Lessons Learned From Managing Remote Teams

I screwed up at Goldcast. I cut too much from the in-person meetup budget. I thought 100% remote would work: ❌ No quarterly meetups ❌ No regular offsites Just virtual meetings. Lots of them... 👀 The learning I’ve had since? Fully remote will lead to cultural drift and bitterness in otherwise good pockets of the company. Purposeful inperson meetups accentuate remote work by building camaraderie between teams. Remote is not good for intense collaborative work that is sometimes unavoidable- e.g. quarterly planning Our best ideas? They didn't come from the 48th call. They come from being together. In real life. 👀 What we're doing now: Making non negotiable budget items for in person gatherings. Making budget to bring a full team on to Boston during in person quarterly reviews where get together for a clear purpose. The result? Better ideas. Stronger connections. And yes, it's expensive. We're trading headcount for face time. Worth it? 100%. 📌 Two important learnings: 1️⃣ Budget for this from day one Don't wait. Just do it. 2️⃣ Have a reason to meet Make your meetups purposeful. Remote work is amazing. But nothing beats live collaboration. Find the balance that works for your team. — 👋 P.S. Have you met your team in-person this year? Curious what % of remote teams still meet regularly.

Every API call took 2 seconds. The team in Manila blamed Mumbai's code. Mumbai pointed at Miami's infrastructure. Miami insisted it was Manila's queries. Everyone was wrong. It was a misconfigured Redis cache that nobody owned. This is the hidden cost of distributed teams. Not the timezone challenges or communication gaps, but the ownership vacuum that forms between locations. Remote teams don't fail because of distance. They fail because we give them collaboration tools when what they really need is VISIBILITY tools. Think about it. We spend thousands on Slack, Zoom, and project management software to help teams "work together better." But when performance tanks, those tools tell us nothing about WHERE the problem lives. The solution isn't more meetings or better documentation. It's RADICAL TRANSPARENCY through monitoring. When every team member from Cebu to Cincinnati can see the same performance dashboards showing the same real-time metrics, finger-pointing dies. Problems get solved in hours, not weeks. The best distributed teams I've seen, they guess less. Here's my question: What's the most expensive problem your distributed team has that exists simply because nobody can see it?

Our Business Operations team was wasting ~$16,000 per month on inefficient meetings (estimated by 5 hours per week x $100 per hour x 8 people). One simple change cut that out: we transitioned from verbal to visual. Here's what we did: BACKGROUND: When we went fully remote at Blip years ago, progress updates became a special kind of torture. Every "quick sync" turned into an hour of: - "Remember when we discussed..." - "Wait, which part are we changing?" - "No, I thought we agreed on..." Same conversations. Different day. Zero progress. THE SHIFT: Instead of talking about changes, we started drawing them. Using @lucid we mapped every single user action before meetings. Not high-level flows… every click, every decision point, every expected behavior. Now when our Supply head says "we're changing this," he points to one square. That's it. Meeting over in 15 minutes. THE SYSTEM: 1. Map the entire journey first (30-45 mins) - Every action documented - Every decision branch visible - One source of truth 2. Share the visual 24 hours before any meeting - Team comments directly on elements - Context builds asynchronously - Everyone arrives prepared 3. Run surgical discussions (15 mins vs 60) - Point to specific boxes - Click in and annotate live - Decisions stick because everyone sees the same thing 4. Track changes visually - Before/after comparisons side-by-side - Progress visible at a glance - No status meetings needed RESULTS: Month 1: Folks complained about "extra work" Month 2: Meetings cut in half Month 3: People started making diagrams without being asked The real magic: Async conversations actually reach conclusions now 😀 Someone screenshots a flow section, circles a box, drops it in Slack: "Change this?" Three replies later: Done. No meeting. No confusion. Just execution. LESSON: Remote teams don't need more meetings. They need better artifacts. When everyone sees the same picture, you stop explaining and start shipping. Draw first. Talk second!

What’s killing your remote team’s productivity? Here’s a hint: It’s not about working harder. I worked with a lifestyle brand whose remote team was drowning: 1. Scattered across time zones. 2. Slack pings out of control. 3. Deadlines slipping through the cracks. The team was frustrated. Leadership was stressed. Everyone felt stuck. In just 30 days, we turned it around and boosted productivity by 20%. Here’s how you can, too: 1. Map every role to a clear outcome. ↳No more "Who owns this?" Everyone knew what they were responsible for. 2. Ditch "online hours" and focus on outcomes. ↳When we stopped tracking time and started tracking results, trust skyrocketed. 3. Cut redundant tools. ↳Dropping from six apps to two made decision-making faster. 4. Hold brief daily stand-ups. ↳A quick 10-minute check-in ended the constant Slack chaos and brought clarity to the whole team. I’ve seen this time and again: remote chaos doesn’t mean failure. With the right steps, your team can thrive. P.S. What’s been the biggest challenge with your remote team?

𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. 𝗣𝗼𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗶𝘀. As a TPM/Scrum Master, I have led projects with top-talented teams at top companies such as Harvard University and Amazon. One of my projects involved a team distributed across 4 time zones, and we never watched anyone; we trusted them. In my experience, highly effective teams do not need to be micromanaged; they need empowerment. Here’s the real deal: When you continuously observe your team members... You probably selected the wrong individuals for your team. The most effective method to deliver value to people is through giving them flexibility. Here is why: 1/ 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. → They produce outcomes, not justifications. → True motivation comes from ownership. → Responsibility surpasses supervision. → Excessive oversight destroys trust. 2/ 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 means more time. → Extra hours enhance learning, not sitting in traffic. → Time is spent mastering skills, not being idle. → A balanced life boosts efficiency. → Energy is preserved, not wasted. 3/ 𝗡𝗼 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲, 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀. → Collaboration triumphs over rivalry. → Achievements trump appearances. → Culture flourishes without conflict. → Ideas prevail, not personalities. Let’s take a look at how to make this work: → Give your team members the freedom to choose their work location and schedule. → Measure achievements, not clocked hours. → Prioritize impact, not presence. → Define meaningful KPIs. True leaders: → Support → Empower → And protect their teams. The right leader can help remote teams succeed. Do you think remote work is the future?

People don’t quit jobs. They quit feeling invisible, misunderstood, or micromanaged. And most of the time? It wasn’t the workload. It was the way their leader spoke to them. Because in remote teams, your words carry weight. They either build autonomy or break trust. So I created a cheat sheet: 10 Phrases That Inspire Ownership & Safety Remotely: ❌ Instead of: “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” ✅ Try this: “I may not see everything, tell me what I’m missing.” ❌ Instead of: “Just keep me updated every step of the way.” ✅ Try this: “I trust you to own this. Loop me in only if needed.” ❌ Instead of: “What’s the issue now?” ✅ Try this: “Where do you need clarity, from me or the bigger picture?” ❌ Instead of: “Don’t mess it up, just follow the process.” ✅ Try this: “You’ve got room to experiment, just share your thinking.” ❌ Instead of: “Are you working full hours?” ✅ Try this: “I’m not tracking hours. I’m tracking impact.” ❌ Instead of: “What’s everyone working on right now?” ✅ Try this: “Let’s focus on what’s essential this week.” ❌ Instead of: “Why wasn’t this done right the first time?” ✅ Try this: “That’s on me. I didn’t set the right expectations.” ❌ Instead of: “Didn’t we already decide on this?” ✅ Try this: “Your insight changed my mind—thank you.” ❌ Instead of: “Why didn’t you request time off earlier?” ✅ Try this: “You don’t need to explain—take the time off.” ❌ Instead of: “Here’s what went wrong in that project.” ✅ Try this: “Let’s debrief together. I want your take.” These aren’t just better words. They’re better leadership. ✔ They reduce fear. ✔ Build initiative. ✔ And make your team feel like they belong—even without a daily Zoom. 📌 Save this. Share it with your leadership team. And if you’re leading remotely, use it before your next 1:1. And remember, you don’t need to speak often, but when you do… make it count. P.S. Which phrase have you heard from a leader that made you feel trusted? — ♻️ Repost this to help more leaders build safer, stronger teams. ➕ Follow Sandra Pellumbi for more. 🦉