1. Working in a Fully Remote Organization:
Challenges and How We Made it Work
By Abdul Rahman bin Ibrahim, Xoxzo Inc.
2017/12/16, BarcampKL '17

2. A little bit about me and what I do

4. ● What remote working is
● Problems
● Solution #1: Common communication platform
● Solution #2: If you can't be transparent, be consistent
● Solution #3: Big picture reminder
● Solution #4: Micro teams
● Solution #5: Proof as a culture
● Solution #6: No blames, only solutions
● Solution #7: Meetings
● Solution #8: Ownership

5. My workplace
● 1 boss, 9 employees
● 6 countries, 9 cities, 4 timezones
● 10 years and running
● I joined in for 5
● 40 hours a week.

6. What is remote working?

7. X

8. X

9. X

11. Alright, so let's get right down to
business

12. Why is it so hard to make a fully
remote team work?

13. PROBLEMS

14. This is all just one single problem

15. Communication

16. So how did we solve it?

17. Common Communication Platform
Unspoken rule: If you're online in Slack, you're in the office
Always be online

18. If you can't be transparent, be
consistent
● Consistent working hours
● Respect each other's time
● If you can't make it, let the team know
● Progress, not perfection

19. Big picture reminder
● CEO to give a refresher to the team about the
company's mission, vision and values.
● We have it once every 3 months or so.
● We hear it faster if we screwed up big time.
● There can be no democracy.

20. Micro teams
● 2-3 people in a project.
● Calls within project members.
● Reminders and help.
● Peer review and support.

21. Proof as a culture
● Results with every claim.
● Data in place of face to face.
● Builds trust, moves things on autopilot.

22. No blames, only solutions
● Everybody makes mistakes.
● Quick to admit, quick to fix.
● Group think on solutions:
– Stop gap
– Long term

23. Meetings
● Company wide.
● Team.
● Voice calls: Nobody ignores them.
● Ignoring work related voice calls has a certain
feeling of dread.
● Weekly.
● No more than 15 minutes. 30 if it's serious or
mission/vision reminding.

24. Mechanism:
- Micro-team: Timed
conference call (we use our
own API for live health check)
- Whole team: Hangouts

25. Ownership
● This is your company too.
● Eat your own dog food. Use your own service.
– Able to detect problems
– Fast reaction time to fix
– Think like a user by experiencing as a user
● Appreciation

26. Conclusion

27. Thank You
rahman@xoxzo.com