Distributed, but not disconnected

A valuation of almost $2 billion. Over 5 million users. Nearly 800 employees. Zero offices. 

::record scratch:: That’s right. No headquarters, no office space – anywhere. 

How can a software startup in a burgeoning industry grow into a multi-billion-dollar business leader in just a few years – all with a fully remote team distributed across over 40 states and 20 countries around the world? InVision is showing us the way. 

Founder and CEO Clark Valberg believes the screen has become the most important place in the world. So it makes sense that they not only developed a platform of collaborative design and prototyping tools for creating screens and digital experiences, but also a company that operates entirely through the screen. 

Tasks were slipping through the cracks. Employees were losing time switching between tools, and it was hard to pass work between teams because each one used a different platform. Leaders also found it nearly impossible to pull comprehensive reports or get a complete picture of the people and projects they were managing. To continue the company’s rapid growth, they needed to simplify, stat.

InVision wanted one cloud-based platform that could meet their diverse needs off the shelf and integrate well with other department-specific tools, such as HR’s resource management system. Wendy was already familiar with Atlassian, and once she started researching how Atlassian tools like Jira Software, Confluence and Trello could integrate easily with the rest of their day to day tools, it quickly became her top pick. She remembers, “With Atlassian, it’s easy to get started and spin up a solution. I also loved the idea of having a self-serve app marketplace.”

Now, Atlassian cloud products have emerged as the perfect solution, without forcing employees to change their workflow. Because Slack integrates seamlessly with Atlassian products, individuals can still post a message to Slack or submit requests directly through Jira Service Management. Either way, a ticket is automatically created in Jira Software with the Jira for Slack integration, where IT can assign and work on requests, talk through an issue with other team members through comments, track the task through to completion, and report results to leadership. Employees can watch the ticket through Slack for updates on the status, assignee, priority, and more. This saves the IT team time as they no longer have to field status questions and lets employees focus on their core responsibilities without having to worry about their IT requests being forgotten.

The People Team has also used Atlassian to simplify their work and improve communication with employees. Their department relies on Trello to manage onboarding, and on Confluence to document and share information with employees. Both solutions help create a positive experience for new hires – especially crucial given InVision’s remote work model – and keep all employees up to date on the latest news and policies. 

InVisioners are encouraged to use and integrate Atlassian in creative ways as well. For example, Marie Kretlow and Dennis Field from the People Team integrated InVision with Slack and Confluence to visualize their work and stay on top of updates. “One project Marie and I are working on is our employee handbook,” Dennis explains. “We often use an InVision feature called Freehand to map out ideas, and our InVision prototype of the handbook is embedded into a Confluence page. Anything we change automatically gets pushed to Confluence for everyone to see. Then every comment someone makes on the Confluence page or in InVision gets pushed to Slack, so we get real-time updates.” Team members can also like a Confluence page and reply to comments directly from the Slack channel they are shared in.

As Marie and Dennis experienced firsthand, the more InVisioners integrate Atlassian and Slack into their daily work and other tools they use (including their own product), the more efficiencies and improvements they gain.

Marie adds that Atlassian helps InVisioners not only do their day-to-day work, but also carry out their deeper mission of helping companies around the world innovate through digital design. “Ultimately, our partnership with Atlassian positively impacts InVision’s customers,” she says. “The more closely integrated we can become as a team, the better we can serve our customers as they create better digital products and experiences.”