Working remotely with an otherwise co-located team

Host: Jay Bazuzi

Useful technology:

Spycam: let's remote worker listen in to room chatter

Audio quality is important

For HVAC noise, blue mic snowball, or yeti mic

Video is important, but low quality is OK

Headsets for all, with good mics
VS Anywhere, for low-latency pair programming.

If screen sharing and you switch times a lot, split the screens to avoid full screen refresh

Wideteams.org

Presense:

Put a picture of me on the wall -avoid out of site out of mind

Designate a partner at the beginning of the day or task

Find a pair in the morning, but also check in during the day.

Practices:

Get people together in person sometimes.

Go visit. E.g. to India, 2 weeks each year
1 week is minimum-7 days not 5

Bring remotes in for celebrations

Hold a team off site retreat every year.

Product Owner Office Hours every day, 1pm-2pm, on Lync.

Swap work mid-task to trigger knowledge sharing and energy

More:

Can we make the remote worker a special asset, not just a burden?

I want to change team culture, and that's very hard remotely. I have had more success changing 1 person at a time than whole team at once

@joem on twitter - do everything he says for a good remote setup