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Wide Teams
Wide Teams episodes
- Episode #63: Ryan King of Sharpsaw
In this episode, Ryan King of Sharpsaw, talks about some cool tools and tricks of the trade for remote pairing, security measures to take, and overcoming resistance to the practice.
Ryan King (twitter github rking on Freenode)
SharpsawSharpsaw on Github00:59 – Ryan King Background & History[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Started development in 1999
- Took a break to serve in the Army
- Off and on remote development for commercial and open-source projects
- Works for a company located in Kansas
[/unordered_list]
02:16 – Pairing Remotely[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- One of the best, short tmux intros
- Trouble-free VNC on OS X
Mosh, the Mobile Shell[/unordered_list]
04:18 – tmuxCommand to run a shared tmux (replaces the `weemux` program, which is
overcomplicated, in my opinion):Start with:
tmux -S /tmp/pairchmod 777 /tmp/pair # only needed the first timePair does:
tmux -S /tmp/pair a08:05 – Mosh, the Mobile Shell11:52 – Open-Source Pairing[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Ekiga
- VoIP
[/unordered_list]
15:31 – Pair Programming[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Resistance- Feedback
- Yak shaving period
[/unordered_list]
19:22 – Pairing Security20:52 – Yak Shaving22:12 – Benefits of Pairing26 min - Episode #62: K3 Integrations with Gary Benton, James Pellow, Dallas Reedy and John Ash
In this episode, Gary Benton, James Pellow, Dallas Reedy, and John Ash, of K3 Integrations, talk about experiences working outside the country, communication tools, and keys to getting hired if you want to work remotely.
Show Notes:Gary Benton
James PellowDallas ReedyJohn AshK3 Integrations
00:47 – James Pellow Introduction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- President of K3 Integrations
- Consulting for 12 years Started K3 about 4-5 years ago
- Walla Walla, Washington
[/unordered_list]
01:42 – John Ash Introduction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- With K3 about 5 years
- Project Management and Development
[/unordered_list]
02:56 – Dallas Reedy Introduction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- With K3 about 9 months
- Started career as a graphic designer
[/unordered_list]
03:35 – Gary Benton Introduction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Background in electronics technology and engineering technology
Project Management, Customer Support and Recruiting[/unordered_list]
04:20 – K3 Integrations[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Primarily focused on Rails web development
- Works with nonprofit organizations
[/unordered_list]
05:05 – Location[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Walla Walla, Washington
- Fallbrook, California
- Boise, Idaho
[/unordered_list]
05:33 – Becoming a distributed team[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Office experiment
[/unordered_list]
07:41 – Company size[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- 6 individuals
[/unordered_list]
08:21 – Company Individual Interaction09:25 – Gary working outside the country[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- 5 months in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama
[/unordered_list]
10:56 – Communication Tools[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Skype
- Google Hangouts
- GoToMeeting
- Google Docs
[/unordered_list]
13:47 – Daily team interaction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Pairing
[/unordered_list]
15:37 – Intentional Communication20:00 – Freedom and Flexibility[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- John worked from Hong Kong
[/unordered_list]
21:14Â – Overcoming Distractions[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Setting boundaries
[/unordered_list]
24:50 – Recruiting New Hires[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- LinkedIn
- Google Keyword Search
- Github
- Working With Rails
- 37Signals
[/unordered_list]
25:48 – Getting Hired to Work Remotely[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Effort
- Offer good code
- Thank You Emails
[/unordered_list]
31 min - Episode #61: Tom Santero and Reid Draper of Basho
In this episode, Tom Santero and Reid Draper of Basho, talk about hiring where the talent is, doing what you think is best for the company, and the wonderful benefits of having work flexibility.
Show Notes:Tom Santero (twitter github)
Reid Draper (twitter github blog)Basho (twitter site)Riak (github)00:53 – Background & Introduction
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Basho: commercial backers of an open-source distributed database called Riak
- Cambridge, Massachusettes
- 100 employees strong
- 5 offices worldwide
- Riak CS
- Engineering team is completely distributed
[/unordered_list]
02:50 – Employee distribution
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Hire where the talent is
[/unordered_list]
03:44 – Looking for and hiring developers
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Open-source contributors
- Meetup groups
- Conference circuit
[/unordered_list]
05:08 – Strategy to grow a distributed team
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Organic
[/unordered_list]
06:35 – Organization appearance
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Valve model: Valve Handbook For New Employees
- Do what you think is best for the company
- Teams of 1-4 or 5
[/unordered_list]
08:09 – Team interaction
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- HipChat
- Github
- Yammer
- Twitter
- IRC
- Mumble
- Skype
[/unordered_list]
12:26 – Remote pair programming
14:21 – Standups and phone Q&As
15:51 – Distributed team challenges
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Growing pains
- Onboarding
[/unordered_list]
18:31 – Personalities best suited for remote working
19:34 – Flexibility
22:13 – Advice for dispersed teams
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Hiring the right people is crucial
- Have an open mind
[/unordered_list]
25 min - Episode #60: Derek Haynes and Andre Lewis of Scout App
In this episode, Derek Haynes and Andre Lewis of Scout, talk about meeting and getting to know each other before working together, coworking spaces, and distributed teams unique to big companies versus small companies.
Show Notes:Scout
00:59 – Derek Haynes[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Met Andre at a Ruby Group in San Francisco in 2006
- Lives in Fort Collins, CO
[/unordered_list]
01:51 – Andre Lewis[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Still lives in San Francisco- Working with Ruby since 2005
[/unordered_list]
02:36 – Scout[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Server and application monitoring “simplifiedâ€Built for developers by developers[/unordered_list]
03:25 – Working apart remotely[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Building habits and trust
- Miscommunication
- Google Voice Chat
- Campfire
[/unordered_list]
09:33 – Work environments[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Coworking spaces
[/unordered_list]
12:08 – Previous experience working remotely13:53 – Mistakes people make with remote work[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Big company vs small company
- Knowing people before you start working with them
- Personality overlap
[/unordered_list]
16:08 – Advice for remote workers[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Having a prior relationship
- Weekly voice chats
- In-person visits
[/unordered_list]
17:38 – Distributing work22 min - Episode #59: Daniel Yoon of Sleepy Giant
In this episode, Daniel Yoon of Sleepy Giant, talks about his experience as being “the new guy” on a team located on the other side of the world, knowing whether you’re responsible enough to effectively hold a remote position, and shares a resourceful list of companies who are known to hire remote workers.
Show Notes:Daniel Yoon (twitter / github)
Sleepy Giant01:00 – Introduction & Background[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
.NET backgroundCurrently works in RubyLocated in Beijing, China[/unordered_list]
01:40 – Working for a U.S. company while located in China04:01 – Identifying companies that allow you to work remotely[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Stack Overflow
- RubyFlow
- Ruby Weekly (invite only)
GitHub Jobs37 Signals Job Board  ÂThe Sourcery[/unordered_list]
05:43 – Interview Process[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Skype
- Dressing up
[/unordered_list]
07:29 – Headsets09:50 – Interview Process (contâ€d)[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Programming Quizzes
[/unordered_list]
10:53 – Advantages of working remotely13:58 – Home office connection[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Security concerns
- HipChat
- Time zone overlap
- JIRA
[/unordered_list]
17:36 – Getting introduced/introducing yourself as a new team member[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Whoâ€s that guy?
Getting lost in translationFeeling anonymous[/unordered_list]
31:12 – Advice for remote reworkers[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Can you handle it?
- Responsibility
- Have a backup source of Internet
[/unordered_list]
36 min - Episode #58: Bob McWhirter of Red Hat
In this episode, Bob McWrirter of Red Hat, talks about communication as in artifacts created by tooling, remote workers as black sheep, and gaining notoriety via open-source.
Show Notes:Bob McWhirter (twitter / blog / Red Hat / Project Odd)
00:47- Introduction & Background
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Has worked at Red Hat for the past 6 years
- Has been in the remote industry for 15
- Lives in rural Virginia
[/unordered_list]
01:40 – History with remote work
02:46 – Red Hat
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- JBoss
- Codehaus
[/unordered_list]
03:58 – Daily life
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- IRC
- Jira
- Google Hangouts
[/unordered_list]
05:13 – Open-source experience & team management
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Communication: artifacts created by tooling
- Team memory
[/unordered_list]
07:58 – Commit messages
09:26 – Email/mailing lists
10:04 – Dividing work
11:48 – Poor remote work experiences
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Remote Worker, Distributed Team: Bob McWhirterRemote workers = black sheep[/unordered_list]
15:21 – Reasons to work remotely
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
FlexibilityHoursMeasuring production[/unordered_list]
17:42 – Building notoriety via open-source
22 min - Episode #57: Ezekiel Templin of Paper Cavalier
In this episode, Ezekiel Templin, of Paper Cavalier, talks about schedule stretching to accomodate time zones, choosing where you work from, and the importance of hanging out and meeting with co-workers to achieve the best remote working experiences possible.
Show Notes:Ezekiel Templin (twitter / github)
Paper Cavalierpapercavalier/dotfiles00:52 – Ezekielâ€s background and introduction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Located in Meadville, PAWorks on large-scale Ruby Projects that interact with all forms of APIs that have to do with dealing books onlinePaper Cavalier has offices in Brooklyn, NY and London[/unordered_list]
02:02 – Traveled as a new employee to offices to meet people in person02:26 – Tools[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Google+ HangoutsCampfire[/unordered_list]
03:55 – Pairing[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Ubuntu[/unordered_list]
04:34 – Working remotely[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Previously worked remotely minus pairing
- VIM
- TMUX
[/unordered_list]
05:27 – Corsair Vengeance 2000 Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Long-term use
- USB extender
- Charge while you use
[/unordered_list]
10:56 – Google+ Hangouts[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Phenomenal free service
- Use on phone
- Presentations over screensharing
[/unordered_list]
13:40 – Schedule stretching to accommodate time zones16:08 – Choosing where you work from[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Cost of living
[/unordered_list]
17:42 – Paper Cavalier[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- faraday
- Hakan Ensari
[/unordered_list]
19:01 – Getting hired[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Get involved in open-source projects
- Have an active Github account
[/unordered_list]
20:35 – Advice for remote workers[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Patience with technology
- Patience with the people you work with
- Get enough sleep
- Hang out with co-workers in real life if possible
- Make eye contact
[/unordered_list]
26 min - Episode #56: Evan Light
In this episode, Evan Light, a freelance software developer and mentor, talks about working with an apprentice, remote mentoring, and the power of reflection and education through suffering.
Show Notes:Evan Light (twitter / blog / Ruby DCamp / Triple Dog Dare)
 00:52 – Evan Light Introduction[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Freelance Software Developer
- Developer Mentor
[/unordered_list]
01:03 – History with remote work[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Wifeâ€s health
- Frustration Driven Development: Evanâ€s WindyCityRails Talk 2012
- Former government contractor
[/unordered_list]
02:36 – Adjusting to working from home[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Allowed him to focus more
- Easy at first, but harder the longer he has been doing it
Needy cats[/unordered_list]
06:28 – Day to day work process[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Maintain 2 clients at a time
- Remote pairing
[/unordered_list]
07:32 – Pairing with clients08:20 – Working with an apprentice[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Working in person
- Pairing locally
[/unordered_list]
10:07 – Remote mentoring[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Startups whose code is a mess
- People who want to learn techniques or learn from a problem
[/unordered_list]
12:40 – Pomodoroing13:54 – Working with larger distributed teams[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- The people who perform well arenâ€t the people you expect to perform well and vice versa
- Work ethic tends to be different in the office than for people who work at home
[/unordered_list]
17:09 – Regular Agile Retrospectives[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Defining iteration length
- Describing what things went well and what made people happy and what didnâ€t work well and made people unhappy
[/unordered_list]
20:54 – Reflection[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Education through suffering
- Frustration Driven Development
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people by Stephen R. Covey
[/unordered_list]
28:00 – Do what you love and share it with other people and it pays you back[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- The Passionate Programmer by Chad Fowler
- Linchpin by Seth Godin
- RubyFreelancers Podcast
[/unordered_list]
37 min - Episode #55: Troy Davis and Eric Lindvall of Papertrail
In this episode, Troy Davis and Eric Lindvall, of Papertrail, talk about seeking out and choosing the right teammates, team overlap, and organic growth.
Show NotesTroy Davis (twitter / github / blog)
Eric Lindvall (twitter / github / blog)Papertrail (website / twitter)00:57 – How their distributed team evolved01:43 – Finding the right teammate(s)04:10 – Living situations[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Eric: Stays just North of Seattle, WA
- Troy: Travels: Seattle to Portland to Sol,South Korea to Bangkok to San Francisco to NYC
[/unordered_list]
04:48 – Airbnb05:42 – Troyâ€s travelling07:02 – Team interaction and dividing work[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Based on customer feedbackCampfireGithub issues tracking system[/unordered_list]
08:42 – Avoiding using predictions and promises10:18 – Work tactics[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Rare standups
- Dealing with timezones
[/unordered_list]
11:15 – Team overlap[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
You are responsible for how you should spend your own time[/unordered_list]
13:27 – Maintaining continuity & company values[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Growing organicallyGithub as an example[/unordered_list]
15:54 – Advice for distributed teams[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- There are no shortcuts
- Transparency
[/unordered_list]
17:26 – Arguing
20:43 – Papertrail: Hosted log management by and for engineers
24 min - Episode #54: Steven R. Baker
In this episode, Steven R. Baker, shares his experiences facilitating a remote team in Canada, his philosophies that led to working remotely,
Show Notes:Steven R. Baker (twitter / blog)
01:10 – Steven Introduction & Background
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Writing software between 10-20 years
- Focus on testing and developing high quality software
- For the last 8-10 years, working from home
[/unordered_list]
02:01 – Working from the road
03:07 – VersaPay: Bank transfers in Canada
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
5 developers and a designerCoordinate work with office in TorontoDonâ€t know where team members are working from on a given day and donâ€t care[/unordered_list]
05:16 – Coordinating
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Optional daily standupHipChatMailing lists[/unordered_list]
06:34 – Managing the distribution of work
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Pivotal TrackerTake the next story at the top of the backlogRotate through the team every two weeks to have a new Q&A/support person[/unordered_list]
08:03 – Avoiding knowledge silos
10:15 – Looping others into a project
11:33 – Philosophy that led to working remotely
15:04 – Finding business
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Twitter
- Conferences
- Develop personal connections
[/unordered_list]
17:23 – Facilitating/encouraging a remote team
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
- Maintain a culture of openness and trust
- Standup format: “What are you working on right now?â€
- Utilizing tools
[/unordered_list]
25:41 – Team building offsite days
28 min
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The blog for geographically dispersed organizations