# Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team

**Author:** Sid Sijbrandij
**Type:** Essay
**URL:** https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team

---

Table of Contents

[**Table of Contents**](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#)

[- Question: Can you share any playbooks on how to quickly transition a team to remote?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-can-you-share-any-playbooks-on-how-to-quickly-transition-a-team-to-remote)

[- Question: I have a lot of experience working remotely, and I’m looking for a job. How do I find a remote position?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-i-have-a-lot-of-experience-working-remotely-and-i-m-looking-for-a-job-how-do-i-find-a)

[- Question: What is the right cadence of check-ins? Not just for my executive team but for managers and their teams?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-what-is-the-right-cadence-of-check-ins-not-just-for-my-executive-team-but-for-managers-and)

[- Question: What do you do to keep culture alive when fully virtual and remote?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-what-do-you-do-to-keep-culture-alive-when-fully-virtual-and-remote)

[- Question: We all know tools are important for remote work? How do you get people to actually use them?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-we-all-know-tools-are-important-for-remote-work-how-do-you-get-people-to-actually-use-them)

[- Question: What is the most important rule to follow as a remote team?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-what-is-the-most-important-rule-to-follow-as-a-remote-team)

[- Question: What do you think about increasing peer 1:1 interactions?](https://www.ycombinator.com/library/4v-best-practices-for-managing-a-remote-team#question-what-do-you-think-about-increasing-peer-1-1-interactions)

Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team

# Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team

by Sid Sijbrandij, Wade Foster, Ian Tien

YC hosted a virtual panel with YC alum on best practices for managing a remote team. We aggregated the advice shared by
alum, including Sid Sijbrandij & Darren Murph of [GitLab](https://about.gitlab.com/) (remote team of 1,200+), Wade
Foster of [Zapier](https://zapier.com/home) (remote team of 300+), Ian Tien of [Mattermost](https://mattermost.com/)
(remote team of 100+), Nick Raushenbush & Finbarr Taylor of [Shogun](https://getshogun.com/) (remote team of 60), Rajiv
Ayyangar of [Tandem](https://tandem.chat/) (remote team of 6) and more.

**Here is advice from the YC community:**

## **Question**: Can you share any playbooks on how to quickly transition a team to remote?

**Recommended playbooks and resources:**

- [Remote work emergency plan: What to do (and where to start)\\
(GitLab)](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/remote-work-emergency-plan/)
- [Remote work starter guide for employees: how to adjust to work-from-home\\
(GitLab)](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/remote-work-starter-guide/)
- [What not to do when implementing remote: don’t replicate the in-office experience remotely\\
(GitLab)](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/what-not-to-do/)
- [The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work (Zapier)](https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/)
- [Remote Work Guide (Shogun)](https://getshogun.com/remote-work-guide)
- [Transitioning to remote work in a hurry (Zapier)](https://zapier.com/blog/transitioning-to-remote-work-in-a-hurry/)
- [Mattermost Handbook: Company Communications\\
(Mattermost)](https://handbook.mattermost.com/operations/operations/company-cadence)
- [19 Foundational Tips for New Remote Managers\\
(Olark)](https://www.olark.com/tips-for-remote-managers-and-going-remote-guide)
- [3 Pillars of Building a Remote Team\\
(Shogun)](https://getshogun.com/remote-life/the-3-pillars-of-building-a-remote-team)
- [The Future of Work (YouTeam)](https://youteam.io/blog/category/future-of-work/)
- [Running a Remote Team for 7 years (SketchDeck)](https://www.sketchdeck.com/blog/learnings-7-years-remote-team)
- [Influencing Virtual Teams: 17 Tactics That Get Things Done with Your Remote\\
Employees](https://www.amazon.com/Influencing-Virtual-Teams-Tactics-Employees/dp/1530005140/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=AZK56GFDFEW5ZTD39884)

**Nick Raushenbush, Shogun**: Here are the tools that we use on a daily basis:

- [Slack:](https://slack.com/lp/three?utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=d_ppc_google_us_en_brand-hv-exp-email&utm_term=slack&ds_rl=1249094&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1-y47umn6AIVEv5kCh3s-g5qEAAYASAAEgLNAfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
For communication that is fast moving and somewhat ephemeral.
- [Ally.io:](https://www.ally.io/) For objectives and key results (OKRs); quantitative goals are really important when
it comes to remote teams and should be a team member's northstar.
- [Notion.so:](https://www.notion.so/) For permanent information, like our company's wiki/ knowledge base.
- [Zoom:](https://zoom.us/) For synchronous communication.
- [Donut:](https://www.donut.com/) For onboarding and remote socialization; Donut integrates well with Slack.
- [CloudApp:](https://www.getcloudapp.com/) For communicating in annotated screenshots GIFs, and short videos.
Sometimes a written explanation doesn’t suffice, but it’s not quite worth a call.
- [360 Learning:](https://360learning.com/) For scaling knowledge for business development and support; this tool
enables you to create videos, turn transcriptions into written posts, create quizzes and peer-to-peer learning
programs. [Lessonly](https://www.lessonly.com/) is a good alternative as well.
- [Rev](https://www.rev.com/): For transcribing video or voice into text. Much of remote communication is
asynchronous; this is a nice hack for creating written content and transcribing meetings.
- [Loom:](https://www.loom.com/) For video recording communications, creating tutorials, trainings, etc.

## **Question: I have a lot of experience working remotely, and I’m looking for a job. How do I find a remote position?**

- [Gitlab’s List of Remote Companies: All-Remote and Remote-First\\
Jobs](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/jobs/)
- [2,500 Startups Hiring Remotely in 2020](https://blog.remotive.io/2-500-companies-hiring-remotely-in-2020/)
- [Work at a Startup](https://www.workatastartup.com/)
- [We Work Remotely](https://weworkremotely.com/)

## **Question: What is the right cadence of check-ins? Not just for my executive team but for managers and their teams?**

**Wade Foster, Zapier**: I'd keep in mind task relevant maturity (a concept from [Andy Grove's book High Output\\
Management](https://www.amazon.com/High-Output-Management-Andrew-Grove/dp/0679762884)). When someone is good at
something, you can go longer without check-ins. When someone is new to something you probably want more frequent
check-ins. If my team was new to remote, I'd probably start with an AM and a PM check-in; then as we get more
comfortable and have less frequent blockers, I'd scale the check-ins back.

What we do at Zapier:

- Weekly: 1:1s, Staff Meetings and All Hands
- Monthly: OKR Reviews, OKR Planning

**Ian Tien, Mattermost**: If your team is international and across multiple time zones, here is a detailed
[handbook](https://handbook.mattermost.com/operations/operations/company-cadence) outlining how to approach company wide
communication. To start off, it is important to record meetings and take anonymous Q&A feedback asynchronously, so if
someone is not able to attend they are still on equal footing to interact.

**Nick Raushenbush, Shogun**: When we were a smaller team we relied on ad hoc communication a lot more. Now we are more
thoughtful with meeting structure. Monthly: Company-wide AMAs are a new thing, but so far we really like them. We’re
planning for once a month but might drop to once a quarter based on feedback. Weekly: Team fireside chats for 30
minutes.

During meetings and check-ins I always ask:

- How are you doing and feeling this week?
- What are your blockers?
- What can I do to empower you to hit your goals?
- Do you need time, budget, human resources?
- Do you see any systemic issues/problems with how the company or product are functioning?
- Any questions for me?

## **Question: What do you do to keep culture alive when fully virtual and remote?**

**Ben Congleton, [Olark](https://www.olark.com/)**: It starts with empowering your team to have space to think about the
culture and values they want to present. Here are guides that we put together:

- [Remote Office Parties](https://blog.olark.com/ultimate-guide-to-remote-office-parties)
- [Creating Watercooler Moments](https://blog.olark.com/creating-remote-watercooler-moments)
- [All Hands Retreat](https://blog.olark.com/what-is-the-olark-retreat)

**Rajiv Ayyangar, Tandem**: We interviewed 100 remote teams and wrote a rundown of tactics for building trust: [How to\\
Build Psychological Safety in your Remote\\
Team.](https://medium.com/tandem/how-to-build-psychological-safety-in-your-remote-team-part-i-d8fbb0ef7dc7)

**Nick Raushenbush, Shogun**: Culture forms! [Donut](https://www.donut.com/) is a great tool to introduce team members
to each other.

## **Question: We all know tools are important for remote work? How do you get people to actually use them?**

**Darren Murph, GitLab**: If you’re forced to be remote, [minimize your tool\\
stack](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/remote-work-emergency-plan/#minimize-your-tool-stack.);
minimize the chaos. It’s a lot for people thrust into remote areas, so if you can avoid introducing a new tool at the
same time, avoid that. If you must do it, create documentation first, so the tool roll-out happens only after people
have read, end-to-end, why you’re doing it, how they’ll use it, what it replaces, etc. Documentation is critical to
adoption.

**Ben Congleton, Olark**: It is important to recognize that some business tools are critical while others are
elective.The only tools that are company wide requirements are based on job function and team needs. For example,
expectations are set around using Slack, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Zoom. Letting teams choose platforms and make
tool decisions helps and benefits them directly.

**Wade Foster, Zapier**: We don't enforce tool usage all that tightly outside of Slack and Zoom. What we do have is
expectations on reporting. So if you reported to me, we'd agree on output at the beginning of the week, and at the end
of the week, you communicate the result. The tools are a means to get to that — use whatever helps you get it done.

## **Question: What is the most important rule to follow as a remote team?**

**Yura Riphyak, [YouTeam](https://youteam.io/)**:It is extremely important to put everything in writing. Three reasons
why:

1. The written form disciplines thought and forces you to keep it short.
2. All communication gets saved with no extra effort. This proves vital in case you need to involve more stakeholders
in the future or revisit decisions that have been made.
3. Textual content is searchable. Yes, you can record Zoom meetings — but how many of those recordings will you
actually watch?

## **Question: What do you think about increasing peer 1:1 interactions?**

**For example:**

- **When assigning a project, the manager also assigns a peer to discuss/help at the start, middle, and end of the**
**project (vs full pair programming/working).**
- **Encourage people to post office hours and list topics they'd like to help others do or learn.** \- **Encourage or**
**facilitate video chat amongst peers.**

**Yura Riphyak, YouTeam**: Like most of the other things about non-work communication, we are trying to be light on any
kind of management-induced activities. This stuff should happen bottom-up, not top-down. People who work remotely
develop a comparatively high level of self-sufficiency and also a strong sense of personal space. One thing we are doing
is making sure everyone knows about the others' hobbies and interests. For example, we have a chess group, skiing group,
and book club.

**Rajiv Ayyangar, Tandem**: At Tandem, we built rooms to allow for a virtual water cooler. Social proof (seeing that
other people are talking) is a huge factor in whether teammates are willing to talk socially. A few factors that one
could consider: Fun! If there's a fun reason to talk, like a game you want to try or an icebreaker topic, that can
help. Inviting vs. demanding. If you let people know you have office hours, or will be in a room/call during X-Y time,
then it's an invitation. If you say you'll be video-calling random people, it's demanding.

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