Chapter1: HowtoRunaRemoteTeam 4 4. Hire people who can write In a co-located office, a lot of information is shared in person. In a remote situ- ation, almost everythingissharedviawrittencommunication.Communication is oneofthemostimportantpartsofremoteteam.Therefore,goodwritersare critical to a team’s success. 5. Hire people who are ok without a social workplace It’ll be important to try to create some social aspects with a remote team. Butthetruthis that remote workplaces are usually less social than co-located ones. People on remote teams need to be ok with that and have their own social support system. And the best remote workers will thrive in this type of environment. That said, as you grow you might find multiple people in cities and some social environment will emerge. For example, we currently have several people in Austin and Portland who routinely meet in person for co- workingandothersocialevents. Software/Tools In a co-located facility, you can always round up the team for an all-hands meetingtosteereveryoneontrack.Inaremoteteam,you’llneedtherighttools to make sure everyone stays on the same page and can continue to execute without a physical person standing next to them. Here are some tools we’ve found handy as a rapidly growing team. While the exact tools aren’t super important, you likely will need a tool in certain categories like group chat and video conferencing to make remote successful. These tools have changed quite a bit over the years. (Check out previous versions of this post to see what’s changed.) 1. Slack