Managing your remote dev team

Guys, a while back I reached out to the dev community to put together a no-fluff guide to managing remote software development teams. Because we’re all bored of “stay productive and schedule out your work” tips.

Here are all the tips resumed:

• Hire the right people – If you hire the right professionals [and humans], you’re halfway to success. If you’re switching from an office team to a distributed one or even if you want to hire someone who hasn’t worked remotely, you need to guarantee they’ll fit in the team and work efficiently in your remote team even before day #1.
• Trust and accountability are the main attributes to take into account beyond all hard skills. – These two character traits (which we often ignore because we’re too focused on business results) can predict whether that person will fit within your team culture. And, even more importantly, if they’re willing to stay with your company for many years to come and dedicate themselves to your project.
• Onboarding and employee training – Don’t assume that someone who seems skilled and experienced will deliver the same commitment and quality of work to you too. Offer your help within the first days by making sure they have all resources needed and making the appropriate introductions to your team. Get them involved in the code writing process for your project as soon as possible so you can get a better feel of how they conduct their work. I’ll also advise you to try a pair programming session during the hiring process too.
• About meetings – Don’t fill your entire day with meetings. You’ll want to always remember to press that record button during meetings. Invest more time in one-on-ones.
• Now is the best time to try out pair programming – By using common sense, you probably won’t have both developers working on the same thing for 8 hours straight. Instead, distribute tasks evenly and allot a specific time slot for them to actually work together. Dealing with multiple time zones? Pair programmers within similar work schedules.
• Communicate beyond work – Playing online board games. Setting a #watercooler channel on Slack. Finding some creative online team building activities. These are all ideas to help your remote teams unwind and get their mind off anything that’s stressing them out.

If you want to add something to help others, just leave a reply.