G2i recently hosted our largest online event to date, bringing together a panel of brilliant leaders who shared their secrets for leading remote engineering with grace, compassion and a great deal of cultural awareness.

The event was moderated by G2i’s Program Director for Developer Health, Michelle Bakels. Our panel of remote team experts included:

• Ben Parisot, Engineering Manager at Planet Argon
• Daniel Lizik, Engineering Manager at TableCheck
• John Fletcher, Software Team Enabler at codecentric AG
• Lee Johnson, CTO at G2i

Effective Communication Strategies

With today's globalized work landscape, effective communication is the cornerstone of remote teams scattered across continents and time zones. As our guest Ben points out, "ensuring that there's space and time for people to ask for help" is essential in a distributed team environment. By implementing strategies like regular check-ins and dedicated communication channels, such as Slack, teams can bridge geographical divides while fostering collaboration. Additionally, Lee highlights the cultural aspect, noting that tools like Basecamp facilitate asynchronous communication, respecting individual schedules. Our moderator Michelle emphasizes that remote work culture is sculpted from the top down, with leaders setting the tone for productivity and work-life balance.

Cultivating Inclusivity

Creating an inclusive atmosphere within a team, regardless of employment status or contractual arrangements, is vital for fostering collaboration and productivity. John advocates for a "one class society," where all team members are equal contributors to a shared goal, breaking through societal divides that often emerge between different classes of workers (full-time, part-time, contract, etc). Drawing from practical strategies, including equitable participation in meetings and random summarization assignments, teams can empower quieter members and cultivate a culture of active engagement. Inclusivity, as Lee emphasizes, begins with individual interactions, with efforts in one-on-one settings cascading into broader group dynamics. Prioritizing inclusion at every level harnesses the collective strengths of all members, and thus fosters a sense of belonging and unity.

Remote Hiring Strategies

Transitioning from traditional in-person interviews to remote hiring poses both challenges and opportunities for engineering teams seeking to recruit top talent. As Michelle points out, the shift to remote work necessitates innovative approaches to assessing candidate suitability. In his case, Lee underscores the seamless transition to virtual interviews, leveraging platforms like Zoom to gauge communication skills crucial for remote collaboration. John advocates for aligning the interview process with the remote work environment, creating scenarios akin to real-world work situations. Additionally, Ben emphasizes evaluating qualities like confidence and humility, vital for fostering a cohesive team culture. Daniel highlights the role of branding and social media presence in attracting suitable candidates, emphasizing the importance of conveying a compelling engineering culture. 

Tools and Techniques

In remote team management, selecting the right tools profoundly impacts productivity and collaboration. Daniel notes that his team has been using Jira and Confluence for a long time now and highlights the adaptability and flexibility of these platforms to cater to diverse team needs. Ben echoes this sentiment and emphasizes the seamless integration of tools like Tuple for pair programming and DX for monitoring developer experience, which significantly contribute to efficient workflows and team satisfaction.

To add, Michelle underscores the importance of considering affordability and integration when choosing tools. She shares an anecdote, stating, "I remember there was this big drama at an old job because we were looking for a new chat tool and everyone wanted Slack." She highlights the balancing act between popular choices and budget considerations. Lee adds a human touch, advocating for tools like Loom to maintain personal connections in asynchronous environments. As the conversation unfolds, it becomes evident that in the dynamic landscape of remote work, adaptability and resourcefulness are so crucial for effective team management.

Lessons from the async Q&A

While not discussed synchronously, the panelists also addressed the questions that we didn’t get to answer during the live event:

Q: Have you had any good experiences with pairing tools aside from Zoom? Like pop.com or tuple.app?

Ben: Yes, we use Tuple for pair programming at Planet Argon and really enjoy it. It’s the closest we’ve seen a virtual pairing tool get to in-person pairing functionality. It’s been especially helpful for one-off pairing and troubleshooting sessions — the remote screen control makes it very easy for pairing partners to collaborate on a local file without both having to have the app installed or even the repo cloned to their machines.

Q: Any tips on how to integrate those who are more introverts in a remote setting?

John: The short answer: get more extroverted people to recognize their achievements and trust them with responsibility. Longer answer: the assumption that being introverted is negative is implicit in the question. One could argue that a healthy team contains some introverts. People tend to unchangeably identify themselves with the concepts of "introvert" or "extrovert", so perhaps it's better to avoid those terms and rather break the issue down - which practices or characteristics or habits best support the goals of the team and which are negative? That's something which can even be openly discussed and agreed upon with the team without labeling or having pre-defined stereotypes. This might make it easier for an "introvert" to adopt some of the positive practices which were previously foreign. It also allows the actual desires of the person asking the question to be more clearly specified, instead of bundling those desires in a package like "extrovert" which might be understood differently by different people.

Q: Have you ever had a case of burnout at the beginning of the remote approach? If so, how did you manage it and what lessons have you learned?

Daniel: When the pandemic started I was living in central Tokyo in a tiny 20 square meter apartment. I started to go crazy as I was living my whole life in the same tiny room almost 24/7. My bed was my desk, and I slept in my bed, so there was basically no separation between work, life and sleep. I was also aiming for a promotion during incredibly turbulent times which made WLB balance even more intense. In early 2021 I moved out towards the suburbs to a much larger apartment. I realized that in order to prevent total mental/lifestyle burnout I had to choose between location or lifestyle. At the height of the pandemic, I never went out anyway, so why bother living in the center of the city?

I learned that it is very easy to fall into an idealized lifestyle FOMO trap. You may want to live near Central Park, or in the center of Shibuya, but are you actually going to utilize that opportunity every single day or every single hour? If you live in the city center, every moment you spend by yourself in your room is a waste of time and money, by your very definition of choosing to live there.

Big thanks to our amazing panelists for bringing their invaluable insights and experiences to the G2i community! We really had fun during the session and are so thrilled about all the insights we got out of it. While we've distilled some key points, the event was packed with even more wisdom than we can capture in one article. Dive into the full event for a deeper understanding. You can watch the full panel here:

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