Ask HN: How to get a small team off the ground remotely?

[dynamic99]

A group of friends and I won a pitch contest at our university and decided we want to pursue the idea and try to start development. However, break just started and I am struggling to decide what the best way to organize the team/get started is, especially considering we are all over the US for the month.

[DoreenMichele]

You need a cloud based means to communicate and also a cloud based means to start working on the project. There are various tools for doing that and you might go through a few before you find a good fit.

For collaborating remotely, I use a lot of email, shared google docs, private blogspot blogs where I can invite other authors and even Twitter. Of course, Slack, Trello, Github and other tools are popular in the development community. If possible, use something familiar. Trying to learn a new tool can be a project in its own right. If it isn't critical to the success of the project, don't do it. It just becomes a means to procrastinate.

If you have nothing, start with a design doc. If there are no roles assigned yet, take the initiative. Set up a file, start a Google group or a Slack channel, list goals and start hashing out who needs to do what.

You need a central repository. It does not have to be fancy. As your project grows, layers of organization can be added as the need for such becomes clear.

Just start. No more excuses. Expect the first attempt to be ugly, bad and stupid. Do it anyway.

Best.

[SirLJ]

Communicate! I am managing a team of highly qualified employees across the country and I have booked every Wednesday from 2pm to 4 pm or more to discuss not only work related items, but life , universe and everything... this really creates a good bond in the team , so I would suggest do it even once a day if needed...

OR just enjoy the vacation for a month and start when everyone is back, some people just cannot be trusted to step up and work unsupervised unfortunately...

[hawksy]

The following has worked marvellously for me. More than half of my team is remote: 1) Sync up once in a day - at a fixed time - for a fixed duration, with a clear agenda for every one to tell their plan for the day. 2) At EOD every body share a two liner update on Asana.

[Sevii]

Gitlab/Github, slack and Skype or hangouts. These are the tools I use everyday to handle coworkers in other offices on my projects.