the link to start a team meeting for brainstorming.

‍Because Rock is cross-organizational, you can add any client or team members to a space to keep everyone in the loop. Cut down on the number of meetings that are needed to touch base with clients and partners.

Easily accessible and organized information allows everyone to access important details and documents at their own time.

Get started today with Rock

Your clients can check out task boards to see how progress is going. External partners can share key information in notes or Google Drive. Rock is just as open as email but it helps you stay more organized than simple email folders.

The platform is free to use—unlimited spaces, messages, and tasks for you, your team, and your external partners.

By using an asynchronous-default approach to communication, Rock helps you keep clients and freelancers in the loop while cutting down on unnecessary meetings. You’ll be able to video-conference when you need to and get more done in the meantime. Get started today!

To keep everything working smoothly, you need to manage a constant flow of information, projects, and feedback—that’s easier said than done! Without proper documentation it can be overwhelming to ​​sort through your inbox for information, maintain your team’s workflows, and stay on top of all the little things that matter.

With so much to keep track of, it is crucial to organize and store your information so you can centralize information and streamline your processes.

To break it down: documentation is the storage of your information. It can be simple–like meeting notes uploaded to a shared folder. Documentation can also be complex–like developing a step-by-step process for tackling new projects or advanced explanations in code.

What is project documentation?

By documenting information, you establish a shared understanding of the details. For example, when you create a process for addressing client feedback, you can document that process to make sure nothing gets missed. Documentation is always available. It will be there for your team to reference–no matter where they are or when they log on.

Project documentation helps establish processes, reduces the amount of communication needed, and keeps everyone up-to-date. Especially for remote work teams. For example—with a step-by-step process for your team, it will be easier for your team to be consistent when completing tasks and projects.

Anyone can reference procedure documentation when they have questions, which will reduce the number of emails and calls needed. You also reduce the chance of confusion or miscommunication when information is well-documented. With established and clear expectations, you and your team can spend more time focusing on your work.

Why is documenting work information important?

Documentation makes your life easier! With thorough documentation, it’s easier to stay organized and get clear insights into your work. Anyone can use documentation to standardize and simplify their workflows and streamline their communications.

Documentation is essential for asynchronous work (which relies on interactions that are not real-time). Examples of asynchronous communication are task boards, notes, and shared files. After you document something, anyone can reference it whenever they need to.

You can look at a task board to check a project's status report or brush up on the most recent details. Catch up on a meeting you missed by referencing a shared file where your team keeps meeting notes.

When you document information, do it right

Documentation can save time and make work easier. It can reduce stress and make collaboration smoother.

However, when documentation is bad, your team could be headed for trouble. Confusing or outdated documentation can be worse than no documentation. Communication can fall apart and your work can get derailed quickly if files or notes are not regularly updated.

For the best results, communication and documentation should go hand in hand. You can email or chat with a team member about things not covered by the documentation. Not many platforms do a good job storing documentation and offering smooth communication, like messaging or chats. You end up switching between different apps and platforms.

Eventually, you might get overloaded with tools, waste valuable time, and you'll have a harder time finding important information. You need a platform for documentation that also incorporates key parts of work like messaging or virtual meetings.

You can pack a lot more action into one platform when you use multimodal tools. Since these tools centralize different functions, your team won’t have to switch between apps to do their work. Multimodal tools make it easier to collaborate because communication is smoother and better organized.

Rock makes documenting information easy

Rock keeps messaging, task management, notes, files, and meetings in one place for you. With Rock, you can combine communication strategies to get smooth discussions and helpful documentation.

You can easily document the different work that your team is doing with the tasks feature. With the notes and files features, you can create onboarding processes or folders with everything a new team member needs.

There is a comments section in every task so you can refresh yourself on the history of that task when you need to.

With the notes feature in Rock, you can store anything and keep the most important information at your fingertips. The notes feature makes it easy to keep details where everyone can find them. Rock also has built-in messaging! That way, you can talk about your tasks and notes without switching to a different platform or app.

You can also add remote work tools such as Google Drive, Dropbox, One Drive, Smartsheet, and other services to a space in Rock. All your docs, sheets, and presentations will be just a click away. A client or team member can review project deliverables when it's convenient or leave feedback where everyone can access them.

With your documents in the right space, you won’t need to dig through files or folders to find what you’re looking for. Get started with Rock today, all for free!

This product update makes it easier to organize your conversations through tasks and notes, adds support for Dropbox, One Drive, Smartsheets, and Adobe Creative Cloud, and makes the mobile app even more useful and beautiful.

Read along to find out more!

Duplicate spaces [PRO]

If you are on the PRO plan, you are now able to duplicate spaces in Rock! When you have multiple projects that use the same workflow (e.g. website development, marketing campaigns, employee onboarding) you can now easily make a copy of a space.

You can access the duplicate space feature in space settings by pressing "Details" in the top right corner of every space. Duplicate spaces can be accessed by pressing the three dots on the right.

‍Note: You must be an admin in a group space for the duplicate space option to appear in your space settings. Only group spaces can be duplicated, both PRO and free spaces can be duplicated.

When duplicating a space, you can decide whether you want to move all tasks and/or notes to the new space.

Members, chat messages, task comments and assignees, attachments, and integrations in a space are not copied. This allows you to start with a clean slate. You can always add the information again when the space has been created.

You can also directly invite people to your duplicated space in the panel. It is possible to invite up to 100 people to join you by sharing their emails separated by comma, semicolon, space or newlines.

‍Rock Team tip: If you know you want to reuse a specific space, create this space but don’t use it for the actual project. Instead set up your space and name it as a template (e.g. “Website [TEMPLATE]”). This way you can easily copy the space for future projects.

Tap to Organize

Even though Rock is asynchronous by default, most of us still send messages to discuss certain things. The problem with these messages is that they can easily get lost in a space and if they are related to a specific task or note it’s difficult to refer to them.

With the new Tap to Organize feature, you can double click any number of messages to create tasks and notes from these conversations. By doing this you clean up the chat stream by adding & moving messages to the dedicated tasks and notes making everything more organized.Double click one message or a handful of messages into:

• New tasks or notes
• Comments in tasks or notes

You can also group several messages together so they don't take up too much space.

The feature is activated by double-clicking a message and then individually selecting other messages you want to include in the item you are creating.Check out this short video to see the feature in action!

More storage solutions for everyone

It is now possible to connect more of your favorite tools to Rock. Besides the already existing Google Drive integration, you can now also add the following storage providers to your files mini-app:

• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Dropbox
• OneDrive
• Smartsheet

Other improvements web and desktop improvements

Based on user feedback, we’ve made a handful of small but important improvements:

• Sticky task board views - the Tasks mini-app now remembers the last view you had open, so if you last had the board view open the next time you open tasks again this view will automatically open again.
• Hidden event messages - We have hidden event messages from the messaging stream on both web and mobile. Reactions are still visible under the original message, but will no longer be displayed as actions in the messaging interface. This helps clean up the conversation panel and allows for more focused conversations.
• Now available on the Windows Store - In addition to being able to download Rock directly from our website, we also passed certification from Microsoft to be available in the Windows Store. This makes it a bit easier to find and install Rock and get going on your Windows computer.

Upgrades to mobile

We have made some substantial changes to the theme and messaging readability of the mobile apps. Check out the list below for a brief summary of the changes that the latest release has brought to the mobile apps.

General

• More beautiful mobile app with improved readability, colors, and theming.
• Bug fixes and speed improvements.

Messaging improvements

• Richer event messages for new tasks and notes
• Improved readability of messages
• Auto scroll to messages when opening notifications
• Add reactions, replies, copy, set aside, and more to message replies
• Hide event messages

Tasks mini-app ✅

• Add task lists as a filter
• Scroll to bottom in Board View when user creates a new task
• Files mini-app: Support OneDrive, Dropbox, Smartsheet, and Adobe Creative Cloud

PRO plan

• Duplicate spaces. Copy any space and reuse the same space tasks lists, tasks, and notes for multiple projects.

Questions about this product release? Reach out to us in the 'Rock Team’ space. We support most major languages and try to respond as soon as we can.

No matter what kind of work you do, your ability to be productive determines if you can deliver for your team, your managers, and your clients. If your team is struggling with disorganization, it’s hard to correctly prioritize work. To-do lists can get messy and overwhelming.

The task management approach can help you visualize and tackle your work.

A task board can give a visual indication of how far along you are, who is in charge of work, and upcoming deadlinesImplementing a task board in agile, scrum or without a project management framework can make work more visible. With a systematic approach, all team members can use the same process to organize and prioritize what matters.

Task management helps you stay productive and organized by breaking up your larger goals into tasks. This makes your workload less stressful since it’s easier to complete smaller pieces.

Tasks are the stepping stones that will get you and your team to the end goal. Organizing your work with tasks will help streamline your workflows and help you focus on what needs to get done. You won’t need to remember your whole to-do list since it’s easy to add new tasks and update existing ones.

Since prioritization is key to task management, you can use task boards to stay organized and on top of your priorities. Task boards are popular because they’re intuitive visual tools for tracking all the moving pieces in a project or process.

Asynchronous communication makes it easy to get work done

Rock built a task board feature in it’s platform because tasks are an asynchronous way of communication. Asynchronous communication doesn’t rely on real-time responses from others so you’re free to get things done on your own schedule without any roadblocks.

With the Tasks mini-app, information and communication are less siloed and easier to access. Tasks are a simple and effective way to help teams get things done without having to wait for direct contact with a team member. A task board also keeps you team agile and on top of work.

Tasks provide more open communication and smoother collaboration through asynchronous work. Those elements are crucial for a remote or distributed team. With team members in different places, tasks provide much-needed structure by implementing a standard process that’s easy for everyone to follow.

Anyone in a space can comment on a task to add important updates, changes, and questions. That way, you can keep your communication flexible and centralized.

Tasks also reduce the need for constant meetings, long email chains, and messy documents, which can get out of hand with distributed or remote teams.

How does a task board work?

Every project breaks down into smaller parts that need to be completed for you to reach your goal. With more manageable action items, you can make sure that everything gets done on time. Tasks boards provide a visualization of all of the different things you’re working on and what they’re status is.

Rock’s Tasks feature lets you customize your task board to fit your projects and processes. Task boards might look very different from each other, depending on what you’re using them for, but they’re all based on two simple elements—columns and cards.

What is a task card? A card represents a task and includes that task’s details— like the deadline, status, description, and which team member it’s assigned to. A team member can quickly and easily see the task’s status and details.

What is a list? A lists is a visualization of a stage in your workflow and process. A card will move through different lists, which represent different stages, as it progresses toward completion. You can rename lists in each task board to adapt the tasks mini-app to your workflow and team dynamic. A task stays in a list until its status is updated. Then it moves forward (or back) to the next stage.

Why should you use the Tasks mini-app?

The Tasks mini-app is a core functionality of Rock since the effectiveness of the tasks mini-app can be used seamlessly with the rest of Rock’s features. With Rock’s built-in messaging and other features like notes, files, meetings, and integrated Google Drive, you’ll need fewer remote work tools for day-to-day work.

To make sure nothing is getting missed or duplicated, your team needs to be on the same page. The Tasks mini-app makes it easier to delegate action items and coordinate during projects.

Managers and team leads can keep an eye on the big-picture and see any obstacles before they become a problem. Managing tasks also helps to ensure your team members get work that fits their abilities and workloads. You can set goals, change deadlines, and track a task’s status.

Ready to create your first tasks? Lets Go!

PRO is now available for anyone who wants to supercharge Rock! Sign up for advanced features like custom fields, recurring tasks, webhooks, and a shiny Zapier integration. And for a limited time -- get 20 instead of 10 PRO spaces which can be used to upgrade existing spaces or create brand new spaces to supercharge your projects. PRO starts at just $4.99 per month!

We have also made some improvements to the Files mini-app and made a bunch of improvements to the mobile app. See below!?

Upgrade your spaces to PRO ?

The PRO plan allows you to upgrade up to 20 spaces and add functionality, integrations and more that make Rock even more useful. Anyone in a space will be able to use PRO features even if they haven’t purchased PRO themselves.

‍Each PRO space includes:

• Custom fields in tasks
• Recurring tasks
• Sprints in the Tasks mini-app
• Share files up to 50MB in size instead of 10MB
• Automations through integrations with apps such as Zapier or Github
• Export tasks to CSV and Excel
• Unlimited free members in your PRO spaces

You will know a space has successfully been upgraded to PRO by checking the Pro badge in the top of your space or by going to "Space Details". You can also find all your PRO spaces through your Settings.

Managing your PRO spaces

PRO spaces can be managed from the Settings panel. You can downgrade spaces once you don't require the added PRO functionality.

Pick and choose which spaces you want to upgrade or downgrade depending on new projects, teams, partnerships or clients.

Files mini-app upgrade ?

We have made some tweaks and improvements to the Files mini-app. This will make it easier to share, collaborate, and discuss your workflow on Rock.

Google Drive upgrade

You are now able to get more done with the Google Drive integration. You can create a wide variety of documents from Rock:

• Google Docs
• Google Sheets
• Google Slides
• Google Forms
• Google Drawings
• ☁️ Upload your own files to Google Drive

Set Aside for the files mini-app

In addition to setting aside messages, tasks and notes you can now also set aside different folders and documents in the files mini-app:

• Set Aside folders: If you need quick access to a folder in your Google Drive that is connected to a Rock space you can set aside the complete folder. This way you can seamlessly access the folder without having to go looking. You can set aside folders by pressing "Set Aside" on the top right corner of the folder view in the files mini-app.
• Set Aside individual files: Set aside any document saved in a folder connected to a Rock space. This makes it easier to directly access that file without having to search a folder. You can set aside documents by hovering over them and selecting the "Set Aside" icon.

Coming soon! Figma, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Adobe Creative Cloud in the Files mini-app!

In the coming weeks, you will be able to link your Figma, OneDrive, DropBox, and Adobe Creative Cloud documents to a space and the Files mini-app. This way you can more easily access all your cloud files and have them available to team members, partners and clients all from the same space.Stay tuned to our blog and different social media channels for the latest information on product releases!

Updates to Mobile

In addition to the changes to the web and desktop version, we have also added some improvements to the mobile version of Rock. The following has been added in this release.

• Improvements to URL previews
• Share content from outside Rock as a task
• Reply to a message directly in a thread
• Twemojis in the app.
• Domain member management (Teams plan)
• Minor bug fixes and improvements

Don't forget to update your app if you're not seeing any of these changes yet.

If you have any questions about this release you can reach out to us in the Rock Customer Support space. We support most major languages and try to respond as soon as we can.

Get the most out of your tasks mini-app! We've created a handy overview with some of the best features in the Tasks mini-app so you can master tasks quickly. Stay productive and easily collaborate with any team members, partner or client.

1. Master tasks by using the different views in every space

Tasks should be flexible to fit how you work. When task boards have different views, they provide more functionality and make it easier to manage your tasks. It’s an intuitive visualization of your processes and workflows so you can see what needs to get done next. Rock offers three different view options in the Tasks mini-app so you can pick what works for you.

• Compact view gives you quick access to a task so you can go in and update it without having to navigate away from what you’re doing.
• Expanded List view is for quick edits and managing several tasks. It lets you create a bunch of tasks quickly and assign them to your team. With this view, you can spend less time on creating and managing your task boards.
• Board view is popular because it’s intuitive and helps visualize workflows. With a visualized process, it’s easier for you to track progress and see bottlenecks. Because of its effectiveness, it’s been widely used across different industries.
• Calendar view allows you to visualize deadlines and manage your project timeline from a single view.

2. Make the most of the Board view

Master tasks by becoming a board view pro. It's easy to learn and lets you instantly see what everyone is working on. The task board offers a thorough overview of projects and processes. Knowing how to make the most of the board view will help your team be more effective and organized.

You can use board view to do the following:

• Spot obstacles early. Since task boards give you a birds-eye view of a project, it’s easier to identify roadblocks and resolve them. You can follow a task to easily track its status and look out for roadblocks. Tasks can be assigned to one or multiple team members so everyone knows who is accountable for each deliverable.
• Break up your work into different stages. You can mark tasks as backlogged, to-do, or in-progress to track statuses and stay on top of your work. You can also create custom labels and rename your lists. That way, your task status aligns perfectly with your workflows.
• Create lists to fit your workflow and processes. Add lists for each stage in your workflow or process to make it fit how you work. You can also highlight actions across different verticals, like sales, HR, or operations, to get a better overall view of what needs to be done.
• Evaluate your team's workload. Check how many tasks your team members are working on to make sure that work is assigned fairly. With the board view, you can help an overburdened team member and reassign tasks to address workload problems before they happen.

3. Master tasks by using the comments section in every task

Leverage asynchronous work by using the comments section on a task. Your team can discuss task-related information in one easy-to-reference place. Instead of getting lost in an inbox or message thread, the discussion will be saved if you need to revisit it.

By commenting on tasks, you can document the details and keep them accessible for everyone in that space. You won’t have to dig through an inbox or forward a messy email string to find and reference information.

Involve other people by tagging them when you need their input or feedback. This approach to collaboration makes it easier to work with your team members, wherever they (and you) are.

4. Use the 'Set Aside' function when you're busy

Rock offers this unique feature so you can store messages, tasks, and notes for follow-up. Because Set Aside works across all of your workspaces, you can bookmark all your priority items to work on later. Putting important tasks in your Set Aside will keep them easily accessible during your busiest days.

As you’re working, you can update those tasks or quickly reference the deadlines and information when you need to.

When you start your day, you might need to focus on a few high-priority tasks that need to get done ASAP. When smaller tasks get assigned to you during the day, you can set them aside for later. That way, you're free to work on time-sensitive tasks. Everything you set aside will be kept in one place to go through when you have time.

5. Duplicate your tasks to automate your workflows

You can use similar task boards for different projects and clients. For example, your onboarding process might be the same for all new hires so you can duplicate tasks and make sure that nothing gets missed.

When you duplicate tasks, you can move task descriptions and titles to different workspaces.

The task duplication feature allows you to set up new projects quickly, without having to copy and paste everything. It’s an easier way to make sure your tasks are consistent across your workflows.

6. Keep an eye on all your tasks

In Rock, you can put all your tasks in one view with the My Tasks view. This gives you a convenient overview of every task assigned to you. You’ll never miss anything again. In the overview, you can filter by space, priority, deadline, or task status.

To get an overview of your workload, you can use the filters to find tasks that haven’t been started yet. In My Tasks, you can also find all the tasks you’ve created or that were assigned to you. Once tasks are completed, they’re archived and no longer visible in a space.

This keeps your space less cluttered but if you need to find a completed or discarded task, they’re easy to access.

7. Mention a task to discuss it

Rock’s chat messaging feature is integrated with Tasks so you can mention a task in the space to discuss it. This feature is unique to Rock. Cross-space task mentioning lets you mention a task from another space as long as everyone has access to that space.

If you and a team member are having a discussion in one space, you can mention a task from another space that you both have access to.

By mentioning a task, your team can make sure that they’re on the same page and easily pull up the details of a task in Quick View. You can avoid having long conversations in a Task’s comment section but still have critical discussions with your team and external partners.

Your life is easier when your work integrates seamlessly with your conversations which is why we included this feature in Rock. You and your team might be discussing a task in Rock and you can mention it.

By doing so, anyone can pull that task up quickly and see the information on the task card. From there, a team member can update the task card with new details or discuss it in more detail. With the ability to mention tasks, you and your team won’t have to share endless URL links or messy email threads.

Get started & create your first tasks in Rock!

Now you’re ready to start building tasks. In Rock, you can organize what needs to get done with the following functionalities

• Task title: Let everyone know what the task action is.
• Task assignees: Select one or more team members to be accountable for the task.
• Task due date: Set a due date to keep your work on track.
• Task labels: Master tasks by using labels for different projects and workflows
• Task urgency: Set the urgency level for a task to communicate how it should be prioritized.
• Task description: Describe the task and include any helpful details.
• Task checklist: Use checklists to divide the tasks into more manageable actions that contribute to the master task.
• Task attachments: Add attachments and never lose important documents that need to be directly connected to the task.
• Task follower: have a team member stay up to date with changes and progress in a task without being assigned the task.

Tasks help you identify problems and bottlenecks, making it easy for you to stay on top of your work. They also make it easy for your team to prioritize the right things and stay on the same page.

Everyone will know what they’re accountable for and you can check a task’s progress in real-time. In addition to an integrated task-board feature in all of your workspaces, Rock offers built-in messaging, notes, files, and meetings. The days of juggling too many remote work tools are over.Now you’re ready to start creating tasks!

The Tasks mini-app in Rock can make your workload less stressful and easier to prioritize. Harness the effectiveness of task management and use the Tasks mini-app to help your team be more organized and productive.

Rock is building a rapidly growing productivity platform that enables anyone to work from anywhere. We are looking for an experienced web developer with proven experience building web applications.

You will be part of a globally distributed team which is headquartered in San Francisco, but with people in over 10 countries.

Responsibilities

● Write modular and performant Javascript and CSS.

● Solve complex problems in simple ways.

● Solve bugs and address issues in a fast-paced environment.

● Interpret designs and transform them into a polished rich cross-platform/device web experience.

● Ability to estimate work for a project and modularize goals into clearly defined, executable tasks.

● Provide code reviews.

● Test solutions across multiple browsers and platforms in a local testing environment.

Requirements

● At least 2 years of experience in web development and Vue.js specifically

● Intermediate skills in: JavaScript, HTML, CSS.

● Familiarity with these libraries/frameworks: Protobuf

● Ability to debug performance and caching issues.

● Code portfolio. A link to your GitHub account.

● Experience using Git.

● Proficiency in verbal and written English.

Contact

If interested send your resume plus a link to your Github portfolio to jobs@rock.so

The latest product release brings some exciting new features to Rock. In this release you can find a quick rundown of the new features that you can find in Rock.

So... What's new?

Space Search [Web]

Space search is now available on web and desktop! Find conversations, tasks, labels, notes by searching for specific keywords or other search terms in each space.

How to get started?

1. Access Space Search in the top right corner of every space (see above).
2. Search any word or sentence you want to find back. The feature will look for information in tasks, notes, files, messages and comments.
3. Narrow your search if needed to tasks, notes, files, messages or comments.
4. Look at all instances and directly access what you were looking for!

Search will remember your past queries and will retrieve all instances where something you've searched for has appeared in the history of the space.

Rock Bots, Integrations, and Webhooks [PRO Space Feature]

It is now possible to connect Rock to Github, Rollbar, Zapier, and a bunch of other apps through webhooks. Set up bots that can automatically create tasks, messages, or notes on Rock on your behalf so you stay up to date with the latest changes in your other apps. To set up your very own bots, follow these steps:

1. If you're on a Pro account, go to a space you want to add a new bot to.
2. Select space details (top right on web & desktop) and press the blue + button next to "Integrations"
3. Follow the steps to add your first bot to Rock

Reply in thread

Keep conversations in one place by replying directly in a thread! You will be able to easily keep up with all messages and respond right away. Add reactions, @mentions, polls and more within the thread just like in regular messages.

Updates to mobile

Some minor changes and bug fixes have also been introduced to the mobile version of Rock. You can now:

• Select emojis as avatars for spaces
• Delete comments on tasks and notes
• Improved text editing experience
• Other bug fixes and improvements to Rock

Questions about this product release?

Reach out to us in the Rock Customer Support space. We support most major languages and try to respond as soon as we can.

With Rock, we're on a mission to empower anyone to work from anywhere. As we've always operated as a distributed first company we are no strangers to remote work.In the last 12 months, it's been interesting to see people's reactions about remote work change from "What do you mean you don't have an office?" to once the pandemic hit, "Wow, it's great to not have to commute!" to finally where most people are now: "Ugh, I don't even know when the day begins and when it ends!".

Clearly remote work is not working for everyone

Our team is spread across 10 countries and 7 timezones and -- even though there are always things that we can improve -- the pandemic hasn't really changed anything for us work-wise.

‍How did we do this? In addition to using our own product, we also learned a lot from companies like Gitlab, Automattic, Zapier & InVision that have been distributed first for a very long time. After spending countless hours going through some of their best practices, these are the things they do to make remote work work for them:

1) START FROM A PLACE OF TRUST

"Assume your team is working and trying their best regardless if they are sitting right next to you or they are working from home." Aadil Mamujee. Head of Product, Automattic

Trust the people on your team to be able to work autonomously and when it comes down to written communication, always assume positive intent.

2) DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

Create a handbook that captures how your team does things and make this easily accessible to everybody. When the entire team is distributed it becomes crucial to document everything so nobody feels like they missed out on an important conversation or meeting.

3) ASYNCHRONOUS BY DEFAULT

Instead of relying on synchronous communication like real-time messaging or video calls make it easy to share information independent of time. Asynchronous communication doesn't require someone's attention right away so they can stay focused & productive.

4) SAVE MEETINGS FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF

Face-to-face meeting time is one of the most precious commodities you have, so reserve this time for the more complex topics that aren't as easily discussed asynchronously. If you do end up meeting, make sure you make the best use of this time by providing an agenda in advance and sharing meeting notes afterwards.

5) FOCUS ON OUTCOMES, NOT HOURS

Longer hours and being online all the time is not equal to being productive. Instead, look at the quality and quantity of work measured against clearly communicated objectives.

6) MINIMIZE YOUR TOOL STACK

“Aim to funnel communication into as few places as possible to reduce silos and fragmentation.” Darren Murph, Head of Remote at Gitlab.

Simplify things for your team by minimizing the number of collaboration tools being used. This avoids confusion, prevents gaps in communication, and makes it easier to find things.

7) RECOGNIZE GOOD WORK

Make the extra effort to recognize work that people on the team have done. This could be anything from a “Thank You” message to the entire team to a simple ? once somebody completes something.

So what do you do with all of this? Like any new habit, some of these might be harder than others especially if not everybody fully commits to remote work or if the tools currently being used were built for a more synchronous, always-on environment. If you do end up adopting these -- remote work will become more of a joy, work will happen in a state of flow and you will get precious time back in your day.

If you're interested in what we're doing to empower anyone to work from anywhere, follow us on LinkedIn and try out Rock today.

Delivering results for clients is crucial to freelancing. Whether you’re brand new to freelancing or a seasoned pro, without client satisfaction, you might as well pack it up and go home. Showing clients that they can count on you to be capable and efficient means that they’ll turn to you for future projects.

Balancing your clients and projects is what will determine your success as a freelancer. Having the right freelancing tools is a big part of being able to deliver for clients.

Since freelancing is different for everyone, you need to figure out what works best for you. Communication, organization, and collaboration are critical parts of successful and productive freelancing. When you evaluate your productivity, keep those three elements in mind.

Keep Up With Communication

To provide a good client experience and to market yourself to potential clients, you need good communication skills. Communication is a big part of making your current clients happy and working with new ones.

Keeping up with emails, chats, message threads, and virtual calls can be tricky these days. It’s frustrating to manage all the different ways people use to communicate. Even the main ways of communicating, like email, are hard to keep up with because they’re hard to organize.

It’s easy to leave a client or collaborator off an email string, or for an email to get buried in an inbox folder. Even if you stay on top of your inbox, email is only one tool out of the many you need to manage your projects.

Rock keeps all the freelancing tools you need in one place. You can send messages, add notes, set up a Zoom meeting, link your Google Drive, and manage your tasks without ever leaving Rock. Add your notes from calls or virtual meetings with clients to the designated project space in Rock.

That way, you or your client can reference them later. Your clients can check in on progress for a real-time update on the project with Rock’s built-in task boards.

If you’re a graphic designer, use Rock’s built-in task board to keep your client and collaborators updated on a project. Your client can comment on tasks to ask a question, provide feedback on designs, update deadlines, or send a quick chat—all in Rock.

With your communication centralized in one hub, you won’t have to search inboxes to reference or re-share information with clients. After you streamline communication, you won’t need to juggle so many different tools to keep up.

Get (And Stay) Organized

Staying organized at work helps you successfully manage your freelancing projects. It’s a key element of any work— especially freelancing— because organization makes it easier to adapt to different projects, deadlines, and clients.

No freelancing projects are the exact same. A client might ask you to work with another freelancer on a big project or on something that’s partially outside your skillset. Other times, you might be delivering a straightforward asset. Whatever the client needs, staying organized is key to your ability to deliver.

Make a working schedule and set routines so you can keep a healthy work-life balance. Making sure that you don’t bite off more than you can chew is another important part of staying organized. Taking on too many projects leads to serious stress and burnout.

It’s bad for you and bad for your freelancing clients who are counting on the quality of your work. You should also make sure to centralize your work as much as you can. When you freelance, you work with a lot of moving parts.

Centralizing your tools, projects, and communication in one place helps you manage your freelancing work. Most importantly, it reduces stress for you.Without a hub for your work, you’ll have to use a bunch of tools and platforms—like Slack, Trello, Figma, Google Drive, and email—to communicate and work.

That’s a lot to manage and you’ll have a tough time staying on top of things without an organizational method. This is especially true for freelancers since you’re always working with multiple clients and projects.

You can create a space in Rock for a specific project and invite anyone to join. This helps to streamline your work and communication, freeing you up to focus on what needs to get done. Create a space for each of your freelance projects so you can keep track of everything without ever switching to another app or tool.

If you’re a freelance copywriter, you can link your Google Drive folders to a space in Rock. Then your drafts are organized in the space that’s dedicated to that project. Once the folder is linked, your clients and any collaborators can easily review drafts and give you feedback.

Whether you need to jump on a quick Zoom call, assign a task, or send a chat—everything you need is in Rock. After you find an organizational approach that works, you can spend more of your working hours on your freelancing projects.

Streamline Your Collaborations

To keep a steady stream of projects moving, freelancers need to stay on their toes. It’s critical to have prospective projects and clients at all times. Working with your clients shouldn’t be a hassle (for you or them), whether you’re asking for a meeting or asking for feedback.

Since freelancers work with a wide variety of people, you often need a wide variety of tools. Some are open to everyone, like email. Others limit you to only the people in an organization or certain email addresses. You lose valuable time while navigating the growing number of tools, platforms, and apps.

To save time (and stress), centralize your collaborations and projects in one place as much as you can. That way, you’ll have to worry about less. You’ll also be able to spend less time switching between tools.If you’re a freelance web developer, you likely have to collaborate with a lot of people on projects.

With Rock, you don’t have to worry about someone being left out of the loop again since you can add clients, collaborators, or team members. Rock is open to everyone, just like email, but the project-based spaces keep your work more organized than an inbox. You can invite anyone to join your space.

After you add someone to a space in Rock, they’ll be able to access all of the linked files, folders, notes, and tasks in that space.You can customize workflows and spaces to fit the client and the project. This helps you keep everything in one place and streamline the way you work.

By centralizing your different clients and projects in one place, you save time and make your day-to-day work a lot easier.

Do Your Freelancing Your Way

With Rock, you can create as many spaces as you need for your freelancing project and invite anyone. Rock also gives you unlimited messages, tasks, Google Drive folders, and files for free. You need space to work and Rock doesn’t put any limits on you.

Since the pandemic began, our workdays have changed dramatically as we’ve shifted to remote work environments. While remote work comes with perks (work in your pajamas or sitting poolside), it’s also causing a lot of stress.

Many people have struggled to adapt to working in a different setting because their in-office workflows don't translate well to a remote work environment.

As a result, workdays have gotten longer and longer, causing the line between work and home to blur. Stress caused by remote work contributes to worker burnout, high employee turnover, and poor work-life balance.

Adapting your workflows will reduce stress, prevent a toxic work culture, and support your team in achieving company goals and objectives since remote work is here to stay.

1. Set up a workspace

Creating space for you to get your work done can help you focus and stay on track. Liven up your workspace by working near a window or adding a few succulents.

Research has shown that sunlight and plants can have a positive effect on our productivity and happiness. Instead of a windowless desk or cubicle, you can enjoy a more personalized setup. A dedicated workstation can also make it easier to log off and walk away at the end of the day.

Companies can take advantage of services like FirstBaseHQ.com, which delivers tech hardware and provides IT help. Companies can empower their teams by providing this type of support so workers don’t feel like they’ve been left out to fend for themselves.

When teams have the space and remote work tools they need, they can focus on their work and maintain healthy boundaries, which reduces stress and burnout.

2. Manage expectations

In a project or team with a lot of moving parts and different people, managing expectations is key to remote work because it clearly defines roles and tasks, so everyone knows what their responsibilities are. Since remote work environments rely heavily on good communication, keeping everyone updated is critical.

Tools with task board features let other people see your workload and track the progress of your projects. You can check on a project’s progress and keep an eye on anything that needs more attention. You and your team can avoid unnecessary interruptions while keeping everyone in the loop and up-to-date.

Managing expectations establishes workloads and assignments, which is key to clear communication strategies that remote working requires. When you and your team know what to expect, you can rest easy.

3. Make the most of documentation

Staying organized is crucial to working in a remote environment because it helps you stay on top of your priorities.

Documentation ensures that nothing gets lost or forgotten. Decisions happen quickly and informally, which is great as long as they’re documented. That way, companies can make sure that everyone is on the same page.

For workers, accessibility is key with documentation; information won’t help many people if they can’t find it. You can take advantage of the Notes feature in Rock or keep information in Google Drive. Workers and team members can reference the documentation to revisit a process or decision.

You can prepare a meeting agenda and make the notes available to everyone in Google Drive so anyone can catch up on the latest or use it as a reference. Keeping thorough documentation helps reduce stress by closing communication gaps and keeping everyone in the loop.

4. Use asynchronous communications as much as possible

The communication methods you used in office environments don’t translate well to remote work environments. Asynchronous communication doesn’t rely on getting immediate responses from clients or team members.

That means fewer things will get stuck or siloed. It’s also a less demanding way of communication for everyone.

Switching to asynchronous communication can reduce the number of meetings and messages that pile up. In Rock, asynchronous communication can be done with the Tasks, Notes, and Files features. They’ll keep information available to everyone so it’s easy to stay up-to-date on the latest.

Your team can use synchronous communication for the things that are urgent or complicated. By using synchronous communication only when you need to, your team will feel less burned out by meetings, calls, and messages. You’ll feel less overwhelmed and your team will have more time to get things done.

Asynchronous communication is a great way to convey trust to your team, a necessary part of successful remote work. When your team knows that they can count on each other, collaboration is smoother and less stressful.

5. Celebrate your victories

With a team that’s working from a bunch of different places, it can be hard to celebrate your wins. Highlighting your team’s wins can be as simple as an email celebrating a team member’s hard work or a happy hour to wrap up a big project.

Research has consistently shown that positive feedback makes a big difference to remote workers. Making sure workers are valued is a great (and easy) way for companies to retain their talent and invest in their workers’ overall well-being.

Encouragement also makes workers and team members feel more invested in their work and in their roles. You’ll feel more valued when you’re recognized for the work you’re doing—whether it’s a big project or a personal accomplishment.

Make sure to pat your coworkers, managers, and team members on the back when they’ve wrapped up a project or finished a stressful week.

Product update! We have tons of goodies from emojis everywhere to multiple account support, a faster mobile experience, and advanced task features with the Pro and Teams plans available as of today.

Let’s discuss the most important changes in more detail.

Emojis for spaces, messages, and comments

We might have gone a bit emoji crazy, but you can now pick and choose from hundreds of emojis all across Rock.

1️⃣ Emoji space avatars

Instead of being limited to a few space avatars you can now pick from a long list of emojis to find just the right one for your group space.You can change the image of any space by:

1. Going to your space Settings (top right corner).
2. Press the icon under the current space image (see image below).
3. You can query emojis with the Search function or just scroll down and select an emoji from the complete library.
4. Don't forget to press the Save button that will appear in the top right corner!

2️⃣ More emoji message reactions

You can now also pick from the same emoji library when you want to react to a message because sometimes ❤️ or ? just doesn’t cut it.You can leave a reaction by hovering over a message. An icon similar to ? will appear that opens a panel. If you want to leave a reaction that has already been left before you can also just click on the icon with the number (e.g. "?2")

3️⃣ Emoji reactions on comments

We’ve also added the ability to add an emoji reaction to a task and note comments, making it easier to let people know that you’ve seen a comment and also to let them know what you think about it with an emoji.The function works in the same way that message reactions work.

Multiple Accounts in Rock‍

Have multiple Rock accounts? Fear no more! With seamless account switching you can toggle between different accounts without having to log in and out every time.It is as easy as accessing your settings (press the image in the top left corner) and selecting “Switch Profile” to switch between your personal and work email accounts. By the way, if you signed up with your personal Gmail and now want to switch to your corporate email account you can do that as well in Settings.

Longer Audio Messages

You can now record audio messages without limits. Record everything in a single message instead of having to deal with 1 minute limits for each audio message.

Export Tasks

Export tasks from every space into a JSON or XML file so you always have a backup. If you’re on the Pro or Teams plan you can also export your tasks in a CSV and open this into Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel or other applications.

Space Search [Mobile]

Find what you’re looking for with the new space search option! Search for messages, tasks, notes or attachments within any space by tapping on the search icon available in the top right corner of every space.You can narrow down your search to the type of information you are looking for from members to tasks, labels, and a bunch of different parameters!

(Note: Space Search on Web and Desktop coming soon).

Notification Dot on Mobile

We’re making it easier to see if you’ve received a notification on Rock. On both iOS and Android you will now get a red dot on the app icon when you receive a notification on Rock.

Custom Fields [PRO Feature] - Early Access

Customize the Tasks mini-app to suit your workflow by adding custom fields to every task. Add new fields that can be dropdown menus, numerical values, and short descriptions so each task can now include everything from story points to item quantities. Here's how they work:

1. Access your tasks
2. Press the gear ⚙️ in the top right corner
3. Add or remove fields from your tasks to make them as simple or sophisticated as you want. You can add short text, number or dropdown menus to your tasks.

Custom fields are in early access for the PRO and Teams plans -- if you’d like to try them out, please fill out this form and someone from the team can reach out to you.

Recurring Tasks [PRO Feature] - Early Access

Daily check-ins, weekly reports or monthly invoices? Now you don’t need to remind yourself to create another task for these activities as recurring tasks automatically get recreated.

Recurring tasks are in early access for the PRO and Teams plans, if you’d like to try them out, please fill out this form, so someone from the team can reach out to you.

‍Here’s how it works:

‍1) Set a due date to a task

2) Select the recurring tasks icon

3) Choose how often you want the task to repeat:a) Dailyb) Weeklyc) Monthly

‍4) Decide on the interval (daily: exclude weekends | weekly: choose which day(s) | Monthly: choose day of the month)

5) Add to the column where you want the task to appear

6) Add your recurring task

Team Management [TEAMS Feature] - Early Access

Claim your domain within Rock, add admins and manage members more conveniently by signing up for the early access Teams plan.

Curious? Please fill out this form and someone from the team will reach out to you!

All Hands Space for corporate domains‍

Having a difficult time to find your colleagues on Rock?

With the new all hands space, all your colleagues can now easily be found in your domain’s all hands space, making it easier to connect with them once they are on Rock.

Mobile Updates

We’re excited to bring you a faster and much improved mobile experience:

• Performance improvements and lots of under the hood tweaks
• Multi-account support
• Space search
• Red notification dot on the app icon
• Emoji directions to comments on tasks/notes
• Export tasks into JSON/XML
• Export tasks to CSV, Excel (PRO)
• Custom task fields (PRO)
• Recurring tasks (PRO)
• Change the order of your pinned spaces
• Reply in message thread view
• Links in tasks are now clickable
• Set default view to tasks
• Longer audio messages
• New onboarding flow for sign-ups
• Text editor improvements
• Bug fix for Rock interfering with Bluetooth audio

Questions about this product release?

Reach out to us in the Rock Customer Support space. We support most major languages and try to respond as soon as we can.