Book Notes – Remote: Office Not Required

A book by Basecamp.

I’ve been working remotely for over 6 years so not much was new to me.

Even so, there were some nice reminders of why remote working is great and how we do pretty much all of what’s suggested in the book.

Collaboration

Work in the open. Make sure it’s obvious what to do without needing to ask. (p91)

Show forward motion. Show progress in by working in the open. Holds people accountable, decreases feeling of isolation and makes it easier to course-correct before things get too hard to change. (p97)

Be very available. You don’t need to drop everything for every incoming request, but acknowledge communications and keep people updated frequently. Try not to let threads go stale for weeks on end, even if it’s just to say “I’ll get to this”. (p129)

Management

25% of full-time. (p110)

Signs of trouble. Frequent and/or recurring problems with work. Duration between tasks getting done. (p139).

Lead and verify the work. Good management is not about checking people are working. To lead and verify requires knowledge of the work itself. Be a maker/manager. (p176)