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Building and scaling effective distributed teams Lindsay Holmwood

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About me Worked in and lead distributed software engineering teams for 7 years

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About me Lead teams with follow-the-sun coverage

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About me Currently at Envato leading distributed team of 15

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The journey
 0. Fundamentals 1. Starting out 2. Growing the team 3. Scaling to the whole org

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Inclusion Practices 
 Technology Sponsorship

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No management buy in? Don’t even bother.

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Starting out

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Inclusion Practices 
 Technology Sponsorship

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Regular face to face catchups. Ideal: once a quarter

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Regular face to face catchups. Likely: once a year

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Establish rituals

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Multiple internet connections Dongle with lots of data

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Multiple internet connections Don’t skimp on quality (fast upload a must)

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Multiple internet connections Move to areas with NBN

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Multiple internet connections Have backup equipment

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Instant messaging Non-negotiable, primary comms method

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Instant messaging Your lifeline to your team.

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Instant messaging Scheduled do not disturb time

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Instant messaging Announce start/stop

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Ceremonies: Daily standup Rotate the facilitation responsibility

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Ceremonies: Retrospectives Discuss and refactor practices

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Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.

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Growing the team

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Inclusion Practices 
 Technology Sponsorship

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The basics Even more important!

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The basics Bring in coaches to observe and facilitate.

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Hack: Greet everyone to check

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Hack: Ask questions in the negative “Does anyone disagree?” not “Do we all agree?”

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Team design: Time zone coverage How many time zones? How much time zone overlap?

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Team design: Time zone coverage Add people in new time zones in pairs.

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Team design: Time zone coverage Beginning & end of day standups.

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Team design: Time zone coverage Record crucial meetings.

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Team design: Antipattern: Forcing everyone to work at exactly the same time

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Team design: Antipattern: Communication in physical spaces that excludes remoters

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Team design: Antipattern: Activities that exclude remoters (use of whiteboards) (in-person icebreakers)

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Google Quick Draw

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Team design: Defining question How would this decision make me feel if I was working from home?

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Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.

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Scaling to the whole org

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Inclusion Practices 
 Technology Sponsorship

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What does it take to make distributed teams a first class citizen in the organisation?

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The executive and management working remotely at least 2 days a week.

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Guilds Share lessons learnt with other teams

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Feedback loops Keep refactoring your ways of working.

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Feedback loops “What got us here won’t get us there."

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Thank you!
 (and questions?)