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5 Steps to Effectively Manage a Remote Team

How to Ensure Effective Remote Team Management

December 02, 2021
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8 min read

Knowledge is power as long as it's shared. So, today we are going to share with you some practical tips on managing a remote team. They are the result of the lessons we've learned and the knowledge we've accumulated during our work experience as an outsourcing software company.

Hope this essence of our management expertise will come in handy!

According to UpWork's "Future Workforce Report", by 2028 <medium>73% of all departments are expected to have remote workers.<medium>

Remote work is more inclusive as it provides flexibility to employees to <medium>combine their work with parental responsibilities<medium> and other family duties. It allows some kind of specialists on-the-job travel around the world. Finally, it enables team members <medium>to be on equal footing as other teammates globally<medium> and avoids an unhealthy organizational model with 'major' office players and 'minor' remote workers who feel overboard the boat of company life.

In this article, we want to tell you how to manage a remote team efficiently and benefit from embracing an agile future.

remote team

Be on the same page - using a knowledge base

knowledge pool

The first point in your to-do list is setting up a work environment for remote employees. It includes specific infrastructural stuff as well as digital workspace software.

<medium>Mindset<medium> matters. <medium>Knowledge pool<medium> matters. <medium>Expertize exchange<medium> is vital too. Putting it all together is a high art of management.

We at Freshcode organize an ever-increasing pool of knowledge in the structured comprehensive system, including <medium>code repositories, release checklists, ideas lists, market research, internal training programs<medium>, etc.

Advanced tools for managing remote teams replaced a lot of the benefits of the traditional office workspace. Confluence and Notion are some of the management platforms we use daily.

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Stay in touch - Choice of communication tools

communication tools

<medium>Communication is the backbone<medium> of any type of team management, and in terms of remote managing across the globe it takes on new importance. <medium>Communication is what makes teams strong.<medium> And, at the same time, effective communication is one of the most difficult tasks for companies.

All the decisions, discussions, brainstorms, interviews, and training take place online, so they should be maintained via handy and powerful pieces of software.

Let's highlight the next couple of our favorites among team management tools: Slack and Google Meet.

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Meet your project deadlines - managing software teams

managing software teams

Your success depends on your ability to work well together and to <medium>analyze the state of progress to improve processes and implement required changes.<medium>

Jira and Trello help us to deal with it!

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Flexibility & work-life balance - embrace async team communication

Asynchronous work communication

In today's world dictated by schedules, calendars, and work plans, people are conditioned to perform in synchronicity — a collaborating model where 2+ parties exert effort to be in the same place (physically or virtually) simultaneously.

But if you want to build a more smart and productive workplace, it's time to embrace asynchronous communication.

Asynchronous (async) work communication is the art of moving projects forward faster. Organizations mistakenly associate constant connectivity with quality collaboration. But in fact, asynchronous communication often leads to <medium>better collaboration and improved productivity.<medium>

Asynch communication cannot be implemented without the digital tools we've described above. It's about...

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It helps your employees to keep the conversation going on their own time and provide plenty of advantages:

  • No need for additional stakeholders to be available at the same time
  • Fewer interruptions in employee's workday
  • More time to do deep work
  • Accommodating different communication styles and expressing yourself in more effective ways

Staying up to date - include documentation and reporting

remote team reporting and IT documentation

With remote team management, keeping a close eye on quality becomes more challenging. Make it a habit to record updates, work progress, and any project changes. Handing over outdated documentation to your team is not the best practice.

We ate Freshcode use Trello dashboard for tracking work progress. Our team leads and managers create the following core lists to prioritize and manage tasks properly and fast:

  • <medium>EVERGREEN<medium> - the core description of the onboarding process and long-term overall company's goals. It's the crucial column in the management template.
  • <medium>TODO<medium> - section with cards representing tasks and ideas
  • <medium>IN PROGRESS<medium> - this progress bar contains cards with tasks that are currently being performed. It ensures the team concentrates on finishing old work, rather than starting new work.
  • <medium>DONE<medium> - probably the most pleasant section with a list of completed tasks

Such structure represents just basic principles and can be customized according to the needs of your company. It prevents work from piling up and streamlines workflow in a great way.

And remember, aim for progress, not perfection: done is better than perfect.

Takeaway

how to scale a team product development

Keep a top-notch remote work environment with right toolset and:

  • enable a flexible workforce
  • adapt to the new reality with bright business perspectives
  • get better business outcomes
  • enhance employee experience

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At Freshcode, we are helping businesses unleash their potential through transparent and effective team collaboration. Our management experts have impressive experience working with different teams worldwide. We know the benefits of different team patterns, their drawbacks and use cases. And we are ready to share our expertise with you.

Initial consultation with a Freshcode representative is free. It allows you to get basic recommendations of how to hire a remote product development team and what tech solutions and collaboration models fit your business.

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