In the course of building Tandem, we've interviewed hundreds of remote teams, from small startups to big enterprises. A lot has been written about the remote transition, and we don't want to add noise to the signal, so instead we've collected what we believe are the most helpful resources, with commentary on how to get the most out of them.

Mindset

Fear is normal. Leaders are often afraid their team will not be accountable. That's usually not the case. Other common worries are indeed legitimate: lower communication and difficulty building culture and trust. These are real challenges with remote work, and you'll need to figure out solutions working with your team.

Expect a shift. You'll need to spend time adopting new tools, defining new norms and processes, but know that your company will be stronger for it.

Translation, not transcription

Instead of trying to recreate everything you miss from the office, look for different ways to fulfill the same function.

For example, lunchtime conversations are great for team bonding, but they're difficult to coordinate remotely (and it's awkward to eat on a video chat). Instead of trying to recreate lunchtime, look for online games to play together, or schedule "happy hour" events, where people grab a beer and chat freely.

The "2-minute hallway conversation" has no direct analogy online, but you can create a water cooler Tandem room (or approximate this with your video chat tool of choice) where people can drop in for a quick hello.

Whiteboard brainstorms are maybe the hardest to recreate, for reasons that still intrigue us. You might try a tool like Miro or Envision. Alternatively, you could have a Tandem call with Figma, and if you teach everyone basic Figma shortcuts, you can quickly get to a skill level where it becomes as powerful as a whiteboard. (Our very own @Bernat Fortet created a free game to teach you Figma called Figma Ninja).

Practices

Think about both synchronous communication (talking, video-chatting, presenting, screen-sharing, collaborating in real-time), and asynchronous communication (text chat, email, documents, project management).

Sync:

• Get a virtual office, whether it's Tandem, or a persistent video call on your tool of choice. It's important to have something that's always-connected, to help your team talk.
• Schedule online meetings and make sure everyone has good meeting hardware (headphones with a good mic).
• If you're used to talking spontaneously and not scheduling meetings, you may want to try over-scheduling, at least for a transition period.

Here's a guide we wrote on building trust in remote teams, with some suggestions:

How to build psychological safety in your remote team (Part I)