February 3rd, 2008

Best practices for remote work

Since we started SpinBits we’ve done a couple of projects remotely without the chance to even meet the client sometimes. This helped us develop some practices to make our work smoother and keep the client happy with the results. Here are our 5 tips for remote work:

• Communication tools: We are big fans of tools, using the right tools in the moment saves time and increase efficiency. The tools of remote work of course are online communication tools, we depend on IM for chatting with the client, thanks to Adium we are available on all mostly used messengers, we also use Skype for video conferencing. We finally use Basecamp for project management. It really helps us keep track of things and have everything stored in a central place where we can refer to later on.
• Dates: Dates are part of any project even offline projects, but with online projects they are more important. Try to set dates for everything for every deliverable, every meeting and every milestone. This will help you focus in getting things done and organize yourself and your tasks better to be ready on that date.
• Twist obstacles: One of the main issues of remote work is the timezone difference. Utilize this time difference for your own benefit by scheduling your meetings and deliverables with the client by both ends of the day. One thing we normally do, we try to get the comments from our client in the morning (the client’s evening) and then by our evening, another drop will be available for him to review.
• Focus and say no: Get yourself some lone time where you quit all your IMs, notifiers, browser tabs and focus completely on finishing the task in hand, this will help you be more productive. One of the main issues of being always connected, specially with clients, is the requests you may receive from the clients online as “small” or “quick” request, sometimes it would be nice to do it on the spot; but, sometimes it’s more efficient to say “No” and schedule it for discussion or add it to Basecamp to be worked out later.
• Keep track of progress: Finally try to always keep track of progress and measure how close you are from delivering the requested features on time. Measure the features you have to work on and be very honest with yourself when estimating the right time and right effort. Track that effort and make sure you keep up with it.

Those are our practices for remote work with clients from overseas, what are your tips and tricks?

More on the subject:

• Fifteen Tips for Remote Collaboration
• Tips on working with remote teams