Episode 152

Async First Report

Hybrid work is about balancing meetings with getting your head down, while allowing yourself the odd break, all while contending with family life continuing around you (or maybe noisy neighbours!). 

If that sounds familiar, this episode could help. 

Amy Casciotti, Vice President of Human Resources, joins Matt Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador at TechSmith, to delve into our Async First experiment from July last year. 

The experiment helped us cut down meeting times and find new ways to communicate asynchronously. 

Amy shares why TechSmith chose to run the experiment, how it worked and what she’d change next time. 

Plus, she provides expert advice on using videos and images in the workplace. And don't forget to check out the full report with all the details in our Async First white paper: https://bit.ly/TVL-asyncfirst 

Learning points from the episode include: 

  • 0:00 – Introduction 
  • 1:06 – Introducing our guest Amy Casciotti 
  • 2:08 – Replacing meetings with videos 
  • 3:48 – What makes for good asynchronous communication? 
  • 6:14 – One tip to improve your use or video/images at work 
  • 7:50 – TechSmith’s Async First white paper experiment 
  • 11:20 – Hesitations around the experiment 
  • 12:14 – Biggest takeaways from Async First 
  • 13:33 – Human approach at TechSmith 
  • 16:06 – Having more asynchronous communication 
  • 19:46 – How Async First affected team wellbeing 
  • 23:25 – What would Amy change if the experiment ran again? 
  • 25:38 – Other asynchronous meeting techniques/ideas 
  • 26:55 – Why TechSmith did the experiment 
  • 29:58 – Amy’s Speed Round answers 
  • 35:52 – Amy’s final take 
  • 36:21 - Outro 

Important links and mentions: 

About the Podcast

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The Visual Lounge
Discussions about the power of visuals and videos and how to make them even better.

About your host

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Matthew Pierce

Matthew Pierce, Learning & Video Ambassador from TechSmith Corporation, has created videos for learning and marketing for over a decade. He is the lead behind TechSmith Academy, a free platform teaching video and image creation for business, which has been used by tens of thousands of users. He is the host of The Visual Lounge Podcast from TechSmith, which streams live on Youtube and LinkedIn weekly. Matthew is a regular speaker at multiple learning and development-focused conferences and is a regular contributor to various training publications. Connect with him on LinkedIn.