Crafting a Remote Work Strategy

Atlassian has been fully distributed for almost five years. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve learned a lot about how to keep teams thriving across time zones—and we’re applying those insights every day.  ➡️ Asynchronous work: Async tools are at the core of how we operate. Confluence is our virtual hub where we share stories, celebrate new hires, and collaborate effortlessly. We also use Loom to share videos and give feedback on our own time—avoiding those dreaded “this could have been an email” moments. In fact, we’ve saved nearly half a million meetings using Loom! ➡️ Designing workdays: We’ve learned to structure workdays for focus, collaboration, and meetings (only when absolutely necessary). Teams work across no more than two time zones, ensuring at least four hours of overlap to get things done together. ➡️ Intentional connection: Data shows that real connection happens when teams meet regularly—not sporadically in an office. We provide Intentional Togetherness Gatherings (ITGs), curated experiences, and focused in-person time to collaborate. ➡️ Adapting for different needs: It’s not one-size-fits-all. For example, new hires and grads often benefit from more frequent in-person meetups, so we make sure to offer opportunities for them to connect early on. https://lnkd.in/g2sSbe3v

Did I really just tell our team to stop providing status updates and work less? Yes, and here's why... At Doist, we're a fully distributed team of 100+ people across 35+ countries. We've built our entire company around async-first work—few required meetings, no expectation of immediate responses, complete flexibility in when and where you work. But this type of culture doesn't maintain itself, and recently, we noticed something creeping in... Team members starting to add status updates to their profiles ("away for a few hours" or "slow to respond"), checking in during vacation, and making themselves available for "emergencies" despite being out sick/on leave/injured/etc. Small things that seem harmless—even helpful—on the surface. But these minor shifts signaled that we were slowly reverting to the synchronous work habits we've all been conditioned to follow our entire careers. So today, we sent out a reminder to the team: - You don't need to announce when you're stepping away for a few hours. That's the default expectation. - Please actually take your time off. No checking in. No "just responding to a few things." The truth about how we work is that it requires constant, intentional effort. Our natural inclination is always to drift back toward what's familiar—presence indicators, immediate responses, always-on availability. For me, maintaining this culture means: ✅ Showing up fully when you're working ✅ Disconnecting fully when you're not ✅ Prioritizing deep work over constant connectivity ✅ Maintaining high velocity and ambition WITHOUT sacrificing respect for boundaries And as leaders, we have to remember that we set the precedent. If we're checking in on vacation or signaling we need to be "reachable," we're telling everyone else that's the expectation—even if we never say it out loud. Building a legendary company doesn't mean being always-on. It means being intentional about how we work, protecting what makes us different, and constantly course-correcting when we start to slip. This was a good reminder for me, thought I'd share in case it's useful for anyone else out there 🤝

The best Engineers I’ve ever hired didn’t live in SF or NY. In fact, in some of my best teams ever, no two team members even lived in the same time zone. When I’m building early-stage startup teams, I don’t care where you live. I care how you work: - Can you own a problem end to end? - Can you communicate clearly in writing? - Can you manage your time without being micromanaged? If yes, I'm only interested if you have the right skills and experience for my teams. I’ve hired Software Engineers in Nairobi, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Bangalore, Bali and beyond. They ship. They care. They’re better than most people I’ve ever worked with in offices full of “culture.” The outcome is great, but it does come with the big challenge of async collaboration. Teams spread around the world only work well if you don’t force people to work in real time. That means: - No daily standups at 9am Pacific. - No Slack messages that need instant replies. - No 4-hour Zoom marathons just to “sync.” Instead, I prefer async-first: - Everything important is written down. - Meetings are the exception, not the default. - People work when they’re most productive Async isn’t a cost-cutting measure. It’s a competitive advantage. While Big Tech is mandating 3 days a week in the office, and some founders think “startup culture” means dragging everyone into a coworking space for the vibe… I’m quietly hiring talent they can’t reach. People who won’t relocate. People who won’t commute. People who’ve opted out of the old way of working and want to do great work without babysitting. If you’re an early-stage founder, you have to play a different game. You can’t outspend Google or Meta. But you can beat them on flexibility. And you don’t need 20 people in one room. You probably need 2-3 people who think clearly and move fast. Async-first remote culture makes that possible. And once you’ve experienced what it’s like to build with a truly global, distributed, asynchronous team? There’s no going back.

I watched someone type a 22-line Slack message yesterday about something that needed a 3-minute call. And honestly, I felt that. Because nobody is teaching us the one soft skill that's now make-or-break in hybrid work: Knowing which medium matches your message. We have 7 different ways to say the same thing, and we're picking the wrong one every single time. I see it everywhere: ↳⁠The manager who schedules a Zoom for what could've been a voice note. ↳⁠The teammate who emails a "quick question" that turns into a 12-reply thread. ↳The office colleague who walks over repeatedly for things that could've been a Slack. Then everyone's frustrated, asking: "Why is communication so hard now?" Here’s how to upgrade your soft skills: 🔰ASYNC (Type it) Use when you need receipts, not responses. 1.⁠ ⁠Status updates 2.⁠ ⁠Documentation 3.⁠ ⁠FYI info 4.⁠ ⁠Non-urgent requests 🔰SYNC (Call it) Use when you need clarity, not confusion. 1. Nuanced discussions 2. Conflict resolution 3. Complex explanations 4. ⁠Anything that's ping-ponged 3+ times in text 🔰IN-PERSON (Walk it) Use when you need a connection, not just content. 1. Sensitive conversations 2. Brainstorming sessions 3. Relationship building 4. Quick desk-side clarifications (if they're actually quick) 📍Bonus tip: If you're in the office and it's under 2 mins + they're available, sure, walk over. Otherwise, respect their flow and ping first. This isn't rocket science. But it is a skill most teams are missing. P.S. What's your rule of thumb for picking the right communication channel? #hybrid #communication #async #sync #inperson #softskills #workculture #signalvnoise

"How do you do it?" That’s the first question I often hear when I hop on a call at 11pm/12am my time. After 1.5 years at MoonPay, I’ve gotten used to it — and truthfully, I enjoy it. MoonPay has been one of the most intense yet fulfilling companies I’ve worked at. Operating in a predominantly EU/US-based company while being based in Singapore has taught me a few things about leadership, impact, and how to make this setup work. Here’s what I’ve learned about operating remotely across time zones: 1️⃣ Leadership roles don’t have to be tied to HQ. The idea that you can’t join a leadership position in a global company from Asia is a myth. When I was looking for my next role, I set clear criteria: - Find a global company that’s nailed PMF for its core product. - Focus on companies expanding and scaling, where execution is valued over location. A cold LinkedIn message to Zeeshan Feroz kickstarted my journey — proof that when companies are scaling fast, they care more about what you can deliver than where you’re based. 2️⃣ Time zones force you to be intentional. “Don’t you lose work-life balance working EU hours?” That’s the second question I get. Here’s the truth: time zones make you a master of time management and prioritization. - It’s about impact, not hours: The key is delivering results. Align on priorities and focus on high-leverage work. - Boundaries matter: Remote work comes with the temptation to always be “on.” Learning when to engage and when to step back keeps you sharp and avoids burnout. Far from being a limitation, time zones push you to focus on what truly moves the needle. 3️⃣ Remote work is all about communication and ownership. Working remotely, especially in a fast-paced company, changes the way you operate: - Asynchronous is a superpower: Tools like Google Docs, Slack, and Loom make structured updates and documentation essential. Clear, proactive communication builds trust and keeps everyone aligned. - Own your calendar: Not every call needs to be a meeting. Protecting time for deep work is critical for long-term impact. - Impact > Location: Leadership roles and opportunities aren’t tied to a city or an office. If you can execute, deliver, and drive outcomes, your work will speak for itself. 4️⃣ Culture still wins, even remotely. Trust, autonomy, and shared values are the foundation of a great remote team. MoonPay’s focus on fostering this culture has been a game-changer for me. At its core, working at MoonPay has shown me that impact has no borders. Leading remotely challenges you to: ✅ Prioritize outcomes over hours. ✅ Communicate proactively and intentionally. ✅ Focus on what truly matters — and let results speak for themselves. It’s not always easy, but it’s fulfilling. I’m grateful for the journey so far and excited to keep building the future of payments at MoonPay. 🌍

Shared digital context means people can understand what is happening and what has been decided, even when teams work across time zones and different tools. Global teams do not struggle only because they are far apart. They struggle when information is scattered and people have to rebuild the context before they can do the work. The solution starts with making decisions visible. A team should be able to see what was agreed, who owns the next step, and where the relevant information sits. Without that shared view, every handover becomes slower and more fragile. Asynchronous work also needs better closing habits. A clear update at the end of one person’s day can become the starting point for another person’s work, but only if the context is easy to find and written for people who were not in the room. Culture needs the same care. The same message can be read differently across teams, so shared expectations help reduce misunderstanding and keep collaboration more human. Tools should connect conversations and decisions, not create new fragments. The goal is simple: help people see the same picture and continue the work without waiting for someone else to reconstruct it. #DigitalWorkplace #FutureOfWork #CreateImpact

Building High-Performance Remote Engineering Teams is not just about video calls.... I’ve worked with teams across the UK, Europe, and the US, and one thing is clear: remote work isn’t inherently slower. But a lot of engineering teams fail because they try to run distributed teams like co-located ones. Here’s what really makes a remote engineering team high-performing: 1️⃣ Communication by Design, Not by Chance Async-first: Chat isn’t enough. Document decisions, architectural diagrams, and API contracts in a place everyone can access. Structured updates: Daily standups are optional; status tracking through PR reviews, automated CI pipelines, and project boards is mandatory. 2️⃣ Ownership & Clear Boundaries Each engineer owns services, APIs, or modules end-to-end. Service contracts are explicit. Teams don’t block each other because ownership is clear and dependencies are well-documented. 3️⃣ CI/CD Is Non-Negotiable Remote teams must trust that pushing code won’t break production. Automated testing, linting, and deployment pipelines reduce friction and async bottlenecks. Feature flags and incremental rollouts are your best friend. 4️⃣ Knowledge Visibility Remote teams fail when knowledge lives in heads. Maintain internal wikis, architecture maps, and runbooks. Code reviews aren’t just for QA—they’re the primary async learning tool. 5️⃣ Metrics That Actually Matter Velocity in story points? Fine. But measure deploy frequency, mean time to recovery, bug escape rate, and codebase health metrics. These metrics highlight systemic issues instead of punishing individuals. 6️⃣ Tech Stack Choices Matter Prefer tools that support async collaboration: GitOps, Slack with integrated threads, Jira/Trello boards, distributed logging, observability dashboards. Avoid systems that require constant synchronous attention or centralised knowledge bottlenecks. 7️⃣ Culture Is Explicit, Not Implicit High-performing remote teams share principles in writing: “We merge only green builds,” “We document before we ship,” “We pair when ownership overlaps.” Bottom line: Remote engineering success is built on process, ownership, tooling, and visibility, not on heroic effort or long hours. If your team is still treating async work like a co-located office, you’re leaving productivity and sanity on the table.

Cancel all recurring meetings. Seriously, all of them. Try it now. At Buffer we ran an experiment: A month without any recurring meetings. Zero. No daily standup's , or 'weekly check-ins', no cycle planning calls, or 1-1s. What could go wrong? Well, this experiment was so successful, that we've now been doing this for more than 2 years. 2 years operating the business without any recurring calls for anyone in the company. The best part? we've seen the best results financially in Buffer's history. The only recurring meeting for all Bufferoos is our monthly All Hands. A call that the entire company joins. But other than that, teams decide how often they need to meet. I am part of a team that has no recurring meetings. We've been operating this way since this new team was formed 6 months ago. Some of the benefits we've seen from doing this: - Productivity boost: A lot more time to focus for Engineers, Designers, and Product Managers. - A lot more time to conduct user research and dive deeper into data, design or coding. - Less context switching - Less meeting fatigue - More flexibility with your schedule (need to run a quick errand? no problem. Buffer is a values led company, high-trust, high-agency). - When we have calls, they are shorter and really well structured and productive. And, since we have few calls, everyone tends to be top of their game, fresh, creative and present. So, how do we do it? How do we make decisions? Coordinate and work together? (1) Strong documentation and writing-first culture: Writing is thinking. And we've put that to the test with great results. (2) We use great tools to document decisions and replace synchronous communication (calls) with asynchronous communication. At Buffer we use Campsite, Slack and Linear (shout-out to Linear for making amazing software for distributed teams). Each serves a different purpose. (3) We use AI to help us summarize calls and document things (Granola is what we are currently using, but we've also relied on Zoom's AI summaries). So, do we still have calls? We do. Calls are still important. Recurring calls are the problem. But, having an async culture, in which we document our thinking and decisions, actually makes our calls (when they happen) a lot more productive and focused. We meet when we see that async it will take too long to align or if something is not yet properly defined. We also meet to do brainstorming sessions or sessions in which real-time collaboration will be more efficient. We also meet to cook together, bond, and play games We are not at zero calls now. That was only during that first month of the experiment. But we have significantly lowered and shortened our calls. And whenever they happen they are 10X more productive and focused. As Paul Graham said once: "Meetings are a necessary evil. Necessary, but still evil. So there should be as few as possible, and they should be as short as possible". How much time did you spend in meetings last week?

Your best idea this quarter is trapped in an introvert's head. They'll never say it out loud. Not because they don't care. Because their brain won't let them. When you ask "Any thoughts?" in a meeting, an introvert's prefrontal cortex is still processing. The idea isn't ready yet. They need time to connect dots, test logic, refine language. But the meeting moves on. So they stay quiet. Then at 11 PM, they email you a three-paragraph idea that could save the quarter. This isn't shyness. It's neurobiology. Neuroscience shows introverted brains process information through longer neural pathways. More depth. More complexity. More time. Extroverted brains use short, fast pathways optimized for real-time response. Neither is better. But only one gets rewarded in most workplaces. Signs you're losing brilliant ideas from your introverts: → They nod in meetings but Slack you detailed thoughts later → They have a document of suggestions they've never sent → They rehearse what to say, then the moment passes → They speak up once, get interrupted, and go silent for weeks A few months ago, a friend CHRO told me her best engineer had a redesign idea that would cut production time by 30%. He'd been sitting on it for six months. Why? "I needed to be sure it would work before I brought it up." That's not a personality flaw. That's a system failure. Research-backed practices that unlock introvert contributions: ✅ Async idea submission – Let people submit written thoughts 24-48 hours before strategy sessions. Studies show async communication significantly reduces meeting fatigue. ✅ Silent meeting starts – Amazon begins meetings with 15-30 minutes of reading a written memo before discussion. It equalizes participation. ✅ Processing buffer time – Build in 3-5 minutes of silent reflection after presenting a question. Written or mental processing first, then sharing. ✅ Multiple input channels – Create written forums alongside verbal meetings. Many remote workers report better concentration with async options. ✅ Leader modeling – Amy Edmondson's research shows that when leaders share their own uncertainties first, it reduces interpersonal threat and increases team learning. My friend changed one practice with the engineer: async idea submission before strategy meetings. No performance. No live brainstorming. Just written thoughts reviewed ahead of time. Result: 3X more ideas surfaced. Half came from people who rarely spoke up. Psychological safety isn't just about speaking without fear of punishment. For introverts, it's about creating pathways that match how their brain actually works. What's one change you made that finally got your quietest team member to share their best idea? 💾 Save this & ♻️ share it with a leader who needs to hear this 📩 More introvert career insights in The A+Introvert Newsletter (link in my profile)

Why Daily Standups Devalue Deep Work 🧠⚡ Picture this: It's 9:15 AM. Sarah, my most senior engineer, is deep in flow—architecting a complex data pipeline that's been puzzling her for days. The solution is right there. Then Slack pings: "Daily standup in 5 minutes!" 💀 I used to think this was normal. "Just 15 minutes," I'd rationalize. But after ditching daily standups for async updates, my team's protected focus time soared 📈 Here's the brutal math I discovered: 💸The Hidden Cost of Standups: 15-minute standup becomes 30 minutes with context switching Junior developers lose 45 minutes of flow state recovering Senior engineers spend mental energy on status theater instead of architecture Sarah's breakthrough moment? Lost. Multiply that across 8 developers, 5 days a week. We were bleeding genius-level thinking for grocery-list updates. 📝My Async Alternative: Three-bullet async updates (what I did, what I'm doing, where I'm blocked) Weekly 30-minute sync for strategic alignment only Slack thread for urgent blockers (rare, but real) 🤯The Results Were Shocking: 67% reduction in daily interruptions Developers report deeper problem-solving sessions Actual collaboration increased (less performance, more substance) The best part? Sarah solved that data pipeline problem the next week. No interruptions. Pure focus. The solution was elegant. Something that never would have emerged in fragmented thinking time. The standup ritual assumes everyone needs the same information at the same time. That's rarely true. Most updates are irrelevant to most attendees. 🤷♂️ 🧠💎Your developers' brains are your most expensive asset. Treat them like it. Protect deep work by rethinking rote rituals. 🛡️ 💬 How do you guard focus in your team? Comment your tactics below. 👇 #DeepWork #EngineeringLeadership #AsynchronousWork #Teamwork