We Are All Remote Workers

One year ago we closed our offices to become a fully distributed company. Here's our story so far.

Transcript

1. we are all
   remote workers
   @nicolaiarocci
   nicolaiarocci.com
   

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2. work from home?
   Me,
   a couple
   years ago
   

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3. we closed offices
   on july 2012
   a little more than one year ago
   

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4. why?
   

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5. 7 team members
   

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6. 12 kids
   3 dogs
   5 wives
   One husband
   

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7. more like 20
   team members
   life is more complex than just work
   

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8. a nice proprietary
   location in Ravenna
   

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9. a nice proprietary
   location in Ravenna
   turns out team members are mostly from the neighborhood
   

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10. Ghibullo
    9km
    x2pp x4 trips
    72 km 1h28m
    Marina di
    Ravenna
    17Km
    x1pp x4 trips
    68 km 1h40m
    Classe
    7Km
    x1pp x4 trips
    28 km 0h40m
    Cervia
    23 Km
    x1pp x2 trips
    46 km 0h50m
    Forlì
    25 Km
    x1pp x2 trips
    50 km 0h56m
    Ravenna
    3 Km
    x1pp x4 trips
    12 km 0h24m
    approximate distances and travel time courtesy of google maps
    

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11. 276 km, 5h58m
    every fucking workday
    

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12. 276 km, 5h58m
    money / time / environment / safety / fitness / stress
    

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13. infrastructure
    $$$
    power / phone / conditioning / maintenance / you-name-it
    

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14. proximity is overrated
    Works if you can turn your chair around and talk to a colleague, but if they’re on
    another floor or in another building, then they might as well be in another city.
    Vivek Haldar
    

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15. proximity is overrated
    especially for programmers
    Headphones
    anyone?
    

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16. besides
    we were using mostly remote tools already,
    right there in our offices
    

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17. we are all
    remote workers
    chances that all the people we need to collaborate with
    are physically close to us are infinitesimally small
    inspired by Vivek Haldar’s We Are All Remote Workers,
    (incidentally posted on the same day I was working on this deck)
    

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18. we are all
    remote workers
    we just embraced a process which has been
    in the making for a very long time
    

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19. how?
    

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20. remote
    all the things
    mixing remote and office workers is like black magic
    

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21. HipChat
    free for teams of five / github bitbucket heroku hooks / guests
    

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22. Google Hangout
    also good for code reviews and pair coding
    

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23. Dropbox
    sharing files between us and with clients
    

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24. Google Docs
    multiuser realtime editing for documents and spreadsheets
    

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25. Google Apps
    shared mailboxes, domains, calendars, docs
    

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26. GitHub
    free for public repositories
    

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27. BitBucket
    free for private repositories
    

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28. Trello
    organize, kanban style
    

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29. get and make calls on mobile and desktop for cheap
    

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30. the good
    

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31. save on
    time & money
    commutes / meals
    

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32. help the environment
    one hundred per cent pollution reduction
    

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33. flexibility
    work from everywhere
    

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34. flexibility
    work at any hour as we don’t count hours*
    (we focus on results and balance)
    * support team being the exception
    

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35. balance
    work / family / fun
    

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36. no interruptions
    there’s no guy across the room asking for your pen
    

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37. Async > Sync
    drawing by Vivek Haldar
    

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38. remote encourages Async
    drawing by Vivek Haldar
    

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39. recruit the best
    we can hire the best people from all over the world
    

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40. reduced stress
    all of this results in a huge...
    

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41. productivity boost
    and to think that most people expect the contrary
    

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42. reputation
    people always ask how we pulled this out
    and we have a great story to tell
    

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43. last but not least...
    

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44. we save a truckload of
    $$$
    

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45. the not so good
    

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46. adaption and change
    in managerial and organizational styles
    

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47. establishing
    coordination
    between remote workers requires an initial effort
    

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48. work and family
    responsibilities
    not mixing them up requires a conscious effort
    

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49. lack of team spirit
    can be a issue if counter-measures are not taken
    

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50. lack of team spirit
    we have a lot of fun in chat and during hangouts. really.
    

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51. lack of team spirit
    once a month we meet for lunch, have fun
    and discuss work and non-work related stuff
    

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52. lack of team spirit
    we also have regular face-to-face meetings
    

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53. most of the time in exotic places
    

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54. fear for data security
    make sure you do your homework here
    

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55. trust & accountability
    chat and voip logs, centralized emails, hangouts, code repos
    

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56. isolation
    get out and have fun when you feel like it
    

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57. distraction
    hire self-motivated and productive people
    

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58. not for everyone
    working from home, coffee shops or
    co-working space is not for everyone (so is office work)
    

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59. meeting clients
    depending on your business branch,
    can be serious an issue
    

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60. we believe
    in creating a parity and a culture of work
    where location doesn’t matter
    Joel Gascoigne
    

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61. few years
    and setups like this will be normal for most businesses
    Joel Gascoigne
    

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62. it’s a privilege
    to be part of this innovation, experiment
    and share our experience
    Joel Gascoigne
    

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63. by the way
    our offices in Ravenna, Italy
    are up for sale
    

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64. by the way
    as we are not going back. ever.
    

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65. thank you
    @nicolaiarocci
    nicolaiarocci.com
    gestionaleamica.com
    

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66. also
    inspired by
    Vivek Haldar’s
    We Are All Remote Workers
    incidentally posted on same day I was working on this deck
    Joel’s Gascoigne
    The Joys and Benefits of Working as a Distributed Team
    which also surfaced on the internet as I was looking for inspiration about this presentation
    

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