Desert Island Stacks with Chase Warrington

In this series, Doozy founder Milo speaks with leaders and experts in HR & People Management to ask about their absolute essentials when stuck on a desert island with nothing but a laptop and high-speed internet a corporate card with just 5 purchases remaining.

What SaaS tools will make the cut?

This week, we heard from Chase Warrington from doist.

Milo: How did you end up in a role with the awesome title of Head of Remote?

Chase: Long before Doist had an official Head of Remote, we were a remote-first organization employing 100 people distributed across more than 35 countries. Remote has always been our superpower so we decided that we wanted to be a part of pushing the distributed work movement forward—to be an example for others. I have worked remotely my entire 13 year career, and am passionate about making remote work, work, at the highest level. I gladly accept opportunities to share our remote story with others. 

Then as the pandemic changed the landscape of remote work forever, and the WFA community exploded, we recognized that if we wanted to stay at the forefront of this movement, we needed someone experienced to lead this charge internally at Doist. That’s when we decided to hire a Head of Remote, and I was honored to accept the role! 

Milo: Talk us through each of your 5 picks, from most important to least. Why did you pick it, and why couldn’t you live without it?

Chase:

1. Twist — I’m all in on asynchronous work, and while there are a lot of chat apps out there that can be used in an asynchronous manner, in my opinion Twist facilitates async better than any of the others. 
2. Todoist  — Again, I’m biased, but my life lives in Todoist - it truly is my second brain. I manage everything from here - from my personal goals and grocery list with my wife, to the team behind my podcast, to massive projects with teammates spread across the world. I am not sure what I’d do without it, so it clearly makes the list! 
3. Loom — I mentioned I’m all in on async, and sometimes the written word just isn’t quite enough. I don’t need Loom everyday, but when I lean on it, I lean in hard! It’s become my go-to tool when I need to communicate with my team async, but need to go a bit deeper and provide additional context.
4. Zoom — Asynchronous-first doesn’t mean asynchronous-only. When I need to connect for a virtual call, Zoom is still my preference. Stability, video quality, ease of use - it works for me. Plus, it integrates well with Calendly…
5. Calendly — Meetings are a last resort for me because they are often not very productive, but thankfully the most unproductive part of meetings - scheduling them - has been simplified with Calendly. More importantly, Calendly helps me create barriers around my workday, preventing me from being lured into late-night calls and early-morning meetings. I have the times I’m available pre-determined, and I almost always stick to them. In a world where everything is urgent, Calendly has helped me stay focused and embrace deep work on a consistent basis.

Milo: What other tools do you dream about, while looking at the stars and wishing you had more credits on your card?

Chase: We operate on Google Workspace, and while I may not dream about Sheets and Docs, I’d have some nightmares ahead of me if we had to try and live without them. Keeping all of our documents and files in a central and transparent place is key to our success as a team, so even if this isn’t the flashy answer, practically speaking, it’s a cornerstone of our tech stack.  I’m also a big fan of collaboration tools like Miro and Mural, as well as Spot (walking meetings), and Ramp (virtual credit cards and expense reporting). 

Milo: How do you stay up to date with the latest in tools, techniques, and news in the people space?

Chase: Part of my job is to live in this world and help us stay on the cutting edge in terms of emerging technologies and trends. Fortunately, I spend a lot of time exploring in this space! 

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