Remote Teams are the Future — Here’s What They Look Like
Experts weigh in on the trends and traits of successful remote teams and how to build them.
It wasn’t so long ago that recruiters debated the validity of remote and distributed teams. Thankfully, we’ve moved on. Leadership teams from New York to San Francisco now consider their talent roadmap to be as critical as their product roadmap. With tech skills deficits soaring to unprecedented numbers, hiring outside of a 25-mile radius of HQ is now a necessity to acquire the right technical talent. Global teams are the future of work.
No one understands the benefits of investing in remote work strategies better than those who participated in last month’s OpenRec panel on distributed trends. OpenRec is an annual conference that brings together over 200 of the most forward-thinking talent leaders in the startup world. Leah Sutton, VP of Global HR at Elastic, manages a fully distributed team that spans 37 countries and brings in 40% of its hires through employee referrals. Impressive. Pat Poels is a pioneer of setting up remote hubs. The SVP of Platform at Eventbrite has successfully opened remote offices from the Cascades down to the Andes. If you don’t know your mountain ranges, let’s just say he’s no stranger to continent hopping. Closer to home, our own Dylan Serota, who helped Pat launch his first international Eventbrite team before moving on to Terminal, has done the same for 15+ companies north of the border in four Canadian tech hubs. Below you will find a link to listen to the panel discussion in its entirety and a written exploration of several key takeaways.
Remote & Distributed — Team Success Comes In Different Forms
News flash — there’s no one right way to build an excellent team. The road you take will be determined by a set of factors unique to your business. That said, it never hurts to study another company’s playbook and understand what made them successful.
Flexibility: The Root of Elastic’s Success
Similar to remote success stories like InVision and Automattic, Elastic is a fully distributed team with a few “hub” offices scattered about the globe. According to Leah, Elastic’s distributed structure happened organically. With original team members spread across Northern Europe, it made sense to invest at the outset in technology that could best connect the team and hire talent from all over the world. This process was made easier by the nature of its software. Elastic’s products are open source. “A lot of our early members were already working on the open source projects from all over the world,” noted Leah. A recruiting process without geographic restrictions has made talent acquisition easier, but it also creates challenges that Leah’s team has to address. When asked about inclusion and culture, Leah admits that the team is currently slowing down on expanding in order to focus on standardizing the company experience for all employees. Instead of adding the 38th country to the mix, Elastic is doubling down on the infrastructure needed in the other 37 to make for a fantastic employee experience, which includes comprehensive benefits. “We’re now using a PEO model where we can offer benefits to people to whom we previously could not provide benefits. As you grow, so do expectations. You need to be prepared to have that infrastructure in place.”
Eventbrite — From a “Lucky” Decision to A Sophisticated System
Pat Poel’s and the Eventbrite team started with what he calls a bit of luck — they acquired a small but highly talented team in Mendoza, Argentina. Sure, they did their research and spent time evaluating Mendoza as a talent market, but they jumped in head first, giving the office in the land of Malbec ownership of certain projects. This differs dramatically from Elastic’s distributed model and comes with its own set of challenges ranging from learning new languages to the travel time/budget needed to make sure that Eventbrite can create the same kind of atmosphere in the southern hemisphere as they do in the northern. Following the success of the Mendoza team, Eventbrite built another team, this time from scratch, in Nashville. This time around, the team used a sophisticated scoring model to evaluate potential markets that factored in both qualitative and quantitative data. In the end, Nashville best aligns with the company — it’s one of the most vibrant music and events cities in the world. The acquisition process is similar. “We’ve evolved in how we do things. Instead of making decisions based on what the company might have to offer, we make acquisitions based on the analysis we do of a market.”
Terminal — Make the Leap without the Risk
Terminal helps companies build remote teams in Canada. Companies that partner with Terminal do so to minimize risk by avoiding the upfront legwork and costs associated with launching a foreign office. When you consider all the factors needed to succeed, from foreign entity set up to local market talent recruitment, startups and mid-sized companies benefit from working with a company like Terminal. “Global expansion is risky — there is so much distraction and investment that goes into building a remote team and it can take a long time to see the ROI. Working with a partner with local expertise can derisk and expedite,” Dylan notes. The men’s health company Hims, for example, has used Terminal to build teams in both Ontario and Montreal without making a considerable commitment to either city. On the other hand, companies like Bluescape have used Terminal intentionally to build teams that can own specific products in markets they are committed to like Vancouver. Bluescape’s model more closely aligns with Eventbrite and faces similar challenges. Teams that work with Terminal need to put in the hours to make sure they are helping to build a company culture north of the border.
How to Avoid “Centers of Influence”
When groups of decision makers work from the same office, it can become a center of influence, determining every major decision, which can negatively impact company culture. It can also limit opportunities for remote employees to move up the org chart. One of the things Pat and his team at Eventbrite are doing to combat the issue is to actively offer leadership positions to international team members. And since members of the international teams already have ownership over projects, this isn’t a huge stretch. But it takes vigilant awareness of the untapped potential of those not in the room, which is why Pat considers this a challenge for all companies that employ remote teams.
Elastic, on the other hand, has found its solution to this problem in its fully distributed nature. With leadership spread across the globe, it’s a non-issue. “The problem [for others] is structural. If you can avoid that part, it will be much easier. If you design it differently, you are going to have a different outcome.”
Autonomy, Support are the Keys to Success.
All three panelists agree — there’s no way to succeed without building systems that show support and provide ownership to relevant remote stakeholders.
Finding and Supporting Key Leaders
Success for remote teams starts with great leadership. You either need to install the right person in your chosen market or find the right person in that market to run the show. Without good leadership, you won’t have the confidence needed to give teams autonomy, which history has taught us is what they need to succeed.
“The best way to be successful is to help people where they need it and let them run.”
Hire Right. Be Available. Be Considerate
Leah’s distributed team doesn’t hire anyone straight out of school. They want to find people that have already had the valuable experience of working side-by-side with others in an office setting. And once they are in place, the goal is to treat them as if they were sitting next to you in the office. “Be available and let them know that you are available to them.” Distributed teams also need to keep their eye on the clock. “Time is time — you can’t hack it. Think about time zones. Planning meetings at 8 AM consistently for teams just sucks. Be considerate.”
Make the Trip — Digital Support Isn’t Enough
One of the culprits of a failed remote team is a lack of commitment to company culture, part of which Dylan believes can’t be built without physically investing time. “Spending time in your market doesn’t stop at the research phase — you need to make trips to your secondary and tertiary offices regularly. That also means you need to build a budget that allows your remote team to visit HQ whenever necessary.” Without face-to-face time, Dylan believes teams are hard to unify and destined to fail. That’s one of the reasons Terminal prioritizes time zone alignment with HQ for companies that are just getting their feet wet with their first remote office. “A company in San Francisco would be best served picking a city like Vancouver or Toronto where the talent level is high for their first office versus jumping across an ocean to gain access to other markets.”
Closing Notes
With the right support, planning, and leadership in place, remote teams can be powerful force multipliers for any business. It’s just not easy to launch one successfully. Whether you choose to open a secondary office with the help of a partner, do it on your own, or go an entirely different route and build a fully distributed team, remote success requires infrastructure, time, and commitment.
We would like to send out a special thanks to Leah, Pat, and Luke. You can learn more about the OpenRec conference here. To learn more about the hidden benefits of remote teams, read this blog post next.
