Chapter1: HowtoRunaRemoteTeam 11 People often ask “how do you know if employees are actually working?” Any easy way we know is with Friday updates. Each Friday, every person on the teamposts an update to Async about what they shipped that week and what they are working on for the next week. This makes it easy to keep in the loop on projects and also holds everyone at Zapier accountable to everyone else to do their part. 7. Building culture in person TheZapierteaminNewOrleans In person interaction is valuable for any team. There is definitely something uniquethathappenswhenteammatescanworkonsomethinginperson—tap someone on the shoulder and point to your screen to go over something, or share downtime with fun games and casual banter. So we strive to bring the teamtogethertwotimesayearsomewherecool. We’vevisitedFlorida,Washington,Colorado,Alabama,Utah,Texas,Vancouver, Toronto, and NewOrleansoncompanyretreats. In addition to the all-company get togethers, departments hold their own re- treatsandsmallgroupsofusmightgettogetheronanadhocbasisthroughout theyeartocoordinatethestartofamajorprojectorfeature.Usuallythisisjust onepersonjumpingonaflighttovisitanotherpersonor,ifmorethanacouple of staff members live in close proximity (we have many teammates in Austin andPortland,forexample),they’ll have impromptu co-working sessions. If this seemsexpensive,that’sbecauseitis.Butthegreatpartisthatyou’lllikely havethemoneytocoverthisplusmoresinceyoudon’thavetopayforacentral office that everyone is working in.