1/ I am a big fan of distributed teams. They foster more thoughtfulness, less drama, better employer/employee matches and better business economics.
I want to share a thread with what I have learned building and running distributed teams in the last year or so.
I want to share a thread with what I have learned building and running distributed teams in the last year or so.
2/ The first thing to point out is the growing acceptance of the model in Silicon Valley:
- It used to be a deal breaker. IIn that last 18 months it has become acceptable, sometimes, desirable.
- Driver: the high cost of living which has made it hard to work for equity in SV
- It used to be a deal breaker. IIn that last 18 months it has become acceptable, sometimes, desirable.
- Driver: the high cost of living which has made it hard to work for equity in SV
3/ To run a distributed organization well, it needs to be designed from the ground up for it:
- Preferred form of communication must be written
- Use voice comms when writing needs disambiguation OR when things that are “on fire”
- Video comms for nontactical 1:1 and all hands
- Preferred form of communication must be written
- Use voice comms when writing needs disambiguation OR when things that are “on fire”
- Video comms for nontactical 1:1 and all hands
4/ The #1 challenge in running a distributed team is that you increase the cost of the marginal communication by a ton. Use it in your favor:
- Discourage randomly shared ideas. Encourage people to think things through, and put it in writing
- Discourage interruptions
- Discourage randomly shared ideas. Encourage people to think things through, and put it in writing
- Discourage interruptions
5/ More on how to manage high comms cost in distributed teams:
- Set up clear social rules for comms channels: What to use for urgent comms, what to use for non-urgent comms
- Make sure everyone knows what are the top 1-3 priorities so they work map backs to it
- Set up clear social rules for comms channels: What to use for urgent comms, what to use for non-urgent comms
- Make sure everyone knows what are the top 1-3 priorities so they work map backs to it
5/ The second challenge is finding great people
- In the ideal case, a key member of the founding team is Not willing to move to SV. If they wanted to, they could work at FB, GOOG, etc but they want to stay close to home. This is a key hire
- In the ideal case, a key member of the founding team is Not willing to move to SV. If they wanted to, they could work at FB, GOOG, etc but they want to stay close to home. This is a key hire
6/The third challenge is finding the structure of the relationship
Typical structures include:
- Full or part-time remote contractors (no equity)
- Agencies
- Fulltime remote employee or contractor (equity)
Typical structures include:
- Full or part-time remote contractors (no equity)
- Agencies
- Fulltime remote employee or contractor (equity)
7/ Some thoughts on the types of company - remote team structures:
- Remote contractors with no equity, full or part-time are Not part of your team. As such, they should only work on peripheral tasks....
- Remote contractors with no equity, full or part-time are Not part of your team. As such, they should only work on peripheral tasks....
8/....
- Agencies are not part of your team. They can own full projects, but they need to be easily run independently of the core product
- Full-time people, under contract or employment, as long as they have equity, are the only ones on your team
- Agencies are not part of your team. They can own full projects, but they need to be easily run independently of the core product
- Full-time people, under contract or employment, as long as they have equity, are the only ones on your team
9/ Decentralized vs distributed
- Decentralized accepts geo nodes (you have teams in different cities); distributed don't (you have people all over the world)
- In theory, you want to be distributed because the objective function is to find the best person, wherever they are
- Decentralized accepts geo nodes (you have teams in different cities); distributed don't (you have people all over the world)
- In theory, you want to be distributed because the objective function is to find the best person, wherever they are
10/ In practice good people attract other good people, so nodes naturally occur
11/ Office vs. no office
- Even if you are decentralized and not distributed, you still need to decide if you centralized the nodes in an office or not
- I think that the best set of for a distributed team is to Not have offices .....
- Even if you are decentralized and not distributed, you still need to decide if you centralized the nodes in an office or not
- I think that the best set of for a distributed team is to Not have offices .....
12/ ....
- Offices reduce the cost of marginal comms which takes away from the distributed value and it jeopardizes
- If you are going to have an office, it should be something like this:
- Offices reduce the cost of marginal comms which takes away from the distributed value and it jeopardizes
- If you are going to have an office, it should be something like this:
13/ Centralization vs. decentralization is a matter of optimizing given who you are and the environment that you are in
14/ I am happy decentralization is making more economic sense. It distributes opportunities more broadly, it makes better matches which leads to less churny teams, and ti gives companies a worldwide perspective from day one
