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I have noticed that a lot of startups are fully remote and hire globally, so I'm just wondering what the solution to this communication problem is.
Synchronous: A single time zone is designated, and all team members adapt accordingly. Although, this can be a pain for people far away.
Asynchronous: Flexible “overlap” periods are defined where everyone must be online.
In practice, though, remote teams I've worked in just seem to understand and accept that: A) You don't need a 'call', 'quick chat' or 'meeting' over video or voice most of the time B) If you are in a remote team, there is shared acceptance that there will be A LOT of asynchronous communication and people will reply when they can or are available. C) The situation changes the more time-zones you cover. Be flexible.
Those with roles that are 'mission-critical' or 'perpetually online', are usually on call or have a phone that is always available.
A handy resource for aligning schedules: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
Sometimes that's not avoidable, but if both parties recognize the situation and change styles, it can help in most situations. Provide all the relevant information in the first message; read the whole message before and while responding. Expect to not get instant feedback.
It's like writing a letter vs having a phone call.
Otherwise, have realtime sync up at the edges of the workday.
I've seen two primary strategies for handling cross-time zone communication in teams: Synchronous: A single time zone is designated, and all team members adapt accordingly. Although, this can be a pain for people far away. Asynchronous: Flexible “overlap” periods are defined where everyone must be online. In practice, though, remote teams I've worked in just seem to understand and accept that: A) You don't need a 'ca…
If you're working without any shared hours, then you've got to communicate differently or you will have multi week ping pong sessions. Sometimes that's not avoidable, but if both parties recognize the situation and change styles, it can help in most situations. Provide all the relevant information in the first message; read the whole message before and while responding. Expect to not get instant feedback. It's like w…
This is the way. If you adopt the same communication style as the old scientists (euler?), you’d get a lot done. You write clear, detailed requests, responses, and notices and the delays with the back and forth won't matter that much. Maybe that's why most of the scientists we know of have been people with good communication skills.
Then schedule meeting with a clear agenda when synchronous collaboration is needed.
1) Things like code reviews should be more extensive if feedback loops are long. One should be clear whether something is blocking or not. A lot of people use (and came up with) https://conventionalcomments.org/. Personally I really like to assign someone in the States or APAC and come back the next day haben my code reviewed.
2) regular meetings are often being alternated to be friendly between different time zones. e.g. one week APAC/EMEA friendly and another EMEA/AMER. All meetings have agendas and everyone can add points, even if they cannot attend. Also all meetings should be optional.
Really depends on the kind of communication. We have a few tips in our handbook https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/communication/ but here are my personal observations. 1) Things like code reviews should be more extensive if feedback loops are long. One should be clear whether something is blocking or not. A lot of people use (and came up with) https://conventionalcomments.org/ . Personally I really like to assign…
I noticed that it emphasizes the importance of documenting work to prevent bottlenecks in asynchronous communication. It also discusses choosing the most effective form of media for conveying messages.
What does this look like in practice? How easy is it to find relevant information in the archives or documentation? Are there times when you cannot locate such information and must wait for the appropriate person to be online to get an answer? If so, what types of communications typically cause these delays?
If you're working without any shared hours, then you've got to communicate differently or you will have multi week ping pong sessions. Sometimes that's not avoidable, but if both parties recognize the situation and change styles, it can help in most situations. Provide all the relevant information in the first message; read the whole message before and while responding. Expect to not get instant feedback. It's like w…