How to manage remote teams 101 (keynote at Conector Barcelona)

Hi, I’m @lexrodba

Remote teamsChances are, you’re one too

• Java developer 8+ years

Freelancer

IT consulting 5+ years

Two stillborn startups

Launched MarsBased

Background

How do we call this?• Entrepreneurship?

• Remote working?

• Digital nomad?

• Show-off?

• Hipster?

• Starbucks bum?

No office

Yes office

TravelNo travel

Breaking the myth

How do they earn my trust?

How can I see if they’re really working?

What if they slack off all day?

How will they come to my office?

Wrong

• Most of this assumptions come from back xp.

• You’re probably not good at delegating.

• You get what you pay for.

Traditional companies

• No work? I’ll check FB.

• Too much work? I’ll check FB.

• No company culture.

• Low employee engagement.

Pros of remote• Flexible schedules

• No routine

• Flexible calendar

• More travel time

• More creativity

Shopping list• Excellent communication

skills

• Discipline

• High availability

• Collaboration tools

• Open-minded• Creativity

Choosing the tools• You will use the wrong ones• Again• And again• And again• Until you find the right ones…• … only for some time.

• Go back to start.

Quality over quantity

Company cultureTools should be aligned with your culture

• Rails: Basecamp, Github, Redbooth, Quipu• Remote: Trello, Buffer, Basecamp, Slack • Simplicity: Trello, Basecamp, Appear, Slack• Transparency: Trello, Buffer, Ghost

Basecamp

Slack

Trello

Google suite

Gdrive / Dropbox

Appear.in

Communication stack

Basecamp

• Centralisation

• Client-friendly

• Reduces email

• Decisions here

Slack

• Best chat ever

• Killer apps

• Integrations

• Team-only

• Slackbot

Trello

• Dev-friendly

• GTD

• Task-managing

Google suiteFree

100% uptime

Shut up & take my privacy

Video toolsWe use appear.in but Hangouts was cool too

Some tips• Don’t stretch the day

• 2 hours of overlap between time zones

• Reply ASAP, deal with it later

• Company activities & retreats every now and then

• Talk about it openly

Reading list

• Read Remote: Office Not Required

• Read Buffer’s blog

• Read Trello’s blog

• Follow @levelsio on Twitter

How do we call this?

Let’s call it working