Loup’s Guide to Remote Work
At Loup we take great pride in our work, but also in how we work. Part of this ethos is working open and sharing what we do, who we take inspiration from, and where we still struggle. In the past we have written about our program management methods and how we use tools like Airtable.
In all of the posts working remotely and in distributed teams is a common theme. Remote work can sound easy. It’s just having conversations via video instead of in-person, right? Not quite. For a team to work full-time from different locations, there’s a lot more involved than simply hopping on the phone or a video call. Here’s what Loup has learned from a combined 25 years of remote working.
Invest in the right software
Loup is a fully distributed team working across North America. We’re a small shop, but we dedicate a sizeable portion of our monthly operating costs to software that allows us to work seamlessly from afar. Yes, there are free (or cheaper) alternatives to some of the tools we use, but through trial — and certainly through error — we’ve come to realize that dependable software is critical to our success as a distributed team. Here is the minimum set of tools we use and recommend.
Learn remotee etiquette
We’ve logged thousands of hours on video conference calls — it’s how we stay connected as a team, work together on projects, and minimize the carbon cost of unnecessary travel. We can report that parody videos about exasperating calls are painfully accurate. Background noise, poor connectivity, and audio gremlins are extremely disruptive — especially for a team just learning to work remotely. If you and your team are transitioning to full-time distributed work, here are some basics.
Respect your colleagues’ time zones.
Switching to full-time remote work can be a tough transition and many people struggle to set work-life boundaries. For a team to thrive, it’s important to respect each others’ working hours as nothing burns people out faster than frequent calls interrupting family or personal time. Time zone challenges are an ongoing reality, so here are a few best practices.
Stay organized & collaborate smartly
With plenty of projects on the go, Loup stays organized with a cherry-picked selection of Agile practices. For a smaller team, adopting the full set of methodologies within the Agile framework can feel bloated, time consuming, and unpleasantly bureaucratic. Focusing on just a few practices keeps us organized, limits the software we must learn, rely on, and pay for, and keeps our spirits intact as we contend with the work ahead of us. Here’s how we do it.
Learn from other leaders
Much of our thinking and practice has come from learning from and working with others. We are inspired by the ideas percolating in our networks and by folks who have long struggled with doing this well.
- We love Cassie McDaniel’s Ultimate Guide to Leading a Remote Design Team
- Our friend and collaborator Matt Thompson publishes great resources on his Joy of Teamwork site
- The collaboration tool Mural has guides on Remote Design Sprints
- Radical Inclusion helps teams work remotely
- Jake Knapp shares tips on running a remote design sprint
- Mozilla Open Leaders promotes openness in innovation and research
- Abby Cabunoc Mayes wrote this great Twitter thread
- Stephan Dohrn coaches remote entrepreneurs
Loup offers custom organizational design and guidance with a specialization in helping geographically distributed teams. Through training, coaching, tooling, and facilitation, we help establish healthy project management processes and practices for teams. Learn more about our services.
