Working with a remote team for small teams

The version of this that works is simpler than the version most people imagine. Most advice about working with a remote team assumes a team that does not exist at your size. Here is the version that does not.

Clear scope protects the client at least as much as it protects the agency. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

What to keep

Write things down, because hallway context does not exist. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. It rarely shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it slips.

What to drop

Process that exists to coordinate ten people is overhead when there are two of you. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped.

The practical version

Regular short calls beat rare long ones. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Anything you cannot measure here, you are deciding by taste, which is fine as long as everyone knows it.

The short version

Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. Three things worth confirming about working with a remote team before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Regular short calls beat rare long ones — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

The point is not perfection, it is knowing which of these you have consciously chosen to skip.