A discussion with Dan Menard of Macadamian, covering the importance of taking the time to build personal relationships; the advantages of having a team that’s split across time zones, the practice of distributed code review, and much more!
Announcements:
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- I’m looking for a sponsor so I can do the podcast on a more regular schedule! Contact me if you’re interested.
- Get your free copy of the Dispersed Team Kick-Start Guide by signing up to the Wide Teams mailing list.
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Show notes:
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- Dan blogs at dan-menard.com and is @dan_menard on Twitter.
- Macadamian
- How to work with someone 12 hours away
- Yammer
- Smartboard
- The Wine project
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03:15 – Danâ€s background
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- Macadamian Technologies based out of Ottowa, Canada, with offices in Romania and Armenia
- Product creation company that helps other companies bring products to life
- Software development
- User research
- User experience and visual design
- Quality assurance
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04:02 – History with oversea startup
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- Helped to work more effectively with clients in different timezones
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06:00 – Schedule Flexibility
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- Adjusted schedule
- Work from home or office
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07:28 – Importance of relationships
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- Personal connection
- Avoid “Us†versus “Them†mentality
- Skype is useful
- Personal presence at all offices
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09:50 – Advantages of working with teams across time zones
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- Working in teams across time zones expands a regular work day
- Instead of fitting 8 hours into a work day, you can get around 16
- Get projects done in half the time
- Overlap shifts slightly to sync up with SCRUM meetings, etc.
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12:00 – Tools
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- Skype
- Confluence (Wiki)
- Email
- Internal mailing lists and news groups
- Yammer
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14:40 – Smartboard
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- Whiteboard with a projector hooked up to it
- Touchscreen
- Interactive
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17:06 – Code Review
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- Patch-a-day
- Do things in small batches
- Develops good patterns and catches bugs earlier
- Responsibility
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19:00 – Adjustment to working with distributed teams
20:52 – Future of working with distributed teams
21:24 – Advice to distributed groups
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- Do whatever works for your individual team
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