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Editor's Notes

1. ~20 FT employees, of which 75% are web-focussed software engineers CEO splits time btw. London, Arizona + biz travel/talks Span time-zones, bigger window for meeting support response time promises
2. Most of our work is team work: we work in small teams of 2-5 people, and we’re a collective resource for any individual member. Not just umbrella organization
3. There are some compelling logistical advantages. Note overheads are reduced overall, but some are just shifted to employee
4. But the most compelling reasons are about people Mid-career, geographic ties
5. We do have notion of “blue zone” to ensure there’s minimum 4 hour overlap In practice, for me, this means some late nights. But I enjoy my mornings
6. Some practical items: no IT (hardware) support. We all own and are responsible for our own kit.
7. Lynch-pin is good communication And good communicators
8. Trust between manager and staff, between peers
9. We constantly evolve the infrastructure Technical/logistical challenges And human challenges
10. Document updates, discussions, announcements Checkins, task/issue notifications
11. [
12. We use skype for 1:1 and conference calls, occasional screen sharing And fallback for chat in event of service outage
13. Everything has a ticket We use Redmine for issue tracking Email updates from subversion and redmine provide the pulse
14. Meet up at conferences, workshops. A lot of misunderstandings go away when you meet in person. Irony, enthusiasm, despair - don’t travel well over wires
15. Management lacks cues, FUD can ensue Attempts to micro-manage backfire We’re back to trust, and effective infrastructure to provide (unobtrusive) visibility into activity
16. Transparency and accountability Trust on both sides Self-motivation, time management. Judge by results
17. (answering loss of comraderie, atmosphere) Home/office Life is not work Work is a time, state of mind as well as a place. Work is what you produce, not where Your office is not your social life (could go either way)