How to do remote work right, from the teams that know it best
What are the most important things to get right about remote work? What needs to be prioritized?
With more and more teams being thrown headfirst into remote work, I spent a few weeks talking with some of the people who know the topic better than just about anyone: the founders and execs who've put countless hours into making remote work ... work.
Some of these companies - like GitLab, Doist, Zapier, Mattermost, FlexJobs and YouNeedABudget - have been working fully remote since their earliest days. Others, like Twilio, had been partly remote for years but found themselves shifting gears to expand remote work to a team of nearly three thousand people.
Looking for the highlights? I've pulled out some of their tips and collated them below for easy reading. Want the full interviews? You can find those here:
- Zapier CEO Wade Foster
- Mattermost CEO Ian Tien
- Doist founder Amir Salihefendic
- YouNeedABudget co-founder Jesse Mecham
- GitLab head of Remote Darren Murph, Part 1 | Part 2
- FlexJobs CEO Sara Sutton
- Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson
It was probably the thing I heard most from all of these teams: Write. Things. Down. Make it a habit.
Outline your company values. Document decisions - and how decisions are made. Take meeting notes. Track project progress publicly, and keep roadmaps transparent.