Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Building and scaling effective distributed teams
Search
Lindsay Holmwood
November 27, 2017
Education
4
240
Building and scaling effective distributed teams
Lindsay Holmwood
November 27, 2017
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Lindsay Holmwood
See All by Lindsay Holmwood
Protecting sensitive data in DynamoDB with searchable encryption
auxesis
0
14
Your API ain't as secure as you think
auxesis
0
150
Footguns and factorisation: how to make users of your cryptographic library successful
auxesis
0
1.5k
Levelling up database security by thinking in APIs
auxesis
0
140
How to thwart your devops transformation with counterinsurgency doctrine
auxesis
1
93
Microservices are an antipattern
auxesis
0
220
Mirrors, networks, and boundaries
auxesis
0
120
Managing remotely, while remotely managing
auxesis
13
4.6k
Testing Conway’s Law in open source communities
auxesis
6
690
Other Decks in Education
See All in Education
生成AI活用セミナー/GAI-workshop
gnutar
0
130
ARアプリを活用した防災まち歩きデータ作成ハンズオン
nro2daisuke
0
190
2024-2025 CBT top items
cbtlibrary
0
130
Adobe Express
matleenalaakso
1
8k
小学校女性教員向け プログラミング教育研修プログラム「SteP」の実践と課題
codeforeveryone
0
140
生態系ウォーズ - ルールブック
yui_itoshima
1
290
中央教育審議会 教育課程企画特別部会 情報・技術ワーキンググループに向けた提言 ー次期学習指導要領での情報活用能力の抜本的向上に向けてー
codeforeveryone
0
330
Alumnote inc. Company Deck
yukinumata
0
4.3k
Master of Applied Science & Engineering: Computer Science & Master of Science in Applied Informatics: Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
signer
PRO
0
830
Node-REDで広がるプログラミング教育の可能性
ueponx
0
130
Web Application Frameworks - Lecture 3 - Web Technologies (1019888BNR)
signer
PRO
0
3.1k
[Segah 2025] Gamified Interventions for Composting Behavior in the Workplace
ezefranca
0
180
Featured
See All Featured
GraphQLの誤解/rethinking-graphql
sonatard
73
11k
We Have a Design System, Now What?
morganepeng
53
7.8k
Fight the Zombie Pattern Library - RWD Summit 2016
marcelosomers
234
17k
YesSQL, Process and Tooling at Scale
rocio
173
15k
Facilitating Awesome Meetings
lara
57
6.6k
Let's Do A Bunch of Simple Stuff to Make Websites Faster
chriscoyier
508
140k
Understanding Cognitive Biases in Performance Measurement
bluesmoon
31
2.7k
ReactJS: Keep Simple. Everything can be a component!
pedronauck
667
120k
Distributed Sagas: A Protocol for Coordinating Microservices
caitiem20
333
22k
How to train your dragon (web standard)
notwaldorf
97
6.3k
VelocityConf: Rendering Performance Case Studies
addyosmani
332
24k
Become a Pro
speakerdeck
PRO
29
5.6k
Transcript
Building and scaling effective distributed teams Lindsay Holmwood
About me Worked in and lead distributed software engineering teams
for 7 years
About me Lead teams with follow-the-sun coverage
About me Currently at Envato leading distributed team of 15
The journey 0. Fundamentals 1. Starting out 2. Growing the
team 3. Scaling to the whole org
Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
No management buy in? Don’t even bother.
Starting out
Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
Regular face to face catchups. Ideal: once a quarter
Regular face to face catchups. Likely: once a year
Establish rituals
Multiple internet connections Dongle with lots of data
Multiple internet connections Don’t skimp on quality (fast upload a
must)
Multiple internet connections Move to areas with NBN
Multiple internet connections Have backup equipment
Instant messaging Non-negotiable, primary comms method
Instant messaging Your lifeline to your team.
Instant messaging Scheduled do not disturb time
Instant messaging Announce start/stop
Ceremonies: Daily standup Rotate the facilitation responsibility
Ceremonies: Retrospectives Discuss and refactor practices
Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.
Growing the team
Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
The basics Even more important!
The basics Bring in coaches to observe and facilitate.
Hack: Greet everyone to check
Hack: Ask questions in the negative “Does anyone disagree?” not
“Do we all agree?”
Team design: Time zone coverage How many time zones? How
much time zone overlap?
Team design: Time zone coverage Add people in new time
zones in pairs.
Team design: Time zone coverage Beginning & end of day
standups.
Team design: Time zone coverage Record crucial meetings.
Team design: Antipattern: Forcing everyone to work at exactly the
same time
Team design: Antipattern: Communication in physical spaces that excludes remoters
Team design: Antipattern: Activities that exclude remoters (use of whiteboards)
(in-person icebreakers)
Google Quick Draw
Team design: Defining question How would this decision make me
feel if I was working from home?
Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.
Scaling to the whole org
Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
What does it take to make distributed teams a first
class citizen in the organisation?
The executive and management working remotely at least 2 days
a week.
Guilds Share lessons learnt with other teams
Feedback loops Keep refactoring your ways of working.
Feedback loops “What got us here won’t get us there."
Thank you! (and questions?)