Remote Teams Tips & Tricks
I just finished working on a project where half of my team was in our Austin office and half was here in San Francisco, which meant 2 different time zones. In addition, our client was in yet another city. Since this was my first time working with such a split team, my learning curve around remote communication, meeting facilitation, and maintaining a strong team dynamic was pretty steep. I thought I’d take a moment to compile those learnings and share.
Tackling Time Zones
- Adjust daily schedule for both offices: A couple of days per week, work on the other team’s schedule/time zone (and vice versa).
- Create a clock for the other time zone on the dashboard of your computer for easy reference.
- People naturally assume you are talking about their time zone, which you may not be. So, make it a habit to always give the time in both times zones when discussing scheduling, no matter what the mode of communication (conversation in the hall, phone calls, IM, email, etc…).
Make It Feel Like Your WHOLE Team Is Right There With You
Use a monitor with dedicated web cam in your project room—sit it at project table (permanently) as if the remote team member(s) is sitting at a spot at the table. It makes them feel a bit more like a real person. (Note: use a Logitec web cam if you can afford it ($100)—quality is much better than iSite webcams.)
Remote Meeting Facilitation
- Adobe Acrobat Connect seems to be a great tool for me thus far. It has video (so you can see the other person/team), document sharing (everyone looks at the same thing at the same time), and the ability to mark on documents (you can point out, specifically, what you are talking about/needs changes).
- During remote meetings, I find that typing live notes about what is said on the shared screen really helps. That way, everyone sees and confirms what was heard and you get double-clarity/reinforcement.
- The downside of Adobe Acrobat Connect: Document resolution is so-so, so don’t use for visual design. Or, send the visual design documents and use the Adobe Acrobat Connect screen simply for reference/orientation during the meeting.
File Sharing
While I don’t like the interface, DropSend.com has biggest file limit out there for the price (it’s free depending on your use).
Shared Calendars
I like creating a shared Google project calendar and embedding it in Basecamp. I give the appropriate people (client team and internal team) the right to add/edit events, meetings, etc. And, you can also make Basecamp milestones feed directly into the calendar.
This is my list of learnings thus far. Please add to this post if you have good tips and tricks to share with the rest of us! And I’d love to hear about tools that you like better than the ones I’ve listed—I’m always on the lookout for better ways of doing things.
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For file sharing, I’ve found DropBox (getdropbox.com) to be awesome for most projects. Share a folder and everyone has up-to-date documents on their computer automatically. The source-control-style history and access to files from Web and mobile interfaces don’t hurt, either.
I love sharing live notes during remote meetings as well. I built http://miniMtg.com to help our team facilitate sharing notes in a lightweight manner, you should check it out.
You are touching on a some very good points. We have been refining our way to work in geographically distributed software development projects for the last 6 years and in a similar manner we are leveraging our lessons learned, here are a couple more along the lines of what you are touching on.
- Provide your team with a virtual room, an IRC channels for example. This allows for some water-cooler level discussion to happen.
- Humanize your development environment. Ask your team to put a picture of themselves in Skype, MSN, etc… Create a “Who’s Who” page on your intranet, ask you team members to share some information about them.
Thanks for the great tips, Teresa, particularly embedding the Google calendar into Basecamp. A tip in trade is GoToMeeting for online multi-locations meeting. While it may not offer the ability to see each other, it’s super easy set up and many features have made many a session a success.
Thanks to all of you for the suggestions and responses—really helpful and am looking into them…
I’m intrigued about embedding the google calendar in basecamp - can you configure it to display the calendar or just use a link? would love some tips on how you implemented this…
I recently discovered EtherPad for recording meeting minutes on-the-fly between sites. It’s fully collaborative and can be set up in moments. I recommend giving it a try. Text only, though.
http://etherpad.com/
Here are the instructions to getting a Google Calendar to appear in the Overview page of Basecamp.
1. Go to the Milestones page in the project on Basecamp.
2. Copy the iCal URL on the right side.
3. Go to your Google Calendar and click “Add by URL” in the Other Calendars section.
4. Paste the URL but change webcal:// to http://. Make sure you check “make public”.
5. Go to that Calendar’s details page and copy the Embed code (starts with < iframe >...)
6. Go back to Basecamp and click the Project Settings link (in the upper right corner of the project)
7. Paste the embed code in the Overview Page Announcement box. Make sure to check “display this on the Overview page”
Note: It takes a few minutes for new Milestones to make their way through the system. But they will show up.
Also note: A side benefit is that individuals can right click on items on this Overview calendar and add them to their own Google calendar. This means that people can add Basecamp milestones directly into their work calendars without having to manually create them from the Basecamp notification emails.
Also, also note: You could bypass the Basecamp milestone method altogether and manage your calendar and due dates in a normal Google calendar. This way, you can manipulate the items displayed without having to alter the Milestones in Basecamp.
Making the whole team seem like they are there with you is the most important point, otherwise you don’t really getting a sense of working together. We have run workshops with multiple laptops cover different parts of the room and a handheld camera attached to one to shift focus easily. Not sure about working as if you’re in the other person’s time zone, though. In Nokia, we often work across continents. A 10-hour shift in work hours a couple days a week would be killer. ;)
Really good point about a 10-hour time zone difference. :) Working on someone else’s time zone only works when they are somewhat close in time (which was the case on the project I was working on) - it’s worth getting up an extra hour early or staying later.
I found that making the whole team feel like they are there with you to be a real challenge and something that needed constant care.
good tips, thanks!
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