What do startups want the most? Investment? Space? Early adopters?

As someone who has been through the startup journey, I can certainly say that it is neither of these that startups need the most. 

What they need is people. A team of stalwarts who are great at what they do and can solve problems. Now building a team is definitely a big deal for startup founders. It is difficult finding the right mix of technical and non-technical personnel to assemble. 

Also, the chances of finding them all in one place — from the same city or country is even slimmer. 

But, as Bob Dylan once sang: “The Times They Are A Changin.”

When you are running a startup, you no longer need all your team members in one place. You can have them scattered across the globe and still manage to scale your operations. Thanks to countless communication and collaboration software, managing a remote team is a cake walk for startup founders. 

You can have a developer from Japan, a UX designer from Ukraine, a QA tester from India, and a project manager from the US. 

However, there is a catch. Managing a remote team is not the same as managing an in-house team. You need to approach remote team management from a different angle to keep teams motivated, productive, and also to scale your startup. 

Make a management mind shift

At the core of every successful startup is one common trait — a positive management mindset. In management parlance, a positive mindset can be construed as different things: hunger to drive growth, passion to break and build new things, setting new milestones, etc. 

However, while scaling your startup with a remote team, you need a totally different management approach. To begin with, micromanaging is a big no-no. It would be extremely tempting for a startup to track the outcome of every single task assigned to team members. 

It is an activity that shows a lack of trust but also drains the time and energy of the founder. Such time and effort could otherwise be used for strategic thinking and planning. 

So, it is necessary for management to have a mind shift. You must have confidence and trust in your team although they are not physically present in the same building as you. 

At my company Solitaired, where we tie classic games to brain training, we’ve found that avoiding micromanagement and trusting our team has had a profound effect. Our team is taking more responsibility in their work as a result and delivering their best work.

Shifting to remote work is an opportunity to empower your team. 

Measure performance. Not hours spent online.

One question that always comes up when running a remote team is: How will I track the efficiency of my team?

In a startup, resources are precious and the way your team spends their time can make a huge impact on the business. Even the slightest delay from one person can have a snowball effect on the rest of the team. 

As you know, tracking every single task of the team is a futile exercise. Instead, track performance. In a virtual team, the best indicator of productivity and efficiency is results.

For an engineering team this could be feature releases, for a marketing team it could be campaign rollouts, or for a sales team it could be deals closed or pipelines created. 

Prioritising results over time-tracking ultimately leads to a growth and results-driven work culture — a must-have accessory for startups.

Build a virtual team culture

In a remote team, or for that matter, in any team, culture can be the invisible glue that binds together team members. It removes the distance barrier, makes people feel familiar to each other, and builds team camaraderie. 

Also read: Are your influence skills ready for remote work?

The onus is upon the founder to create a remote team culture so that every team member feels an integral part of the team. Virtual team building activities help with that. As a gaming company, we often play games together to improve camaraderie.

A healthy remote culture cultivates strong working relationships where teammates are willing to trust and hold each other accountable.

Lay down clear processes

An F1 pit crew can change a racing car’s tires in 1.923 seconds. Do you know how? They have a process that is meticulously planned. Each team member is trained to do his/her role in the best manner possible. 

A process leaves little room for error. It standardises how everyone in a team works. It brings everyone on the same page and directs efforts in the same direction towards a common goal. 

Similarly, a well-defined process ensures that new employees who are onboarded are also able to ramp up into their roles quickly. It removes the ambiguity that kicks in when there is no direct interaction between team members. 

As a best practice, create a central repository of all process documents. Ideally, they should be created separately for engineering, marketing, finance, IT, and so on. Such practices enable any remote work, new or seasoned, to work independently and effectively. 

Assemble a well-equipped toolkit

Most often, remote team collaboration does not work because team members do not have the necessary tools to communicate. 

It is only recently that tools like Slack, Asana, Trello, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc. have become mainstream. These tools are essential if you want to scale your startup with a remote team. 

Also read: Does remote working really work?

A well-equipped toolkit ensures that remote team members are able to perform their duties and deliver work as planned. Here is a list of tools that you can help you manage a remote team of your startup:

• Voice and video communication — Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Team
• Document collaboration — Microsoft Office, Google Suite, Zoho One
• Project management — Asana, Trello, Monday.com
• Web management — WordPress, Wix, GoDaddy, Weebly
• Design — Canva, Snappa, Prezi, Piktochart
• Cyber security — Anti virus programmes, Firewall, VPN, Azure ID
  

Plan for time zone differences

One of the most under-rated challenges of working with a remote team is time zone differences. The challenge of coordinating meetings and working across different time zones can be significant.

While managing a remote team, it is necessary to lay down specific timings during which meetings are feasible for all. Also, it is equally necessary to stipulate non-meeting hours. This will help individual team members to plan their working hours with enough rest hours in between.

For example, at my company, the team that develops our Mahjong and Freecell games is based in Eastern Europe, while the rest of our game is based in the New York area. Given the time zone differences, we always have daily meetings at 9AM EST as a unique window when all our teams are available.

Common meeting hours will ensure that every remote team member is in a productive mindset and willing to contribute to the meeting. Without their active participation, remote teams can feel disconnected to the company’s mission and goals.

Taking your startup from one to 10X

Today, scaling a startup with a remote team is easier than ever before. There are countless tools to facilitate remote work and abundant supply of remote workforce who are talented.

However, it still takes effort and planning to make remote work productive for startups. 

Setting the right management mindset, building a positive team culture, developing processes, and adjusting for time zone differences can all help your remote team function better, improving your chances of success.

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