Managing a developer remote team? Tips for getting started

Telecommuting is on the rise for many reasons: improved telecommunications, increased productivity, improved wellbeing, lower ecological footprint, and increased overall profitability (to name a few).

The focus here will be on how, rather than why. It's no secret that an ever-growing number of people want to work remotely. So the question is, how can these teams be managed in order to take full advantage of remote work's benefits while mitigating some of its risks?

This article focuses on things that can be overlooked when not in the same room or office:

Vision and motivation
Clear expectations and processes
Team culture

Vision and motivation

All-Star teams are made up of people who are individual and motivated enough to work toward a shared vision. At the highest level, everyone needs to know why they are doing what they are doing.

Have your team create either a general mission statement or a project-specific mission statement
Video conference once a week with each member of your team. Familiarize yourself with what motivates each person individually.

Some common motivators can be:

The vision: Some people are best inspired by it
The Challenge: Solving difficult problems is all they want to do all day.
The Prestige: People want recognition when recognition is due. No shame!
The Team: Being part of something bigger than themselves.
The Career: Where do you want to be in 5 years?
The money: plain and simple.
Lead by example. If you're not engaged, why should you be?

Clear expectations and processes

If you have a team of people who are motivated towards a common goal, you need to empower and encourage the team to achieve it. How do you do that?

Set clear expectations. When employees have clear expectations, they can manage themselves more effectively. They know what success looks like and whether they have missed targets.
Find the "Sweet Spot" process. This is a matter of communicating with your team. Hold regular monthly or bi-weekly team video conferences. Together, think about the right process that meets the needs of the project and doesn't burden your team. Perhaps most importantly, you always review the processes with your team and are ready to adjust and improve based on the feedback.

There are some recurring events that every tech manager should consider:

Daily status update via chat: Every morning, each employee sends a message (on a platform like Slack) with very brief notes about what they worked on yesterday, what they'll be doing today, any risks they see, and whether anything is blocking them. This is a very simple way to identify risks and obstacles early on.

Have a weekly “coffee”: a 30-minute video conference with each team member to check their motivation and understanding/performance against expectations. Make development plans for growth or just talk about what's on your mind.
Monthly or bi-weekly team meetings: The team needs a forum where they can interact with each other, shout out and understand the current status of the business and various projects.
Focused work time: One or more long chunks of time each week when your teams are sheltered from meetings or distractions other than focused work.

Team culture

The biggest loss for remote teams is the lack of camaraderie and connection that can only happen when you're in the same room every day.

There are ways to strengthen team unity even when some or all employees are working remotely:

Make sure each member of the team knows the names and some information about everyone else. Make sure new members are properly introduced to the rest of the team.
Mentoring or partnerships can significantly strengthen the sense of community and help solve problems. If you have multiple projects, create pairs of one person from each project and encourage them to discuss their problems/gains with each other.
Hold team meetings that are about culture, fun and vision. If you do rewards of any kind, it should be done with the whole team.
Create an "Informal Channel" in your Slack. Some of the funniest culture-boosting conversations come directly through this so-called "unimportant" channel.

ollowing these helpful details allows your remote team to grow and develop a community; they will be happier and work better/more productively as a result.