The document discusses solutions for managing globally distributed mobile teams. It describes problems with communication across time zones and languages. Key solutions discussed include hiring communicative team members, flexible work schedules, using squads, GitHub for collaboration and documentation, RFC processes, 1-2-3 feedback systems, automation with tools like Fastlane, and architectural patterns like Clean Architecture. The document is from a technical product manager at Cookpad describing their global iOS project.

1. Workflow and development in globally
distributed mobile teams
海外で働く 東京 2018.02.16
Pawel Rusin

2. Agenda
● Introduction
● Cookpad Global iOS project history
● Distributed teams - problems
● Distributed teams - solutions

3. Introduction
● Pawel Rusin (twitter: @rusinpaw github: pauchan)
● Double majored in Robotics and Japanese studies in
Cracow, Poland
● Came to Japan in February 2013
● Bounced between iOS and Android projects
● Ads department till Sept 2016
● Global iOS team since - team iOS
● Recently became technical product manager on Data
Analysis squad

4. Cookpad global iOS app highlights
● Existing project (started
as 100% Objective-C)
● Converted to Swift in
February 2015
● Supports 14 different
languages
● released in 148 countries

6. Communication

7. Communication problems
● Physical disconnection
● Timezone differences
● Language barrier - 7 different countries (4 non-native
English speakers)
● Structural boundries - while the same iOS team,
different supervisors and different responsibilities

8. Communication
● “It was a comunication problem”
● “I had no idea about this”
● “There was a language barrier”
● “I have no idea what you are talking about”
● “You should have told me earlier”
● “I don’t know who to ask”
● “I’ve misunderstood you”

9. 1. Solutions
● Hiring
● Flex / remote
● Squads
● Github
● RFC’s
● 1-2-3’s
● Automation
● Architecture

10. 1. Hiring
● “Hire good people and rest will follow”
● Right fit for the job
● good communicators
○ OSS community
○ strong peer review cultures
● structured interview

11. 2. Flex / remote
● No 9 - 5
● Resolving timezone problem by adjusting your work
schedule

12. 3. Squad based team structure

13. 3. Squad based team structure
● Two main benefits
○ Reduces timezone and location issues
○ Reduces task division issues

14. 4. GitHub as the main source of
communication
● PR based workflow
○ PR’s and issues are basic place for tech discussion
○ PR’s are specs

15. 4. GitHub as the main source of
communication

16. 4. GitHub as the main source of
communication
● PR based workflow
○ PR’s and issues are basic place for tech discussion
○ PR’s are specs
● Code review as a way of knowledge sharing
● Github for onboarding / docs

17. 4. GitHub as the main source of
communication
● [1/4] - Very light suggestion - "You don't have to change this. I'm just
mentioning it."
● [2/4] - Light suggestion - "Please consider changing this, especially if
someone else feels similarly."
● [3/4] - Suggestion - "Please change this, or provide some additional
reasoning behind the decision not to. However, if you feel strongly about it
and we can't come to an agreement, I'm still okay with it being merged as
is."
● [4/4] - Serious suggestion - "Please change this. I feel very very strongly
about it. I will not approve this PR until we have come to a compromise."

18. 4. GitHub as the main source of
communication

19. 5. RFC's
● PR with:
○ outline - what problem are you trying to solve?
○ technical highlights
○ drawbacks
○ alternatives

20. 5. RFC's

21. 5. RFC's
● Communicate upfront
● Forces to consider alternatives
● Prepare for discusison
● History / documentation
● Tap the team knowledge pool

22. 6. 1-2-3’s
1. What will you work on today?
2. What’s the next thing on your pipeline?
3. What are you filling the gaps with?

23. 6. 1-2-3’s

24. 7. Automation

25. 7. Automation
● Fastlane
○ supporting release cycle, submissions
○ beta releases and prototyping
○ translations
○ gathering productivity metrics

26. 7. Automation

27. 7. Automation

28. 8. Architecture
● Moved from MVC to Clean Architecture
● Input - Output protocols ( https://github.com/kickstarter/ios-oss )
● Coordinators
● Unit testing

29. Why bother?
● Diversity FTW!
● Use the globalisation for our advantage
● Because we can