<aside> 💜

This case study shows how Buffer's Mastermind Partnership Program helped strengthen team connections and reduce isolation across their remote workforce.

</aside>

This is our second Buffer case study. Nevertheless, let's recap who we're talking about. Buffer—a fully remote company in the social media management industry—has always been at the forefront of team innovation.

With a globally distributed team of around 85 people spread across multiple continents, Buffer has consistently strived for openness and collaboration. As the company scaled, it became evident that a new approach was needed to address the persistent challenge of remote work isolation and enhance cross-team connectivity.

Using masterminds to increase connection & knowledge sharing at Buffer

Initially implemented in 2014, Buffer's first iteration of mastermind partnerships paired teammates based on tenure and role for peer-to-peer support. Though impactful, participation decreased over time as the company transitioned from startup to scaleup.

However, as isolation continued to surface in team surveys, Buffer decided to revitalize the mastermind initiative in 2019, leading to the birth of Masterminds 2.0. The goal was to establish a structured way to track whether mastermind partnerships were effectively enhancing team connection and reducing isolation.

Defining a baseline to understand if masterminds are reaching their goal

First, Buffer established a baseline metric of the team's "connectedness" through their CultureAmp quarterly survey. The initial assessment showed that connectedness was scored 53% favorable, 33% neutral, and 14% unfavorable by employees.

This baseline helped determine later on whether masterminds were improving this metric over time.

Carefully pairing people in masterminds

When creating the masterminds, Buffer used the following criteria:

• Differing teams: Ensuring teammates came from different departments to promote cross-functional insights.
• Similar tenure: Matching individuals with similar lengths of service for shared experiences.
• Similar role: Pairing teammates in similar positions (e.g., individual contributor to individual contributor) to foster role-related understanding.
• Time zone overlap: Prioritizing pairings that allowed for easier scheduling across time zones.

They ran the proposed pairings past all team leads for additional context or suggestions. Once the pairings felt strong, each pair received direct messages with initial instructions. These personal messages, along with having a direct message space set up, made it easier for teammates to start conversations and schedule their first meetings.