Wide Teams

By Avdi Grimm

The blog for geographically dispersed organizations... more

4.6

1010 ratings

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FAQs about Wide Teams:

How many episodes does Wide Teams have?

The podcast currently has 100 episodes available.

Wide Teams episodes:

October 10, 2012Episode #53: Josh Ballanco
In this episode, Josh Ballanco of ELC Technologies, talks about working remotely from Ankara, Turkey, the trials and tribulations of sorting through remote work job postings, pairing, and yak shaving days.
Show Notes
Josh Ballanco (twitter / github)
ELC Technologies
01:00 – Josh Ballanco Introduction & Backgroud
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Software engineer with ELC Technologies – a consulting group based out of Portland, OR
Works out of Ankara, Turkey
Currently working on SOA (service-oriented architecture) and libraries to support clients
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02:48 – Why Ankara?
03:24 – Distribution of ELC Technologies
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Tech lead of 4-6 people
All remote except for some dev ops guys in Portland
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06:22 – Remote work job postings and securing a job
09:13 – Turkey
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Unique but similar to the U.S.
Giant melting pot
Youth-oriented
Turkey is the place to be for startups
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12:38 – Coordinating & leading a dispersed team
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Micromanagement
Letting people know if they are available for pairing daily
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14:50 – Pairing
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Flexibility
Skype for voice
Join.me
Navigator/Driver setup
Google+ Hangouts
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18:16 – Yak Shaving Days
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Once per sprint
Giant problem that gets a days worth of help from the entire team
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19:32 – Communication outside of pairing
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HipChat
Email = important but tricky
Wiki
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22:15 – Communication is key
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Non-verbal means of communication
Humor is tremendously nonverbal
Emoticons
Shared context
Patience
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...more
27min
October 03, 2012Episode #52: Gabe Hollombe
In this episode, Gabe Hollombe, talks about his adventuresÂ traveling throughout Southeast Asia while working for a company based in Australia. He discusses staying connected to the Internet and home-based coworkers, traveling with coworkers, and essential equipment for the vagabond programmer.
Show Notes:
Gabe Hollombe (twitter / github / blog)
Tutoring Australasia
Pairkit.com
00:37 – Gabe Hollombe Introduction & Background
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Los Angeles native
Moved to NYC
Has an English degree as opposed to Computer Science
Currently calls Sydney, Australia home for the past 6 years
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01:48 – Traveling
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Has traveled to and worked remotely from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, and Spain in the past 8 months
Took two teammates and co workers from Sydney with him
Earning Australian dollars; spending in Southeast Asia
Devotes time to working half and half between company and his own other projects
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04:20 – Staying connected to the Internet while traveling
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Ubiquitous free wifi in Southeast Asia
Thailand = most wired out of all above-mentioned
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05:35 – Staying connected to the team back in Australia
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Morning (daily) stand ups
Time change between Southeast Asia and Australia works well
Google Hangouts
Fall back on Skype
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06:30 – Nha Trang, Vietnam
08:03 – Traveling with coworkers
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Easier to work
Keep each other focused and motivated
Feel less isolated
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08:42 – Adjustment for â€œhome teamâ€ to have coworkers working away
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Flew the team to Vietnam about halfway through the trip
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10:28 – Tutoring Australasia
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Connects students to tutors online, 24/7
Intelligent matching system
Real-time sharing
Schools/public libraries can pay for a subscription
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12:11 – Lessons learned from making the change to working on-site to off-site
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Communication
Having conversations be captured in a place where everyone can see them
6 month sweet-spot
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14:18 – Start smaller (traveling)
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Do a trial run with coworkers
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16:08 – Equipment for the vagabond programmer
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Universal general power adapter
Universal power board
iPad
Unlocked GSM phone
Camera
MacBook Air
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19:55 – Key advice for people working remotely
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If youâ€re thinking about doing a trip like this, do it
Saving more while working half as much
Itâ€s easier than youâ€d think
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22:45 – Pairkit.com
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Gabe’s FREE! Beta pet project
Makes SSH reverse tunneling easy
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...more
29min
September 26, 2012Episode #51: Lonocloud
In this episode, Aaron Brooks, Chris Houser, and Alan Dipert, of Lonocloud, share their distributed team’s hiring strategy, topic-oriented versus individual-oriented meetings, and yours/mine protocol while pairing.
Show Notes:
Lonocloud
Aaron Brooks (twitter githubÂ blog)
Chris Houser (twitter github blog)
Alan Dipert (twitter github blog)
00:47 – Introduction & background
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Aaron Brooks: Engineer #2 at Lonocloud
Chris Howser: Working remotely for 2 jobs; at Lonocloud for 1 year,
Alan Dipert: Programmer at Lonocloud, no prior distributed team experience
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02:27 – Location
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Every time zone in the US is represented
Development team is fully distributed
10-15 range
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03:41 – History of distributed team
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Hired remotely to be able to access different people
Lonocloud builds next generation multi-cloud federating infrastructure platforms
Emphasis on dynamic information policies
Distributed team working on distributed applications
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06:40 – Hiring developers
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Some people worked together previously and became available at the same time
Closure language community
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08:16 – Difference between remote work and fully distributed work
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Effort between teams with a central office/being fully distributed
Separate cliques between in-office and out-of-office groups
Fully distributed teams are all working towards the same goal
Shared pain of being fully remote
Unify around benefits of working from home
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12:08 – A day in the life of Lonocloud
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Daily developer call
Central server to log in remotely
Own development environment on their own screen; but can step in to see others work
Ad hoc pairing and splitting
More minds usefully contributing more quickly to a problem
Pairing, tripling as needed
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17:22 – Topic-oriented meetings versus individual-oriented
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People can chime in with input if they want, but donâ€t have to
Google Doc for daily agenda
Not ticket-driven
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19:34 – Tools
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HipChat
SIP service phones
Video sharing while pairing
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26:05 – Yours/Mine protocol while pairing
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Context
Vocalized
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28:38 – Splitting up work
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Obvious fits
Dynamic
See what makes sense
Key person help sessions
People normally step up without obligation
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...more
33min
September 19, 2012Episode #50: Shaun Eutsey of Terenine Technology Solutions
In this episode, Shaun Eutsey, of Terenine Technology Solutions, talks about kids being a big reason to transition into the work-from-home-community, cool remote tools distributed teams can use, and having the opportunity to never stop learning while working.
Show Notes:
shauneutsey.com
@shauneutsey
00:45 – Shaun Eutsey introduction & background
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Shaun is in Pittsburgh, PA
Terenine Technology Solutions is based in Chattanooga, TN
Dispersed team in Chattanooga, Texas, Florida, Utah
First position working remotely
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02:16 – Why Shaun is working remotely
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Pittsburgh commutes are terrible
Losing time
Wanted to work from home to be with his kids
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04:00 – Interviewed with Terenine twice before getting his current job
09:30 – Distribution of Terenine
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Corporate office in Chattanooga, TN
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12:20 – Day-to-day work experience
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Work closely with teammates
Daily standup via GoToMeeting.com
Pairing Programming on Skype
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15:10 – Tools
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TMUX
Amazon Cloud
ELinks
20:35 – Learning
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Pulling knowledge without sitting in the same room
Always have channels of communication open
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22:58 – Drawbacks of working remotely
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Missing human interraction
Hard transition into remote work (.NET)
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25:30 – Pair programming
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Why arenâ€t more companies doing this?
Keeps teams focused & engaged
Helps teams put out better software
6 out of 8 hours spent pairing per day
Popcorn Pairing
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30:20 – Tips for remote workers
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Transition from working in an office to being remote is hard
Retraining how youâ€re working
Learning to stay focused without someone looking over your shoulder
Train your family when you are working
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...more
36min
September 12, 2012Episode #49: Wade Minter and Andrew Berkowitz of TeamSnap
Wade Minter and Andrew Berkowitz, of Teamsnap, chat about their company’s need for not so many formalized meetings, why allÂ distributed workers and teams should dabble in improvisation, and being the right candidate toÂ gain remote work.
Show Notes:
Teamsnap.com
andrewberkowitz.com
@andrewberkowitz
@minter
00:45 – Wade Minter and Andrew Berkowitz Introduction
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Andrew Berkowitz: Vice President of Product Management at TeamSnap and one of the original four founders of the company
Wade Minter: Director of Engineering, manages technical operations, contractor with TeamSnap since the beginning
[/unordered_list]
01:51 – What is TeamSnap?
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Mobile application on Android and iOS
Manages recreational youth or competitive sports teams
Roster, schedule, messaging
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02:17 – Location
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Based in Boulder, CO
Andrew is in Portland, OR
Wade is in Raleigh, NC
Rest of team in Austin, TX, Baltimore, MD, Washington, D.C., etc.
[/unordered_list]
02:52 – History of TeamSnap
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Doorway to leave the web design world
Half the team is design and development
Half is non-technical, i.e. customer support
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05:13 – A day in the life
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Campfire is the primary communication tool
Github is used on the technical side
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06:46 – Meetings
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1 scheduled company meeting per week
1 scheduled developers-only meeting per week
Development style is very â€œmontessorialâ€
If people need help, they ask
Donâ€t need a ton of formalized stand up meetings
Ad hoc conversations
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10:00 – Challenges
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Building a sense of community
Preventing people from overworking
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11:54 – Identifying people who work well remotely
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Improvisational backgrounds
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13:30 – Improv
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Skills help with interpersonal communication
Intellectual component
Listening skills
Be opinionated and have a voice
Big ideas & tiny ego
Building on prospective
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23:46 – Flexibility in work/life balance
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Knowing when to unplug
Preferred schedules
Multiple time zones
Dev at their desk for 18-20 hours/day
Product coverage
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26:02 – How to find remote work and be the right candidate
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Personal connections
Job boards
Local tech meetups
Coworking facilities
Donâ€t look for job postings, reach out to the company you want to work for
Listen to Wide Teams podcasts
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...more
32min
September 05, 2012Episode #48: Kevin Old of DicomGrid
Kevin Old, of DicomGrid, talks about the concept of “think time,” his theories on people solving problemsÂ subconsciously, and the importance of trusting other team members and talking things out as a group.
Show Notes:
Twitter: @kevinold
kevinold.com
00:44 – Kevin Old Introduction & Background
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Software engineer of 16 years
Self-taught in Perl
Graduated to JavaScript & Ruby
Family situations led him to try working remotely
Has worked remotely now for 5 years
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02:15 – Benefits of remote work
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Freedom
Work/life balance
Ability to walk away from a problem
â€œThink Timeâ€
Ability to slow down
Ability to work at your own leisure
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07:20 – A typical day
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Things happen in the morning that you react to in the afternoon
Solving problems subconsciously
Working at times that you are at your best
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11:40 – Working remotely for DicomGrid
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Familiar faces + new folks
Based in Phoenix, AZ
Health Care industry
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14:00 – Communication setup
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Trello
Asynchronous culture
Skype
Lessons learned from previous companies
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17:30 – Collaboration
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Customer-driven requests
Idea board
Bugs
List of features
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20:00 – Remote culture
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Cutting ties when things arenâ€t working out
Talking things out as a group
Trusting the team
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24:30 – Building trust
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Navigation of tough situations
There are no magic team-building activities
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27:18 – Bringing someone on board a remote team
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Mentorship
Going through â€œseasonsâ€
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33:30 – Advice for distributed teams
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If youâ€re stuck on a problem, revisit it later
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...more
37min
August 29, 2012Episode #47: Will Farrington & Mike Skalnik of Github
Will Farrington and Mike Skalnik, of Github, talk about being a part of one of the most widely distributed companies out there, coordinating work between teams, and give advice about successfully securing a remote working position.
Show Notes:
Twitter: @wfarr
willfarrington.com
Github
Twitter: @skalnik
mikeskalnik.com
Github
00:35 – Introduction
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Will Farrington: System Operations @ Github
Mike Skalnik: Rails Developer @ Github
Calling in together at Github Summit in San Francisco
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01:40 – Github is widely distributed all over: Korea, Australia, New Zealand, England, USA
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â…” of company works remotely, full-time
Company paid office setups
Traveling is a huge part of being a part of the company
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04:48 – Github Summit
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Semi-annual week-long get-together
Meeting people in person
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05:40 – Coordinating work
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Everything is asynchronous
Loosely organized teams
Weekly live streaming fireside chats in Campfire
[/unordered_list]
09:15 – Keeping people on the same page and adding employees
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Put on notification blinders
People hired have specific focuses
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11:00 – Flow of incoming information
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Danger Room: everything non-work related
Internal Twitter: keep up to date on higher level things
Mass emails
Using team & individual mentions
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15:14 – Planning
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Pull requests
Unofficial policies
Rolling things out internally, staff-only first
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18:09 – HUBOT
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Deploys the site
Automates tasks
A source of fun within the company
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23:50 – Frustrations working distributively
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HR software
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25:40 – FaceTime
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Mostly during summits & conferences
Trust
Constructive criticism
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30:30 – Getting into remote work
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Seeking out companies that trust remote workers
User groups & conferences
Getting involved within the community
Being passionate about what youâ€re working on
Ask your favorite companies, â€œWhat would it take to work for you?â€
[/unordered_list]
34:30 – Advice for distributed teams
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Make it reasonable for everyone to be able to participate
Communicate
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...more
39min
August 22, 2012Episode #46: Katie Cunningham of Cox Media Group
Katie Cunningham, of Cox Media Group, talks about implementing the Pomodoro time management technique, silly, but effective ways of gettingÂ people’s attentionÂ in IRC channels, and making yourself attractive to prospective remote employers.
Show Notes:
Twitter: @kcunning
TheRealKatie.net
00:38 – Katie Cunningham introduction & background
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Django and Python developer with Cox Media Group of Atlanta
Author of forthcoming Accessibility Handbook: Making 508 Websites
Based in Washington, DC
Previously worked for NASA
Pursued by a recruiter to work at Cox
[/unordered_list]
03:53 – Cox actively looks for people who can work remotely
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Have remote days
All remotes on one team
All conversations must happen in IRC
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06:05 – A day in the life
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Work right away to get off earlier
Pomodoro method: get up and walk somewhere else every 25 minutes
Check email, IRC channels
Exercise is important
Work on books during lunch
Code reviews
Admin work
[/unordered_list]
12:30 – Advantages of working from home
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Relaxed
Flexible with kids
No office: kids are behind her and she can keep an eye on them
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16:20 – Isolation working from home
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Up time is other peoplesâ€ down time
Limited interruptions and distractions
Having kids/husband around is fun
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18:50 – Transitioning to working from home
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Thought sheâ€d be lonlier
Thought sheâ€d miss getting out of the house
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20:12 – Problems working from home
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Fatigue
Training the family
Getting help for work/asking questions/getting peopleâ€s attention in IRC
[/unordered_list]
26:20 – Communication strategies
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Always have an ally
Calling your manager or office admin and asking whoâ€s around
Silly code words in IRC
[/unordered_list]
29:55 – Exercise
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Constantly moving within an office
Go for walks
Concentrating while standing
Wii Fit/Kinect
[/unordered_list]
33:42 – Where can people find remote work?
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Talk to good recruiters
Good remote positions donâ€t advertise theyâ€re looking for employees
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36:31 – Making yourself attractive prospective employers
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Present yourself well
Network like crazy
Go to conferences–even if paying out of pocket
Organize your own day
Exceptional writing skills
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38:38 – Most important pieces of advice for remote workers
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Learn how to communicate early
Learn who to communicate with
Make your presence felt on the team
Network with social media: stay involved
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...more
43min
August 15, 2012Episode #45: Mike Smith of Blitz.io
Mike Smith, of Blitz.io, talks about being a part of a distributed team while being based in Austin, TX, why notifications and knowing your app is being usedÂ are good for team morale and self-esteem, and different strategiesÂ that promote communication between working regions.
Show Notes:
Blitz.io
Twitter: @evilmike
00:33 – Mike Smith Introductory
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Tech Lead at Blitz.io
Based in Austin, Texas
Team is based mostly in California with 2 others in Brazil
[/unordered_list]
01:25 – History of being distributed
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Worked with the others in CA before moving to TX
Brazilian team are contractors by refferal
6 team members total
[/unordered_list]
02:50 – Working together
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Keeping in touch on a daily basis
Campfire & Pivotal Tracker
[/unordered_list]
03:47 – Automation around Campfire
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New user registration
Plan purchases
Exception reporting & errors
[/unordered_list]
07:00 – Energy of knowing your app is being used
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Sales get a notification
Everybody likes to hear the bell ring
[/unordered_list]
08:30 – Strategies to promote communication between regions
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Weekly call
Live internal demos
[/unordered_list]
10:30 – Challenges of distance
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Communication bandwidth
Whiteboard
Lucidchart
Gesturing
[/unordered_list]
14:35 – Advice for teams starting to work remotely
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Work with people youâ€ve worked with before if possible
Shared sense of humor
[/unordered_list]
18:43 – Facetime with team members
...more
22min
August 08, 2012Episode #44: Rob Park
In this episode, Rob Park, an independent software consultant and Agile coach talks about all aspects of remote pair programming, different ways distributed teams choose to communicate, and the art of participating in daily standups.
Show Notes:
Twitter: @robpark
00:30 – Rob Park introduction & history
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Independent software consultant & Agile coach
Teams trying to hang on to good talent
Based in Colorado
[/unordered_list]
02:22 – Remote pairing
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Extreme programming background
Finding the right setup
Great way to get ideas
Fun to work that way
[/unordered_list]
06:20 – Pairing etiquette
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Visual cues
Asking permission
[/unordered_list]
07:51 – Communication is everything
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
You can tell the health of an Agile team by the buzz in the room
The keyboard is not the bottleneck
[/unordered_list]
09:13 – Ways teams choose to communicate
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Open chat rooms and IRC channels
Open Skype room
Chatrooms will die if people do not participate
IM tools
Email in some rare instances
[/unordered_list]
11:24 – Standups via phone
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Freedom to be wherever you want to be
Headsets required even when co-located
Enforce contact
[/unordered_list]
13:44 – Kanbanpad
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Whiteboards
Webcams set up on all the whiteboards
[/unordered_list]
18:22 – Standing up while doing standups
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Easy to lose focus in front of a screen
[/unordered_list]
20:40 – Joining a distributed team in the future
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Going stir-crazy in the house
Pairing in public
[/unordered_list]
23:05 – Problems getting synced during a pairing session
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Promiscuous pairing
Timezone issues
Be flexible and patient
[/unordered_list]
26:56 – Encouraging pairing
30:55 – Tips and tricks
[unordered_list style=”bullet”]
Enabling remote workers
Privilege to work at home
[/unordered_list]
...more
35min

FAQs about Wide Teams:

How many episodes does Wide Teams have?

The podcast currently has 100 episodes available.