This presentation discusses building remote first engineering teams. It recommends selecting either a fully remote model where everyone works from home, or a single site model where everyone comes into the office. It emphasizes creating an inclusive culture that treats remote workers equally. Regular communication is key, including daily standups, weekly showcases, and monthly social events. The right tools like Slack, Zoom and Jira can facilitate collaboration. Self-managing teams that encourage autonomy, mastery and purpose will stay engaged. Continuous improvement should be embedded in the culture.

1. Building Remote First
Engineering Teams
By: Matt Brunsdon

2. About Me
Transformational technology
team manager experienced in
modernising team structures
and architectures.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbrunsdon
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3. Overview
This presentation discusses a stepwise approach
to building a remote team of software
engineers. It discusses some thoughts on how to
create the happiest & most the productive
remote team.
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4. Index
This presentation will
have the following
main sections:
1. The remote first working model
2. Working culture
3. Communication
4. Right tools
5. Regular Meetings
6. Setting etiquette
7. Keep up the work momentum
8. Team Structures
9. Embrace Continuous
Improvement
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5. 1. Selecting the Remote
First Working Model
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6. Remote First Teams
There are many working models - from not remote at all (left) to fully remote
(right). Your choice of model determines how you work.
We will focus on “remote first”.
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7. Pros / Cons of Team Structures
There are good
and bad things
about all
working models.
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8. Remote First or Single Site Only
Experienced remote work consultant
Victor Vorski recommends:
Everyone works from home
OR
Everyone comes to the office
Hybrid models (where some people
come to the office, others don’t) can
cause confusion and inefficiencies
managing two separate working
models.
For 20 years Victor Vorski has participated in and
led remote, virtual and distributed teams..
More info: http://vorski.com/
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9. 2. Working Culture in
Remote First Teams
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10. Remote workers are not second rate
Inclusive culture is essential
to remote work
Don’t treat your offshore
employees as 2nd rate
citizens, think of them as
onshore members of your
team who happen to be
travelling
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11. Remote workers are not second rate
Points to focus on
when designing your
remote first teams:
 The same health care, sick days and holidays
 The same performance management and career
growth opportunities
 The same on boarding experience - e.g. 1 on 1
catch-ups, conduct a virtual office walkthrough,
spend the same times with remote employees
explaining processes and “how we work”
conventions, etc.
 The same company / team wide communications
 Ensuring OHS issues are addressed at the home, &
working environments are the same for all
 Observing local holidays, religious events, language
usages etc. in the same way for all.
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12. "Great Culture doesn’t happen by
itself, it's a accumulation of time,
effort and intentional planning."
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13. 3. Communication
in Remote First Teams
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14. Setting Expectations
• Remote teams must communicate and check in
more regularly than when working in person
• Numerus non-verbal queues and cultural
etiquettes are not communicated when working
remotely
• Morale is influenced positively by regular contact
with co-workers
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15. Protocols and Norms
Some protocols and
norms that assist in
encouraging successful
remote teamwork:
 List technology tools you want
everyone to use
 List what an acceptable response
time is in group chat / email
 Meeting etiquettes
 Enforcing Daily team meetings
 Enforcing Daily check in check out
chats / meetings
 Availability protocol e.g.: “going to
lunch now” in chat
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16. Step 4. Right tool
for the job
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17. Tools for Remote First Teams
The right tool makes remote working a breeze,
this is what we’re using however there are a lot
of options out there…
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18. Real Time Chat
• Slack
– Exceptional chat tool for engineers to stay
connected and chat in a structured manner.
• Discord
– Constant connection to your team via audio, more
popular in the gaming world however quite useful
for ensuring responsiveness.
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19. Video Conference
• Zoom
– Excellent video conference system with support
for a large number of concurrent users
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20. Wiki / Team Collaboration
• Confluence
– Sophisticated wiki product integrated into the Jira
development management suite
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21. User Story / Task Management
• Jira
– Industry leader for engineering team user story
management, deep integration with a suite of
complimentary tools that facilitate CI/CD
practices.
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22. Meeting/Task Scheduling
• Inviited
– When working remotely you can often find team
members are spread across multiple time zones.
To effectively view and manage when there is
shared availability use Inviited. It’s a more
sophisticated method than the standard Outlook
or Email calendars.
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23. Step 5. Regular formal &
informal catch-ups
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24. Regular Contact = Happy Team
Work is never just work. It’s about social bonding
and building relationships with your peers.
Did you know that Jack on your team recently got
engaged, or Maxim is putting his dog through
Puppy School? These are the social nuances that
make working together meaningful.
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25. Formalize Regular Contact
Coming up with a formal set of regular touch
points for team contact, and enforcing these
will ensure more positive team contact and
structure.
Some examples of strategies are as follows:
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26. Check in / Check out
• Format: One-on-one phone call, video
conference, or instant chat
• Description: Start of day and end of day
informal catch-up with each team member,
sets a clear expectation that catch-up
conversations will happen 2 times a day.
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27. Daily Stand-up Meetings
• Format: Group chat or group video conference
• Description: Stand-ups build accountability
and trust, enforcing a regular team meeting
each day connects team members with each
other and uncovers any issues blocking
engineers.
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28. Responsiveness Expectations
• Format: Constantly running group audio feed through
discord, or teleconference, or group chat
• Description: Ensuring the team is always available to
chat by opening a constant audio connection is a good
way to simulate the environment of an office, it also
makes sure everyone is actually working and available.
Enforcing rules around time taken to respond during
the day is important.
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29. Weekly Showcase & Retro
• Format: Group video conference
• Description: A way for people to see what
everyone else on the team is working. 2~3
hours and all team members demo what they
have worked on from marketing, designers to
developers.
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30. Monthly Social Events
• Format: Group video conference, multiplayer video
games, sports tipping competitions, informal chat
groups, and group training / education sessions.
• Description: Friday knock off drinks are still possible via
Video Conference, scheduling some informal get
together time to have a laugh is a good idea. Also video
game tournaments, hackathons, training and education
groups, and sports tipping competitions help ensure a
healthy social atmosphere remotely.
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31. Yearly Retreats
• Format: In-person catch-up of all remote staff
• Description: Virtual is all well and nice, but where
possible a few days of R&R for the team all
together in a getaway location (think Thailand,
Bali, or Portugal) and hacking in the same room
goes a long way toward both productivity &
building great friendships amongst the team.
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32. Step 6. Setting etiquette rules
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33. Formal Meeting Etiquette
Reinforcing the previous step, try to ensure meetings are taken
seriously, these are formal business focused discussions.
What not to do during virtual meetings…
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34. Step 7. Keep up work momentum
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35. Continuous Momentum
Momentum is important correct work momentum builds a
culture of fast work (great for any Agile team), makes everyone
feel productive, and empowered.
So it’s even more pivotal for distributed teams where a delay of a
few hours means a day or more of delayed output when
factoring for time zone.
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36. Achieving Continuous Momentum
To ensure continuous work momentum:
• Choose real time communication over email – Slack or Discord
• Prioritise offshore requests over local - to minimise delays
• Have regular check ins - ad hoc chat, and daily check ins
• Gauge team momentum in Weekly Showcase and Retros
Everyone can feel the team momentum. Done right, fluid team
momentum is the equivalent of Flow state, bringing with it the same
level of joy and propensity to be increasingly productive.
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37. Step 8. Structure your team to
encourage Autonomy, Mastery,
and Purpose
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38. Lead for engagement
One of the biggest pitfalls for remote team is dis-engagement.
Limited face to face communication, cultural differences, time
zone issues makes team bonding difficult.
The three top factors for motivation, and better performance
are Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose…
Some ways to encourage these factors:
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39. Team Structures
Ensuring your engineering
teams receive the positive
influence from their leaders
starts with clearly defining
what influence those leaders
should have.
Leaders should advocate for
attitudes that are desirable.
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40. Self Managing Teams
Teams should maintain a level of
autonomy whilst also adhering to
the overall architectural strategy.
Self managing teams are organised
using a value based matrix, such as
the Squad Agile Management Model
where cross functional team
members make up a team.
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41. Approach to People
Definition of a “High
Performing Engineer” needs to
be clear.
The right attitude is as
important as technical ability.
Engineers with balanced “T
Shaped” skills are ideal.
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42. Finally. Embrace Continuous
Improvement
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43. Embrace Continuous Improvement
“Kaizan” is Japanese for
"continuous improvement".
Not only should you embed it
into your team culture as a way
to continually grow, it should also
be a requisite when learning to
build distributed teams.
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44. Questions?
Please feel free to contact me
with questions and comments.
I am keen to hear how other
engineering teams are working
remotely.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbrunsdon
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45. Building Remote First
Engineering Teams
By: Matt Brunsdon