3 Core Principles of Remote-First Culture

Why the core principles of remote work fail to be noticed and why they are so important

Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash

Many articles talk about how to approach remote work as individuals, not collectively as a company. Things like creating an office space when working from home, setting a schedule you can commit to, and taking breaks throughout your day. While these are important tips, there's been a lack of focus on what a remote-first culture really is and what it means for companies.

Culture is a word with deep meaning, but from the corporate perspective it essentially means how things get done — or the way of working. The way people collaborate, the way decisions are made, the way projects are managed, and so on.

With remote-first it's no different. Choosing this culture means changing how things get done and how people work. For instance, moving collaboration from the physical to the online environment. While this is the most obvious one, there's a lot more to it. Here are the 3 core principles:

1. Document all collaboration
2. Chose the tools which support collaboration
3. Work as a remote team, above all

Let’s dive into one by one.

Core Principle 1: Document all collaboration

In office environments, collaboration happens mostly via verbal communication. The issues with this are:

• discussions aren't documented — if someone isn't in the same room, they miss out on information
• it takes more verbal communication to propagate previous discussions

In remote-first environments, people might not be able to join discussions — e.g. due to timezone differences. This means collaboration should be documented to ensure they can access the information at a later time.

Putting your thoughts in a document will provide context and a starting point to a discussion. Others can read and comment. You can take the feedback and edit your document accordingly. If a meeting is needed for further discussion, there's already a document to guide the conversation. Anything new can be added.

Now discussions are recorded and easily propagated.

Core Principle 2: Chose the tools which support collaboration

When shifting from in-person to remote environments people have a natural tendency to try to translate previous behaviors to their closest online versions. Most common case is translating verbal communication to online real-time written communication with tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Discord, and others.

While they are essential for real-time collaboration there's a tendency of using them for all collaboration. Questions to small and large groups; work requests to individuals and teams; longer discussions; decision-making; feedback to individuals, teams, and other people's work; status updates; demos; announcements; and more. The issues with this are:

• valuable information is lost over time — discussions happen out of context which makes them really hard to find
• context switching — multiple messages sent per day constantly take people out of deep focused work

Tools like Google Docs, Notion, Jira, InVision, Figma, Miro, Github, and others, support adding comments inline with the work being produced. They will silently notify the people involved, contrary to real-time communication tools. Comments result in discussions. Discussions ensure in the work is updated within the right context. Discussions are also recorded, making them easier to find.

Choosing the tools which support collaboration ensures it happens closest to where the work is being done.

Now information is stored and can be found within the right tools and people aren't abruptly distracted throughout their day.

Core Principle 3: Work as a remote team, above all

Companies which have chosen a remote-first culture may decide to provide an office space people can work at. While there's value to this setup, the challenge is whoever doesn't go to the office ends up missing out on information since verbal communication tends to take over.

The term first in remote-first provides a self-explanatory meaning to this culture. Teams must function as remote teams, first and foremost. Core principles 1 and 2 should be practiced by everyone, regardless of the company setup, office or no office.

People in the office should document all collaboration and make use of tools which support discussions closest to where the work is being done.

Now everyone has the same access to information.

Remote-first culture is a different way of working, not just a translation of in-office behaviors to the online environment. Promoting the core principles requires a deeper understanding of this culture, which is missing in many companies (especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic which created misconceptions about remote work).

Is your remote-first company following these principles?