Bali, Nusa Lembongan and Canada: in this region, that is a common distribution for a small web or tourism project. At this time of year, Bali is sixteen hours ahead of Vancouver and thirteen hours ahead of the east coast. Island internet works well until it fails. One team member may be on a boat for half the day, while another is asleep precisely when a question arises.
We co-founded Raincity Studios in Vancouver and worked there for years before leaving Vancouver four years ago. In that agency, colleagues could simply walk over to one another's desks. Across islands and oceans, that is not possible. Teams try many tools, abandon most of them and, ideally, arrive at a setup simple enough that people actually use it.
At the end of a year in which the available tools changed considerably, here is what has proven effective. Most of it concerns practices rather than tools.
How many tools should a remote team use?
One chat tool, one task tool and one file space. The most common mistake in remote teams is having too many places where work is stored.
A question arrives by email, the answer is sent on Skype, the file is attached to a Facebook message, the decision is made in a WhatsApp group and the to-do list is in someone's notebook. Two weeks later, no one can find anything, and the same question is asked again.
The solution is a simple rule: one place for conversation, one place for tasks and one place for files. Other channels are not used for work, or their content is copied to the appropriate place.
Which chat tool should be chosen?
This has been a notable year for quick-conversation tools. Slack opened to the public in February, and many technology teams adopted it. Most small teams we know still use Skype chat, Google Hangouts or email threads. WhatsApp is ubiquitous in Indonesia, and Facebook acquired it the same month Slack launched, for a remarkably large sum.
The choice of tool matters little. What matters is that everyone uses the same one, and that there is a clear distinction between discussing and deciding. Chat moves quickly and information is easily lost, so nothing important should exist only there.
Which task tool works for small teams?
For tasks, Trello is the tool we most often see adopted durably by small teams. It uses boards, lists and cards that are moved from "to do" to "doing" to "done." It is simple enough for non-technical people to use without training, which is its most important feature. A sophisticated project tool that no one opens is less useful than a whiteboard. For those unfamiliar with it, Trello's own guide provides a good introduction.
How should files be organized?
Use Google Drive or Dropbox, with a single shared folder structure agreed at the outset and names that team members can anticipate. Files should not be sent as attachments unless they are leaving the team. The rule is to place the file in the folder and share the link.
Why should decisions always be recorded in writing?
This practice has the greatest impact, and it costs nothing.
When a team is spread across time zones, half of its members were absent when a decision was made. They may have been asleep, underwater, or disconnected when the call dropped, which is a real possibility on island internet. If the decision exists only in someone's memory or in a chat that has scrolled out of view, it does not exist for them.
After any significant decision, someone should therefore record it on the task card or in a short shared document: what was decided, the reason in one sentence, and who will do what next. Three lines are sufficient.
This may initially seem excessive. Its value becomes clear when a team member returns from a week offline, reads the cards and is fully informed within ten minutes without asking anyone. Disputes of the "I thought we agreed..." type also largely disappear.
Why hold a weekly video call?
Despite the emphasis on written records, what holds a remote team together is seeing one another on screen once a week.
Writing is well suited to decisions but poorly suited to tone. Short messages are easily misread, and a colleague may appear curt when simply busy. Minor frustrations accumulate in writing and dissolve within two minutes of conversation.
We therefore recommend a weekly video call at a fixed time, maintained even when activity is low. Between Bali and Canada, someone always joins early or late, so the inconvenient time slot should rotate. Skype or Hangouts are suitable, even if the video occasionally freezes on the island connection. The purpose is for team members to see one another.
The call is not for status updates, which belong on the task board. It is for matters that do not translate well into writing: concerns, progress and obstacles.
Why will more small businesses work this way?
We do not expect this model to remain specific to people living on islands. Bandwidth continues to improve, tools continue to become less expensive, and many small businesses already work with a bookkeeper in one town, a web specialist in another and suppliers elsewhere. That is a remote team, whether or not it is described as one.
As this way of working spreads, we expect the same problems to appear elsewhere: too many tools, decisions that are not recorded, meetings that consist only of status updates, and too little direct conversation. The solutions will be the same, and they are almost entirely free.
Some repetitive tasks can be delegated to software. Services such as Zapier can transfer information between tools automatically, so that a new form entry becomes a task card without anyone copying it. This type of automation is worth considering once the basics are in place. It should not be the starting point, however. The starting point is the rule about where work is stored. It costs nothing, and no other measure works without it.