Remote Success Stories: David Brownman, Zapier
From đź‘‹ Remote, this is Remote Success Stories, an interview series exploring successful transitions into remote work in the technology world. Interested in transitioning to remote work? Want to chat with other fellow remote workers? Join our global remote work community at helloremote.life!
Our interview today is with David Brownman, a software developer at Zapier.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is David Brownman and I work on the platform team at Zapier. We’re an automation company and I help develop some of the apps and the platform itself.
What appealed to you about beginning to work remotely?
I was definitely nervous about it at first, having always been colocated with my coworkers. The most appealing factors were twofold: the flexibility with my time and the ability to be anywhere in the world. On the surface it may seems a little strange to fly somewhere just to sit in a coffee shop and work, but it’s a great way to see the world. Plus, once the work day is over, you’re in the heart of a new city! I just did that in New Orleans and it was a total blast.
How did you first approach the subject with your employer? Had other employees been working remotely before you?
The entire company is remote, so it was never a discussion.
What surprising things have you discovered about working remotely?
I’m honestly surprised about how easy it is to maintain a work/life balance. There’s an understanding that we’re all adults with lives outside of our job. The fact that we carry our office in our backpack doesn’t mean that we’re expected to work at all hours. We set clear “on” and “off” hours and the expectation is that when someone is off for the day, they won’t get back to you until they’re back on. Patience is a key part of working with a team spread across 10 time zones.
Have there been any downsides to beginning to work remotely?
The biggest change was not getting any social interaction for free. In an office, you see people every day as a side effect of being there. I’ve really had to be proactive about seeing friends on a regular basis. It’s turned into an unexpected win though; being remote provides a great excuse to get folks together for a game night. Plus I get to play the games that require a larger group size, so it’s a win all around.
How does Zapier’s software development team effectively work 100% remotely?
The most important thing we do is write everything down. We expect asynchronous work. We document everything and rely heavily on GitHub issues. We also maintain an internal wiki (Quip) of procedures, commands, “hard things to know”, and tons more. All discussions and decisions have a written record (in Slack or elsewhere), so it’s easy to search and find the answer to all the questions anyone has ever asked at the company.
Are there any tools or software that you’ve found particularly effective?
We live in Slack. No email, no texting, only Slack. Zoom for our weekly all-hands (now over 100 people!). Past that, nothing remote specific. Everything else runs like a regular software company: GitHub, Trello, etc.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I think the coolest part about being a remote company is that we can hire anyone in the world and their success at a great company isn’t dependent on moving to (or splitting time with) the Bay Area. To that end, if you’re looking for something new, I wholeheartedly recommend checking out our jobs.
David Brownman is a software developer at Zapier. Follow him on Twitter.
