In this presentation, i talk about leadership and organisation for remote teams. I have built my experience managing distributed software teams all around the world. At the same time, I have learned how to manage my own management team and offices. I speak about the latter in this presentation, while sharing some practices on global software development too. How do we organize remote teams? What are the best tools to manage a remote team? How do we keep a remote team accountable and engaged?

1. LEA D ER SH IP A N D OR GA N ISATION FOR
D ISTR IB U TED TEA MS
BY HUGO MESSER, BRIDGE

2. THE CHALLENGE + MORE

3. INHOUD
1 . A b o u t H u g o a n d B r i d g e
2 . R e m o t e wo r k : t h e f u t u r e
3 . H o w d o we o r g a n i z e r e m o t e wo r k ?
a . P i t f a l l s i n d i s t r i b u t e d s o f t w a r e d e v e l o p m e n t
b . R e m o t e l e a d e r s h i p
c . H o w d o we c r e a t e e n g a g e m e n t ?
d . O r g a n i s a t i o n a l s t r u c t u r e
e . T o o l s
6 . S u m m a r y

4. MY PATH
• MBA Er as mus in R otter dam
• 2001: I - C lip, fir s t s tar tup
• 2002: Publis her, new offic e and produc t
• 2004: Bac k pac k ing in As ia
• 2005: Star t Br idge
• 2007: Married, now 3 k ids
• 2014: Exper t in building and managing
r emote teams ; author of 6 book s
• 2015: Ek ipa.c o launc h

5. ABOUT BRIDGE: WHY?
C r eating jobs in developing ec onomies

6. BRIDGE PHILOSOPHY
 Global IT Staffing = Remote Colleagues
 Bridge Method ©

7. ABOUT BRIDGE; 6 + 4 = 10
The Bridge Method © is based on 10 years experience
The success of the method is based on 2 pillars
A-Players Collaboration
Quality Control
Team Development

8. BOOK SERIES HOW TO MANAGE A
REMOTE TEAM

9. REMOTE WORK: THE FUTURE
‘ A M I L L I O N E N G I N E E R S I N I N D I A
S T R U G G L I N G T O G E T P L A C E D I N
A N E X T R E M E LY C H A L L E N G I N G
M A R K E T ’

10. GROWTH IN REMOTE WORKERS

11. REMOTE TEAMS

12. THOUGHT PATTERNS
Work is w hat you do, not w here you go

13. WHAT’S GOING ON?
 Who’s working with remote teams?
 Context?
 Questions and challenges?

14. HOW DO WE ORGANIZE REMOTE
WORK?

15. PITFALL 1; DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT
‘U s’ versus ‘t hem’ + ‘Parent - C hild’

16. PITFALL 2
N ot enough pr epar ation
1 . N o in te r vie w s w ith p e o p le
2 . N o t th in k in g a b o u t ‘h o w ’ w e ’ll w o r k
3. N o team- building

17. PITFALL 3
1 . Thr ow r equir ements into the blac k box
2 . Fixed pr ic e and date
3. Sit and wait

18. REMOTE LEADERSHIP
The one page strategic plan:
Vision to actions

19. TOP PRIORITIES SHEET
• Accountability on output (kpi’s)
• Clear quarterly rocks
• Individual accountability plans

20. MEETING RYTHM

21. ENGAGEMENT
3 c r itic al s u c c e s fac tor s :
1 . People
2 . C ommunic ation Pr oc es
3 . Empathy

22. PEOPLE
a ) The r ight people ons hor e + r e mo te
b ) Build a r eal team!
c ) Pr oc es s Manager
d ) Exper ienc ed ( tec hnic al) pr ojec t manager

23. BRIDGE CANVAS

24. EM*PA*THY

25. EMPATHY: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
 W ith empathy you c an ac c ept the differenc es
 Fr om ther e, you c an manage ‘ar ound’ the
differ enc es : r eal c ollabor ation

26. EMPATHY: IN THE WORK
Stimulate empathy:
 Among t eam members : inves t in tr ips
 W ith the c ompany cultuur : values , vis ion
 W ith the pr oduc ts : w ho us es them? w hy? how do
w e ear n money?

27. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE: SCRUM

28. LOCAL OR CENTRAL?
 Product owner: central, close to
customer
 execution: team in one office
 Use locals as much as possible

29. TOOLS

30. SUMMARY
 leadership: One page s tr ategic plan & meeting
r hythm
 engagement : Foc us on people: who + build a
team; Empathy
 Organisat ion : Sc r um & c lear r oles
 Tools : c hoos e the r ight ones

31. CONTACT
h . m e s s e r @ b r i d g e - s t a f f i n g . c o m
+ 3 1 6 5 4 2 3 0 7 0 8
h u g o m e s s e r
h t t p : / / www. b r i d g e - s t a ff i n g . c o m
h t t p : / / www. e k i p a . c o
h t t p : / / www. h u g o m e s s e r. c o m

32. WE MAKE GLOBAL IT STAFFING WORK
THANKS

33. CULTURE: RECOMMENDATIONS
3 tips :
1 . pract ice > inves t time in getting to k now the other
c ultur e
2 . pat ience+ A ccept ance > it tak es time
3 . Openness + R esponsibilit y r e ‘s ac r ed’