Remote Working Approaches That Worked (And Some That Didn’t)

C4 Media, the company behind InfoQ and QCon, is the second all remote company I’ve worked at, but the first one where I felt that remote working genuinely works as well as it would if the team was co-located. Drawing on these personal experiences, and also on discussions with a number of friends working remotely, I want to share some lessons I’ve learned so you can spot common pitfalls and avoid them.

We’ll look at topics including:

• How to decide if remote working is right for you
• Common pitfalls of remote working and mitigations you can take to avoid them
• Specific techniques for managing remote teams
• How C4 Media creates a shared sense of purpose with an all-remote workforce

While primarily aimed at remote workers and managers, I hope the talk will also contain helpful advice for anyone in a management/leadership role, even if you aren’t dealing with an entirely remote team. Although I think that remote working amplifies some challenges, many of these exist in non-remote environments too.