One year ago we closed our office doors to become a fully distributed company. This is our story so far.

1. we are all
remote workers
@nicolaiarocci
nicolaiarocci.com

2. work from home?
Me,
a couple
years ago

3. we closed offices
on july 2012
a little more than one year ago

4. why?

5. 7 team members

6. 12 kids
3 dogs
5 wives
One husband

7. more like 20
team members
life is more complex than just work

8. a nice proprietary
location in Ravenna

9. a nice proprietary
location in Ravenna
turns out team members are mostly from the neighborhood

10. Ghibullo
9km
x2pp x4 trips
72 km 1h28m
Marina di
Ravenna
17Km
x1pp x4 trips
68 km 1h40m
Classe
7Km
x1pp x4 trips
28 km 0h40m
Cervia
23 Km
x1pp x2 trips
46 km 0h50m
Forlì
25 Km
x1pp x2 trips
50 km 0h56m
Ravenna
3 Km
x1pp x4 trips
12 km 0h24m
approximate distances and travel time courtesy of google maps

11. 276 km, 5h58m
every fucking workday

12. 276 km, 5h58m
money / time / environment / safety / fitness / stress

13. infrastructure
$$$power / phone / conditioning / maintenance / you-name-it

14. proximity is overrated
Works if you can turn your chair around and talk to a colleague, but if they’re on
another floor or in another building, then they might as well be in another city.
Vivek Haldar

15. proximity is overrated
especially for programmers
Headphones
anyone?

16. besides
we were using mostly remote tools already,
right there in our offices

17. we are all
remote workers
chances that all the people we need to collaborate with
are physically close to us are infinitesimally small
inspired byVivek Haldar’sWe Are All RemoteWorkers,
(incidentally posted on the same day I was working on this deck)

18. we are all
remote workers
we just embraced a process which has been
in the making for a very long time

19. how?

20. remote
all the things
mixing remote and office workers is like black magic

21. HipChat
free for teams of five / github bitbucket heroku hooks / guests

22. Google Hangout
also good for code reviews and pair coding

23. Dropbox
sharing files between us and with clients

24. Google Docs
multiuser realtime editing for documents and spreadsheets

25. Google Apps
shared mailboxes, domains, calendars, docs

26. GitHub
free for public repositories

27. BitBucket
free for private repositories

28. Trello
organize, kanban style

29. get and make calls on mobile and desktop for cheap

30. the good

31. save on
time & money
commutes / meals

32. help the environment
one hundred per cent pollution reduction

33. flexibility
work from everywhere

34. flexibility
work at any hour as we don’t count hours*
(we focus on results and balance)
* support team being the exception

35. balance
work / family / fun

36. no interruptions
there’s no guy across the room asking for your pen

37. Async > Sync
drawing byVivek Haldar

38. remote encourages Async
drawing byVivek Haldar

39. recruit the best
we can hire the best people from all over the world

40. reduced stress
all of this results in a huge...

41. productivity boost
and to think that most people expect the contrary

42. reputation
people always ask how we pulled this out
and we have a great story to tell

43. last but not least...

44. we save a truckload of
$$$

45. the not so good

46. adaption and change
in managerial and organizational styles

47. establishing
coordination
between remote workers requires an initial effort

48. work and family
responsibilities
not mixing them up requires a conscious effort

49. lack of team spirit
can be a issue if counter-measures are not taken

50. lack of team spirit
we have a lot of fun in chat and during hangouts. really.

51. lack of team spirit
once a month we meet for lunch, have fun
and discuss work and non-work related stuff

52. lack of team spirit
we also have regular face-to-face meetings

53. most of the time in exotic places

54. fear for data security
make sure you do your homework here

55. trust & accountability
chat and voip logs, centralized emails, hangouts, code repos

56. isolation
get out and have fun when you feel like it

57. distraction
hire self-motivated and productive people

58. not for everyone
working from home, coffee shops or
co-working space is not for everyone (so is office work)

59. meeting clients
depending on your business branch,
can be serious an issue

60. we believe
in creating a parity and a culture of work
where location doesn’t matter
Joel Gascoigne

61. few years
and setups like this will be normal for most businesses
Joel Gascoigne

62. it’s a privilege
to be part of this innovation, experiment
and share our experience
Joel Gascoigne

63. by the way
our offices in Ravenna, Italy
are up for sale

64. by the way
as we are not going back. ever.

65. thank you
@nicolaiarocci
nicolaiarocci.com
gestionaleamica.com

66. also
inspired by
Vivek Haldar’s
We Are All RemoteWorkers
incidentally posted on same day I was working on this deck
Joel’s Gascoigne
The Joys and Benefits ofWorking as a DistributedTeam
which also surfaced on the internet as I was looking for inspiration about this presentation