To build a great product, first, you need a team with the right skills.
Development is a team effort, and with the right set of people working on it, development seems so much easier.
Building and Leading Your First Remote Dev Team
A great team is not just about professionalism, it is about dedication and how they react to specific tasks. Statistics show that most of the project failures are due to the lack of confidence in the team.
Hence, you must stay cautious while building and leading your first remote Dev team.
Building a remote development team is not an easy task. You may end up creating more problems for your company. However, the tips you will get in this blog can help you through every process, from hiring to effectively leading them.
Here’s the guide to build and lead your first remote Dev team.
Choose the Perfect Destination
Thanks to the internet, connecting to remote people from anywhere around the globe has become so much easier.
The high-speed internet has also given us the freedom to hire the best remote developers from pretty much anywhere and enjoy comfortable collaboration irrespective of the distance.
Some parts of the world have gained the title of a hotspot for the remote Dev team. However, you should plan about the destination that suits you and decide accordingly. To choose your destination, you must compare different facts such as time zone differences, Dev team rates, and average salaries between places.
Choose the Right Collaboration Model
Before you build your Dev team, you must know what type of collaboration model fits your business needs. There are different types of collaboration models. Here, we have listed the top three collaboration models.
- Freelancers – Freelancers will suit your business if software development isn’t the core of your business model. However, they know how to get quality work done in minimum time at an affordable price.
- R&D Center – In case you are looking for a Dev team with more than 50 members, including administrative staff, and want to focus on new ideas and research, you can go for this model.
- Dedicated Team – You need a dedicated team if your business model is immensely based on software. Dedicated teams will be dedicated to your product and will provide more flexibility.
Hire the Best Developers
The hiring process can be full of surprises, but it is the core element of your remote Dev team’s future success. Your hiring method will mainly depend on your business needs. You can follow these steps.
- Conduct several interviews and recruit immediately since Dev teams’ demand is very high, and they may get work elsewhere and be unavailable.
- Along with technical skills, they also pay attention to their soft skills.
- You should have a personal meeting with the candidates that you decide to hire.
You can also recruit people through Gun IO for your work since it provides you with quality freelancers who know how to finish the job perfectly within a time frame.
Choose the Perfect Collaboration Framework
To obtain the best out of your remote Dev Team, you need to adopt a flexible collaboration methodology.
The agile methodology works best for such cases. Agile allows making the development process more efficient by lowering the risks during implementation and minimizing the budget.
- Treat Remote Dev Team the Same Way as Your In House Team Members
Provide regular feedback, arrange onsite trips, and make sure that your remote Dev team and your in-house teams can work cohesively.
Make sure that your remote Dev team has the necessary equipment for effective communication and collaboration.
- Keep an Adequate Workload
An extensive workload can end up creating chaos among your remote Dev team members. Please give them the freedom to work at a comfortable pace.
This way, you can boost your remote Dev team’s productivity by letting them focus on the work one at a time and not have an extra amount of work debt, putting them under pressure.
- Provide Enough Room for Knowledge
Establish an environment with continuous learning and improvement.
Give your remote Dev team enough space to polish their skills and extend their knowledge. Let them attend conferences, workshops, knowledge sharing sessions, online courses, etc.
- Track Productivity
Upgrading to a remote Dev team makes tracking the core requirement for an efficient development process easy.
Ask your remote Dev to update their work status regularly. There are several tools available to track productivity. Track your remote Dev teamwork progress to make sure everyone is on the same page.
- Organize Daily Meetings
Daily sync-ups are very necessary to keep every member of the team on the same page. This will help them share each other’s progress and help someone out if they face any trouble.
Try to give your team the freedom to make as many calls as possible throughout the day to clarify any doubts.
- Transparency
Maintain an environment of trust and transparency.
Allow your remote Dev team to showcase their vision, influence critical decisions, and provide them the track of the latest updates. It is crucial to remain transparent and clearly express your goals so that there is no confusion between them.
- Take Care of the Security
When it is about the internet, data security one most important factors.
Letting your data go in the wrong hands can harm your business. Hence, you must ensure the security of your data while working remotely.
Make sure that your remote developers are well aware of the BYOD policy. Also, ensure that your remote developers use a secure and stable internet connection.
Additionally, your remote developers must ensure an uninterrupted connection even during a power surge or poor internet connection.
Can You Assess a Dev Team Sitting Miles Away Through an Interview?
While sitting miles away from the applicant, can you value your judgment on a Skype call? Do you have enough time to interview people for the job and provide them with side projects to analyze their skills? The answer to all these questions is Toptal.
You may be stressed out trying to find out the top talent for your needs. However, it can become a whole lot easier if you know what is Toptal.
Conclusion
While there are many ways to get a remote development team, in the end, you need to be sure that the team can provide what you need. Hence, you need to screen them properly. It is wise to value trusted freelance hubs like Toptal and Gun IO to get the job done for you.
