Richard Branson thinks offices will be dead in 30 years. But Marissa Mayer wants people in the cube! What's all the controversy? Drawing from Mozilla and the market, this short presentation myth-busts common objections to distributed work teams and provides specific tips to make them effective.

1. Remote Work:
Takeaways & Tips From
1
and the market.
“In thirty years’ time, as technology moves forward even further, people are going to
look back and wonder why offices ever existed.”
—Richard Branson
(2013)

2. 2
Mozilla, 2015:
1050 paid staff
10,500+ active contributors across all continents**
87 languages
13 offices in 9 countries and 6 time zones
Infinite # of wikis
* InsertWilliam Gibson quote here
** yes, including Antarctica
The Unevenly Distributed Future*

3. 3
…we’re seeing more of these
Building on this legacy of open source….

4. 4
So what’s the problem?
“I’ve always said,telecommuting is one of the dumber ideas I’ve ever heard.”
— Michael Bloomberg (2013)

5. 5
"People are more productive when they're alone...they're more
collaborative and innovative when they're together"
— Marissa Mayer (2013)
Downplays individual thinking time as part of creative process.
Myth #1:
Breakthrough Ideas Only Happen in Person
Being remote doesn’t mean you never see your coworkers.
And really….how many breakthrough ideas can a company digest?

6. 6
"If a worker’s motivation is slumping, it’s probably
because the work is weakly defined or appears pointless,
or because others on the team are acting like tools.”
— REMOTE
Myth #2:
It’s Difficult to Stay Motivated / Build a Strong Culture

7. 7
The perfect case for face-time-ism
Welcome to the Brave New World where your work is
the first thing to get you noticed
Myth #3:
If You Aren’t There, You’ll Be Forgotten

8. 8
Remote work magnifies existing work attributes, while providing
lots more benefits.
What attributes?
•Communication: intentional, concise, thorough & clear
•Organization, punctuality, availability & responsiveness
•Risk of overworking
•Culture: values, protocols and conflict
Good news: you can manage these factors.
And it’s really worthwhile to do so.
tl;dr

9. 9
•In person
•Assign a buddy
•Ensure introductions and protocols are addressed in
addition to tools and infrastructure
•But: do not expect all tools to work for everyone.
Tip #1*:
Thou Shalt Onboard Swiftly and Thoroughly.
* *These tips are to optimize working remotely;
* they don’t cover things like taxes, legal stuff

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Tip #2:
Be Open. Really Open.
•Post work plans, status reports, even goals
•Document discussions in easily-locatable spots
•Plan to say and post similar things on multiple channels
•Be on passive channels e.g. IRC and indicate preferred availability
on your profile e.g. phone book page
•Limit 1:1s to individual development vs. tasks & activities

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Tip #3:
Meet In Person on a Regular Basis.
•Interviews
•Orientation
•Hack & Work Weeks
•All Hands
Do it.

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Tip #4:
Build Real Boundaries.
Separate work & home devices & spaces
Schedule
•“Thou Shalt Overlap” with
your colleagues at least for part
of your day
GO OUTSIDE
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

13. 13
Study of Mozilla
Homa Bahrami, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business
http://blog.webfwd.org/post/13973466029/code-doesnt-build-software-people-build
Sync vs. Async
http://stormyscorner.com/2015/01/7-reasons-asynchronous-communication-is-better-than-synchronous-
communication-in-open-source.html
REMOTE by 37Signals
http://37signals.com/remote/
“How I Built a Startup While Traveling to 20 Countries”
https://medium.com/digital-nomad-stories/how-i-built-a-startup-while-traveling-to-20-countries-
f0ec3a92bc3c
“Homeless On Purpose”
http://lengstorf.com/remote-work-travel/
Diane Tate — @tbiz
Reference Points