The 10 Commandments for Remote Team Management

lenary · on Nov 8, 2012

It seems you still want to micro-manage your remote team, which at the same time isn't that remote as you want to meet them once a week.

Come back when you have some sensible suggestions for a truly remote team.

barce · on Nov 8, 2012

If I wasn't being four hour work-week'd, then github's model for remote management is great: http://opensoul.org/blog/archives/2012/06/05/whats-it-like-t... .

My advice is for a team from an old school ad agency where folks aren't really interested in working to begin with.

edderly · on Nov 8, 2012

I'd like to see this voted up for discussion. Simply because I think this doesn't sound right.

Always questions abound in this situation:

Why do you have a remote team in the first place?

Who is the remote team, those who are remote to you consider you remote.

I'll give you one rule of thumb. If you have two dislocated teams who have to meet every day, you're probably doing it wrong.

barce · on Nov 8, 2012

I had a remote team because it was a cost saving measure. The management said they needed to lose the office. It turned out it was really just political, and by getting me team out of the office, I could no longer influence / further my career. At this office, I basically moved everything from physical boxes in colo's to Amazon's EC2. This saved the company lots of many but was not popular.

A lot of folks on my team wanted to 4 Hour Work Week what they were doing. IMHO, they were trading time / learning in exchange for free time, and I was getting an inferior outsourced product.

Yes, if a team has to meet every day, I am doing it wrong.