When asked, \u201cWhen are you guys going to grow up and get an office?\u201d Zapier co-founder Bryan Helmig might respond, \u201cWe are not really into the whole desk sort of thing.\u201d That\u2019s because Zapier makes the world their office. Team members might be working out of a coffee shop, a park, their kitchen, or an Airbnb at the base of the Santa Cruz Mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zapier is a popular automation tool that can coordinate push notifications, and seamlessly transfer data and files between different apps. It helps streamline workflows and can cut down on hours of mundane data entry tasks \u2014 our team loves it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having steadily built up a distributed team since its founding in 2011, Zapier is now considered a thought leader in managing remote teams and engineers. Zapier is not alone in moving away from the traditional office space. Between 2008 and 2012, the number of people telecommuting for work\u00a0increased by 79%<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a recent\u00a0Gallup survey<\/a>, those who spent more than 60 percent of their time out of office demonstrated the\u00a0highest engagement rates<\/strong>. What\u2019s more, studies suggest that remote working can increase employee productivity and happiness, while reducing stress, decrease turnover, and save millions on real estate. However, Helmig cautions that distributed teams aren\u2019t for everyone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doing remote properly requires thoughtfulness and care.<\/p>Bryan Helmig, Zapier co-founder<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So how does Zapier coordinate a distributed team of 80 employees scattered across 13 countries? After\u00a0sitting down\u00a0with Zapier co-founder Bryan Helmig, we have compiled 8 best practices you can use in managing your remote team, with a focus on\u00a0remote developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking for top talent fast? See how <\/em>Arc<\/a> can help you:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u26a1\ufe0f Find developers, designers, marketers, and more Hire top talent with Arc risk-free \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Finding an engineer who is genuinely interested and enthusiastic about your project and use case is essential. If you can attract candidates who are already users, or members of the community your product lives in, even better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Helmig and the Zapier team, the first thing they look for in a prospective employee is\u00a0passion and knowledge<\/strong>. Ideal candidates should be passionate about coding, and knowledgeable about your business model and tech stack. Any existing relationship between the hire and the product should be considered a plus, as this will serve as natural motivation for a new team member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are\u00a0hiring a remote engineer\u00a0you want to screen not only for\u00a0grade-A technical talent, but also compatible personalities. Clashing conducts can spell disaster for a development project, so you will want to head this off right from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an initial interview, you should take note of the candidate\u2019s\u00a0demeanor<\/strong>, and make sure it matches up with your style and team. As Helmig puts it, check to make sure they are not \u201ca really rude and awful person.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is so important that an entire book has been written on the concept, aptly titled\u00a0The No Assholes Rule<\/em>. If you are hoping to\u00a0avoid assholes<\/em>, it will be well worth your while to pay extra attention to those little details when hiring for your distributed team. To this end, video interviews are an essential part of the recruiting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the interviews, you should also be mindful of\u00a0communication skills<\/strong>. Clear communication is important for all professions, but a developer without communication skills is like a mechanic without a wrench. You will need your developer to be able to explain what they are working on, why they are working on it, and the anticipated result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For technical professions, communication skills encompass the ability to speak with clarity and simplicity, with strong documentation habits so new code can be referenced and digested. If you are remotely managing a team without the possibility of face-to-face exchanges, you will instead need to rely on superior communication skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to the separation of space and time, it is likely that written communication will be especially important to the functioning of the team. To ensure ease of communication, you will want to work with good listeners, and people who can convey an idea clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helmig tells us he is also keenly aware of engagement and response time. Working on a distributed team can be very telling of how available and tuned-in your new team member might be. It is recommended that you test out the efficiency of all communication skills you actually use on your team including voice, email, message, text, and video chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, what you are really looking for are\u00a0autonomous doers<\/strong>\u00a0who\u00a0don\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0need a social workplace. Again, this is why passion and knowledge are so important. Managers will not be on-site for back-patting and hand-holding\u2014 remote workers will need to be self-motivated, understand what their team\u2019s goals are, and be ready to get things done unprompted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While independent drive is key for remote workers, managers also need to engage and validate the effort employees are putting in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: The Journey to Product-Market Fit: From POC to MVP to Prototype to PMF<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Beginning work on a freelance project or remote job can be a lonely and confusing process \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t have to be. In welcoming a new team member, you will want to make yourself easily available to them to ask questions, or just chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Zapier they go the extra mile or in some cases several thousand, for in-person onboarding. Zapier expenses travel for new hires to join the founders and a small team to work together out of an Airbnb for the first week on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, this may not be suitable for every team or project. If that\u2019s the case, Helmig recommends assigning \u201creach out people\u201d for every new hire. The designated \u201creach out person\u201d would be like a\u00a0mentor<\/strong>\u00a0for that particular recruit, helping them get familiar with the tools and processes to make for a faster transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the first several weeks,\u00a0feedback<\/strong>\u00a0should be frequent and frank. Especially when minute usability and performance details are at stake, you need to have systematic sync-ups to let your developer know how they are doing, and where they stand. Only then can adjustments be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: Future of Work: What It Is & What It Means for Clients and Developers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you will not be physically present to assist your developer when questions come up or things go awry, your documentation should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over their years of growing a distributed team, Zapier has found relentless\u00a0documentation<\/strong>\u00a0to be key not only to smooth onboarding but healthy workflows throughout the course of a project. Proper documentation is extremely important for software engineers, whether it\u2019s related to the codebase or not. You don\u2019t want your remote developers to get stuck on a small issue, and have to stop work entirely until they can get in touch with your team lead or another developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helmig emphasized that to successfully run a distributed team, \u201call communication should be effective asynchronous.\u201d This means EVERYTHING should be documented. Maintain SOP files, contact databases, user guides for commonly used tools, tutorials, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Documentation can go as far as recording all video chats and following up conference calls with written notes. Not only will this help to overcome the obstacle of time zones, it is also good practice to build archives for reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our talk with Helmig, he explained that Zapier had gone to pains to ensure that when info or help is needed, it \u201cdisseminates naturally, by design.\u201d To do so, they have undoubtedly deployed some of their own automation technology, created new in-house tools, and continue to use a wide range of commercially available tools to build their\u00a0virtual office<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helmig reveals one of the biggest challenges of remotely managing a team will be \u201cgetting information in front of people when it\u2019s relevant.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n For this, they turn to\u00a0tools<\/strong>\u00a0to \u201chand-deliver\u201d info digitally.To help you get your distributed team off the ground, here are the tools pertinent to communication, documentation, and project management:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: What a Freelance Developer Contract Should Include (w\/ Templates)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite being distributed all across the globe, the Zapier team still manages to find\u00a0overlapping hours for conference calls, team meetings, one-on-ones,\u00a0and more. With a little\u00a0planning<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0flexibility<\/strong>, you should be able to arrange all of your necessary team functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you do have a globally distributed team, you will want to be mindful of\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0disturbing people during periphery hours, unless otherwise agreed upon. Collaboration tools like Slack and Google Calendar have you covered here with time zone features such as warning functions and time zone syncing. While working across time zones does require a little extra flexibility, Bryan indicates its well worth it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you only hire people in your own time zone, you are missing out on the good stuff.<\/p>Bryan Helmig, Zapier co-founder<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n There are a number of benefits of building a remote team that spans time zones. Here are some of the items on Helmig\u2019s\u00a0Good Stuff<\/strong>\u00a0list:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In terms of cooperating both as a team and individually, you should set up mutually agreeable expectations for messaging and response time. Most likely, immediate, or even 5-10 minute response times will not be necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This can become tedious and distracting, and upset workflows. On the other hand, when someone pings you on Skype or Slack, you should be reasonably available, especially as the manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In governing the allocation of talent resources, Helmig explained that Zapier has \u201chome teams\u201d and \u201caway games.\u201d Home teams are skill-based functional teams, i.e., the product engineering team or the infrastructure engineering team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes the home team will loan talent out to participate in away games. Away games are project-based teams. Away games may require a designer or an engineer for the duration of a project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the game is won (project completed), talent returns to their home (functional) teams. To successfully use a flexible talent management strategy of\u00a0allocation of resources on an as-needed basis<\/em>, you will need to have strong foresight of what projects are coming up, and what talent will be required to execute them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This strategy will also be useful if you are bringing on third-party engineering talent to complete a project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How to Use Performance Management To Build Better Teams (Jack Altman of Lattice)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like code, communication is an expression of ideas that facilitates collaboration. Well-written code makes everyone\u2019s job easier, from UI designers, to product managers, customer support, and marketers. Good communication is the code that will help you smoothly execute projects with your remote developers and the rest of your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without the benefit of being able to tap someone on the shoulder, you will have to fine-tune your communication style to successfully oversee your distributed team. In giving instruction, managers should provide a\u00a0broad goal<\/strong>\u00a0with a\u00a0specific outline<\/strong>. In addition,\u00a0explicit milestone needs<\/strong>\u00a0to work towards achieving that goal should be detailed for developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helmig notes that managers should \u201cbe very clear on the core of things engineers need to work on, but provide a lot of tasks to complete.\u201d If for some reason your careful planning and documentation fail, having a wide range of tasks in the pipeline will ensure that your remote engineers can work through roadblocks. According to Helmig, such flexibility is built into the Zapier culture:<\/p>\n\n\n\n No one is stressing out if you are not able to continue a task for the rest of the day because of some particular thing. Everyone knows, hey, that\u2019s just kind of how it works. You\u2019re jumping onto something else and being productive in another way.<\/p>Bryan Helmig, Zapier co-founder<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In addition to providing clear instruction and numerous tasks to work on, as a manager, you should also do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When your engineers talk,\u00a0listen<\/strong>. To make sure this happens, the Zapier team schedules regular\u00a0one-on-one meetings. The structure of the meeting is simple and involves the management team listening to their remote workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his e-book,\u00a0The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work<\/em>, Zapier co-founder Wade Foster breaks down the process for us. One of the founders, Bryan, Mike, or Wade, has a sit down with a team member to listen to\u00a0four ones<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n These basic questions make for easy preparation and straightforward feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your developers are not talking, make them write. Zapier does this with\u00a0Friday updates<\/strong>. This is a self-made blog in which each team member reports what features they shipped in the past week, and what\u2019s on the agenda for the coming week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\u00a0four ones<\/em>\u00a0and Friday updates are painless ways to keep a healthy flow of two-way communication, and can easily be implemented with your remote team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How Founders Can Approach the Product Management Role (Kevin Lee)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n When working with a team of distributed developers, you may wonder, \u201cHow do meetings work in a remote environment? Do I still have to have meetings?\u201d Maybe, like Zapier Co-founder Wade Foster, you\u2019re not a huge fan of meetings and would be happy to see them go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most meetings in the modern workplace are pointless. Meetings are an awful place to share information\u2026.That said, if done right, meetings can be an efficient way to work through potential problems and solutions.<\/p>Wade Foster<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Yes, you should probably still have meetings. This is where the suggested video conferencing and document sharing tools will come in handy. Precisely because of the difficulty of getting a distributed team all together online at the same time, you will want to more carefully\u00a0prepare<\/strong>\u00a0your meetings, and narrow the\u00a0focus<\/strong>\u00a0of discussion. Unstructured video-chat meetings will be a big help to no one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, Zapier has a streamlined process for this too that you can take a page of. Before meetings, each team member records the following in a shared Google Doc: planned tasks and results, unforeseen issues, and what\u2019s in the pipeline for next week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of previewing all notes ahead of time, (inevitably, someone will not have written the notes, and someone will not have read the notes), the first few minutes of the meeting are used for reading. Written ideas tend to be better thought out, and more carefully expressed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, questions and confusion should be minimized, and discussion can be used just to tie up loose ends and problem solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zapier also provides a few other meeting guidelines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another type of meeting Zapier holds each week they refer to as\u00a0Pair Buddies<\/em>. This is a random pairing of two teammates who are matched for a 10-15 minute chat. This is less for operational purposes and more for building familiarity and team spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When operating in a remote environment you can avoid repetitive, ceremonial office meetings. However, to cease all meetings entirely may not be an effective strategy.\u00a0Mathew Guay<\/a>, content marketer for Zapier, reminds us, \u201cRemote workers are not islands- you\u2019ll still need some time to gather as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How to Objectively Measure Software Developer Productivity<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like any long-distance relationship, trust will be extremely important when working with a distributed team of developers. You cannot stroll the cubicles or effectively keep track of reply times since you may all be in different time zones. How then, do you trust that your remote engineers are working, and evaluate that work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trust starts with the hiring process, grows with onboarding, and is solidified with strong\u00a0communication<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0feedback<\/strong>\u00a0practices. If you followed our advice in the first section to hire people passionate about their work and enthusiastic about your use case, it is more likely they will do their best work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can show your remote workers they are supported with processes and documentation, this will go a long way in gaining their trust. Furthermore, if you can be a manager who listens to feedback, and is a flexible member of the remote team, you have a recipe for strong mutual trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you are not on-site, you will not be evaluating employee contribution based on time spent, but rather on tasks completed and results achieved. In order to measure the progress of remote projects, you will want your developers to\u00a0work in public<\/strong>. That is, shared online spaces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New code or changes to the codebase should be recorded on platforms like GitHub, where everyone will have access to see what has been changed, and what pull requests have been made. Non-coding tasks should be completed on tools like Google Sheets, Quip, or Draft. Status updates can be made on platforms like Asana, Trello, or your internal blog on O2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read More<\/strong>: How Data Science Managers Can Effectively Lead the Team to Production<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Operating distributed teams is still a relatively new phenomenon, so if you are hesitant to embrace the remote model it would be understandable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, as Zapier\u2019s CTO Bryan Helmig says, \u201cThe proof is in the pudding.\u201d Today Zapier\u2019s team includes more than 25 remote engineers working to build their ever-expanding platform. Zapier now supports more than 750 apps, has surpassed 1 million users, and triggers more than 1 million automated tasks on a daily basis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Zapier, a big part of this winning formula includes hiring the best talent, no matter where in the world they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to increase efficiency, improve employee engagement, and reduce stress, consider diversifying your team with\u00a0remote developers. With pioneers like Zapier opening up their playbook, best practices, tools, and tactics are much more accessible for companies and entrepreneurs ready to scale operations with remote talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also try <\/em>Arc<\/a>, your<\/em> shortcut to the world\u2019s best remote talent:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u26a1\ufe0f Access 450,000 top developers, designers, and marketers <\/a>Try Arc and hire top talent now \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Zapier is an emerging thought leader in remote team management. Here are some best practices from Zapier CTO and co-founder Bryan Helmig. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management","category-remote"],"yoast_head":"\n
\u26a1\ufe0f Freelance or full-time remote + fully vetted<\/em>
\u26a1\ufe0f Save up to 80% with global hires<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Hire for Fit and Passion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Interviewing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Streamline Your Onboarding Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. Documentation, Documentation, Documentation!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Build Your Virtual Office<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. Flexibility and Talent Resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Allocation of Talent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Explicit, Open, Two-way Communication<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. Meeting Tactics for Remote Teams: Preparation and Focus!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
8. Trusting and Evaluating Remote Developers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Zapier Did It, And So Can You<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u26a1\ufe0f Vetted and ready to interview<\/em>
\u26a1\ufe0f Freelance or full-time<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n