Remotely Effective – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode I am joined by Mari Anne Snow where we talk about the rise of distributed teams in the early 2000’s, some of the major changes that have happened since that time, and the recent impacts of distributed work in the health and education sectors.

Show notes

• Pandemic Work-From-Home Survey

Mari Anne Snow

• LinkedIn
• Sophaya
• Remote Nation
• Remote Nation Institute

Thomas Lattimore

• Personal site
• @tlattimore

In this episode I am joined by Steve Akers, the Vice President of Engineering & Data Services at Appriss. We discuss Steve's early career starting as a software developer, touch on his growth into management, and hear about his experience growing with a large distributed team at LivingSocial. We go deep on tips for success with distributed teams, the pros and cons of hybrid office scenarios, and hear about Steve’s personal workflow for time and task management.

Show notes

• Superbase

• The Passionate Programmer

• The Pragmatic Programmer

• GTD with Things 3

• Things 3

• Bear app

• Kent Beck's books

• Decision matrix for what is important

Steve Akers

• Steve on LinkedIn

Thomas Lattimore

• Personal site

• @tlattimore

(Some links above may contain Amazon affiliate links)

The pro's of working in a distributed team.

Working from home comes with many types of distractions. One of the primary distractions can, in many cases, be our own families. In this episode Matt and I delve into what it is like to work from home with kids who have are also homeschooled. Whether you have a family like us, live with a roommate or partner, or are single, I hope there is something to glean from our conversation.

Show links

• Children bursting into room during live call with BBC broadcast

• I've had a few embarrassing moments with my kids while working from home... but nothing like this.

• Possible health benefits of walking barefoot

• Homeschooling — Good News and Bad News

Matt Robison

• mattrob.com

• @jazzdrive

• Matt's Children’s book, Princess Hiccup

Thomas Lattimore

• thomaslattimore.com

• @tlattimore

Every wonder what it is like to leave your home behind and hit the open road in an RV—all while working full-time? To help answer that question in this episode Tony and I talk about his family's journey of living as digital nomads both domestically and abroad.

Show Notes

• An article on Tony's proven setup for full time RV internet options

• A video rundown of internet options

• Budget Costs of Full Time RVing

• Family Adventure Summit

Tony Greising-Murschel

• letstravelfamily.com

• YouTube

• Twitter

• Instagram

• Facebook

Thomas Lattimore

• @tlattimore

• Personal website

Due to efforts to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, many conferences and gatherings planned for the first half of 2020 gone virtual. One of these conferences was MidCamp, a yearly conference for designers, developers, users, and evaluators of the open source Drupal content management software.

Show notes

• Netflix Party

• Discord

• Board Game Arena

• DrupalEasy episode on MidCamp

• Talking Drupal episode on Virtual Camps

Avi Schwab

• Personal site

• @ajschwab

• @froboy

Thomas Lattimore

• Personal site

• @tlattimore

In this episode I am joined on the show by Augustin Delaporte. Augustin is the Directer of Product Scalability at Platform.sh. In this episode we dive into what it was like growing with Platform.sh as a hybrid team between a central office and distributed team members. Through this discussion we touch on lots aspects of remote work life including working in cross continental teams, changing toolsets as companies grow and change, product management in distributed environments, and what it is like to be a remote employee based out of China.

Augustin Delaporte

• Twitter

• Platform.sh

• Deploy Friday: E01 The challenges and opportunities facing tech companies in the time of Coronavirus

• A Survival Guide for managers who need to drive a company that became remote overnight by Fred Plais, Platform's CEO

• Tools for Remote Teams (that let you keep control of your data and privacy) by Robert Douglass, Platform's Chief DevRel Officer

Thomas Lattimore

• Personal site

• Twitter

Hosts

• Thomas Lattimore
• @tlattimore

• personal site

• Mark Shropshire

• @shrop
• Mediacurrent
• goServeOthers
• SHROPCAST

Links

• Remote Work Survival Kit

• How Working Parents Can Prepare for Coronavirus Closures

• How the Toilet Paper Supply Chain is Dealing with the Demand

• Pomodoro Technique

• BreakTime app

• Study from Cornell University on sitting vs. standing at work

Baseline Work Setup's

• Mark
• MacBook Pro
• Cable and adapter bag
• External battery for both USB devices and MacBook
• Bose Noise Cancelling 700 headphones
• AirPod's

• Backup wired headphones

• Thomas

• Macbook Pro
• Cable and adapter bag
• Blue-light blocking glasses
• Bose QC35 II headphones

When you work in distributed environment it is not uncommon to have the vast majority of the communication with your team in chat (ex: Slack). But just because we use these so often, do we use them effectively? In this episode I cover some good practices I've learned over the years working in these systems.

Show notes:

• Yammer

• Know Your Team

• Discourse