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Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#21

Post by lohengramm »

ollifi wrote: post #15

Not good general advice maybe, but I had good success working remote with more like telepresence setup. I had small monitor in the corner of the office and people could walk up to it and speak to me. I could also overhear quite a bit of the chatter in the room. It was very important that people could see me on the screen. Although I missed many of the perks of working remote I felt pretty connected socially. What I d…

That's interesting, but it takes away a lot of the advantages of working remotely. I would rather go to the office than working under this kind of surveillance.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#22

Post by kasey_junk »

planetjones wrote: post #7

With difficulty: 1) Use as many visual techniques as possible e.g. Screen sharing and drawing pictures and sketching examples of what you're talking about. 2) open chat channels all day 3) ability to build rapport e.g. During standup calls look at what the weather is like in their country or share something about what's happening in your area at the weekend. Ice breakers if you will 4) if possible get them to visit y…

Do you have a preferred sketching tool? One thing I've yet to figure out remote is a seemless whiteboard session.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#23

Post by ollifi »

JangoSteve wrote: post #20
ollifi wrote: post #15

Not good general advice maybe, but I had good success working remote with more like telepresence setup. I had small monitor in the corner of the office and people could walk up to it and speak to me. I could also overhear quite a bit of the chatter in the room. It was very important that people could see me on the screen. Although I missed many of the perks of working remote I felt pretty connected socially. What I d…

I really like this idea for our office, but I'm afraid if instituted, it'd be perceived as just a way to ensure remote workers are butts-in-chair during the day. How useful do you think this would have been as a one-way stream (i.e. remote workers can see the office, but the office can't see the remote workers)?

I understand what you mean. For me it was not a problem. If you are working in office people can count the hours you are sitting as well. I didn't view working remote different.

And you can still turn the stream off if you want to concentrate. I can't do that in open office.

If the monitor was turned off for some reason it immediatly turned into eavesdropping as people simply won't feel that you are there. So I think it was important that audio would only travel if person listening was being seen. That really helps the lizard brain to sense that someone is present.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#24

Post by ollifi »

lohengramm wrote: post #21
ollifi wrote: post #15

Not good general advice maybe, but I had good success working remote with more like telepresence setup. I had small monitor in the corner of the office and people could walk up to it and speak to me. I could also overhear quite a bit of the chatter in the room. It was very important that people could see me on the screen. Although I missed many of the perks of working remote I felt pretty connected socially. What I d…

That's interesting, but it takes away a lot of the advantages of working remotely. I would rather go to the office than working under this kind of surveillance.

Yes of course. I did it because my wife got job offer in a different city 6 hours drive away and I wanted to stay with her but still keep workin for my old company.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#25

Post by mbrock »

The prevailing ideal of a commercial software team is a tight knit tribe. Members are selected for "culture fit", ability to do pleasant small talk around the lunch table, personal hygiene, and so on. The team should huddle around every day for status updates, bonding, and small talk. Communication should be frequent and face-to-face collaboration is considered the ideal.

You can adapt this ideal to remote work situations and there is lots of material about how to accommodate that. But many people who gravitate toward remote work are probably trying to move away from this ideal.

For some it may be because they've experienced open source collaboration and don't see why commercial development can't be done in a similar way.

Open source projects tend to use low-bandwidth, asynchronous communication, perhaps as a cultural heritage from the days of slow internet. That enables collaborators to schedule their work in whatever way suits them.

Many programmers are psychologically introverted, which means that they function best when they're allowed to be by themselves, instead of being constantly communicated with. These programmers are often unhappy in the office environment, especially those with open plans.

If you take a step back and look at contemporary software development offices from a kind of anthropological perspective, it's actually quite a bizarre and extraordinary way of life.

When everyone is in the same house for 8 hours every weekday, the demand for social compatibility is, in some sense, even greater than with most families and friend groups... one way to get around that is for each worker to wear headphones all day, which is also quite a strange situation, socially...

I'm personally yearning to be able to work remotely in a way that suits my introversion and my preference for asynchronous independence—or to be frank: I just don't want to be in the same house all day every day with 10 other dudes, and I really don't want to be on conference call with them all day either.

Nor do I really want a strong "team spirit" in the sense of social bonding. I think work would be more sustainable and enjoyable if team relations were less tight, and if my lifestyle allowed me a wider spectrum of daily social interaction.

I'm motivated by helping to do good software development. I'd rather do this in a way that's like the open source model, preserving my basic independence in terms of location, time, and communication.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#26

Post by dhd415 »

up_and_up wrote: post #14

I have worked remotely for 4 years. Start by creating a remote-first culture. Everyone should think "remote" first. Thus it should never matter if a local employee is working from home, the HQ, from the other side of the world. Make all work processes remote friendly. That should be step zero when considering hiring a remote person regardless of the reason. The goal should be to avoid a two-tiered culture. Some diffe…

Your point about a remote-first culture is 110% true. It has to be in the DNA of the company or else remote workers end up as second-class citizens. While it does not have to be the case, it does seem to be true that if a large portion (~50% or more) of the team is not remote, the culture will rarely end up being remote-first. If the culture is not remote-first, you end being just that guy who comes into the office every few months. I'm working now in such a situation and it's not pleasant.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#27

Post by dhimes »

JangoSteve wrote: post #20
ollifi wrote: post #15

Not good general advice maybe, but I had good success working remote with more like telepresence setup. I had small monitor in the corner of the office and people could walk up to it and speak to me. I could also overhear quite a bit of the chatter in the room. It was very important that people could see me on the screen. Although I missed many of the perks of working remote I felt pretty connected socially. What I d…

I really like this idea for our office, but I'm afraid if instituted, it'd be perceived as just a way to ensure remote workers are butts-in-chair during the day. How useful do you think this would have been as a one-way stream (i.e. remote workers can see the office, but the office can't see the remote workers)?

Maybe it's important to distinguish "remote" working from "flexible hours" working. Maybe people would be more accepting of remote if it wasn't also perceived as unreliably available.

Not that there's anything wrong with flexible hours. I'm just thinking it should be a different conversation. In those cases it would make sense to me to have "mandatory times" where the video stream is active (meetings, team working, etc.) and other times when it's off.

In some cases flexible time is the only option that makes sense- I've worked with people from 6 to 12 time zones away, but never on a full-time basis.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#28

Post by alistairSH »

My team (I'm the project manager/tech lead) is roughly half remote, with the remotes including my product owner and lead test engineer (among others).

As noted elsewhere, thinking remote-first is required for non-co-located teams to be successful.

Technical items, in no particular order: All meetings are conducted with full video teleconferencing.

Most meetings are configured to default participants as muted (help stop random noise on line).

When we white-board, we use a webcam (or lacking that, frequent cell-phone pics) to keep remotes in the loop.

Heavy use of IM tools, online wikis/notes, etc

Social Things: Try to meet in person occasionally. Obviously doesn't work if people are truly global, but I usually see my team in person at conferences, client meetings, or we fly them in every so often (project kick-offs, major high-level design efforts, etc).

Find team building activities that can be conducted via video-conference. Commit to doing them regularly.

If you conduct 1-on-1s, make sure part of those meetings is social. Take the time to do some "water-cooler" chit-chat.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#29

Post by dsp1234 »

dhd415 wrote: post #26
up_and_up wrote: post #14

I have worked remotely for 4 years. Start by creating a remote-first culture. Everyone should think "remote" first. Thus it should never matter if a local employee is working from home, the HQ, from the other side of the world. Make all work processes remote friendly. That should be step zero when considering hiring a remote person regardless of the reason. The goal should be to avoid a two-tiered culture. Some diffe…

Your point about a remote-first culture is 110% true. It has to be in the DNA of the company or else remote workers end up as second-class citizens. While it does not have to be the case, it does seem to be true that if a large portion (~50% or more) of the team is not remote, the culture will rarely end up being remote-first. If the culture is not remote-first, you end being just that guy who comes into the office e…

A concrete example of this is if someone stops by your area to ask a "quick question" then culturing an environment where an answer of, "Why don't you bring that up in the global chat so everyone can contribute?", is welcomed rather than brushed off as being unfriendly.

Re: Ask HN: How do you integrate remote developers?

#30

Post by junto »

vollmond wrote: post #12
junto wrote: post #4

I'm one of a few remote developers on a team of 15. Daily standups, dialed in on planning meetings and the odd visit for project kick off meetings all help to make me feel a little more integrated into the team. In saying that, I'll never be as integrated as the people that are in the office everyday, but I can live with that for the flexibility remote working gives me. I should also note that I don't work from home,…

Did your company assist with the local office, or is that on your own dime? I have an opportunity for a full-time remote position, and I was considering a similar setup.

I'ma contractor (long term) and I have other clients, so it's on my own dime, but it is also a tax write-off. I couldn't go back to working from home again. I did that for 7 years and I nearly went bonkers.
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