Remote engineering isn't new anymore. We've had years to figure out what works and what doesn't. The debate about whether remote is viable is over; the question now is how to do it well.
I've worked with distributed teams before remote was common, through the forced experiment of the pandemic, and in the hybrid aftermath. The teams that thrive share certain characteristics. The ones that struggle make the same mistakes. Here's what I've learned.
The Fundamentals Still Apply
Remote work doesn't change what makes engineering teams effective. Clear goals, good processes, skilled people, and healthy culture matter just as much. What changes is how you achieve these things.
In an office, you get some things for free. Information spreads through hallway conversations. You can see when someone looks confused or frustrated. Onboarding happens through osmosis. Remote requires making these things explicit, which is actually often better even when it's more work.
Communication Is Everything
The biggest difference in remote work is communication. In person, bandwidth is high and friction is low. Remote, the opposite is true. Adapting requires intentional changes.
Write more than you think you need to. Decisions should be documented. Context should be written down. The bias should be toward over-communication. If people don't know something important, it's usually because nobody wrote it down, not because they weren't paying attention. These practices are essential for building a generative engineering culture in distributed teams.
Async first, sync when needed. Not everything needs a meeting. Thoughtful written communication often produces better outcomes than real-time discussion, and it leaves a record. Reserve synchronous time for things that genuinely benefit from real-time interaction: brainstorming, relationship building, complex decisions.
Create overlap deliberately. When people span timezones, there may be limited hours when everyone is available. Use that time wisely. Meetings should be scheduled in overlap windows. Off-hours communication should be truly async, not expecting immediate responses.
Be explicit about urgency. In an office, you can see when someone needs you urgently. Remote, everything can feel equally (non-)urgent. Have clear ways to signal "this can wait" versus "I need you now." Protect focus time by defaulting to async unless something genuinely requires interruption.
Meetings Need Purpose
Remote meetings are more draining than in-person meetings. There's a reason "Zoom fatigue" became a phrase. This makes meeting discipline even more important.
Fewer, shorter, more focused. Every meeting should have a clear purpose. If you can't articulate what the meeting is supposed to accomplish, don't have it. If you can accomplish the purpose in a document, do that instead.
Cameras matter more than you think. Seeing faces improves connection and catches non-verbal signals. It's not always necessary, but for important conversations, video helps. This also means keeping meetings short enough that camera fatigue doesn't set in.
Record decisions and actions. The person who wasn't in the meeting needs to know what was decided. The person who forgets needs a record. Every meeting should produce notes with decisions and action items clearly called out.
Protect meeting-free time. Engineers need long blocks of uninterrupted time. Scattering meetings throughout the day destroys productivity. Batch meetings into specific windows; protect the rest for deep work.
Building Culture Without Physical Presence
Culture doesn't happen accidentally in remote teams. The water cooler conversations, the lunch outings, the casual interactions that build relationships don't have natural equivalents. You have to create them.
Deliberate social time. Virtual coffee chats, team social calls, non-work channels in chat. These feel artificial because they are, but they serve a real purpose. Relationships built in these spaces carry over to work conversations.
In-person gatherings occasionally. Fully remote teams benefit enormously from periodic in-person time. Quarterly or annual team gatherings create connection that sustains through months of remote work. The investment is worth it.
Onboarding with intention. New hires in remote environments need deliberate introduction to the team, the culture, and the work. Buddy systems, structured onboarding programs, and early 1-on-1s with team members help. Don't assume new people will figure things out; create the conditions for them to succeed.
Visibility into work and wins. When you can't see what teammates are doing, it's easy to become isolated. Create ways to share work: demo sessions, written updates, internal blogs. Celebrate wins publicly so everyone knows what's happening across the team.
Managing Performance Remotely
Some managers struggle with performance management when they can't see people working. This reveals that they were measuring presence rather than output all along.
Focus on outcomes. What someone delivers matters more than when or how they deliver it. Set clear expectations, provide necessary resources, and evaluate based on results. Hours worked is not the metric that matters.
More frequent check-ins. Weekly 1-on-1s become more important when you don't have casual visibility into how someone is doing. Use these to understand challenges, provide support, and stay connected to their work.
Create visibility proactively. Engineers who do great work but don't communicate about it become invisible in remote settings. Encourage people to share their work. Make visibility a norm, not self-promotion.
Watch for isolation. Some people struggle with remote work. Watch for signs: missed meetings, reduced participation, declining output. Address early rather than waiting for problems to compound.
What Remote Does Better
Remote isn't just in-person with more friction. Some things are actually better:
Hiring from anywhere. Your talent pool expands massively when location doesn't matter. You can hire the best person for the role regardless of where they live.
Fewer interruptions. No drive-bys, no "quick questions" that derail focus. When async is the default, engineers get more uninterrupted time than they typically get in offices.
Better documentation. Because things have to be written down to work remotely, remote teams often have better documentation than in-person ones. This helps with onboarding, knowledge transfer, and organizational memory.
More equitable participation. In-person meetings favor the loudest voices and the people physically closest to power. Remote meetings and written communication can be more inclusive if you design for it.
Making It Work
Remote engineering works well when teams invest in the infrastructure that makes it work: strong written communication, deliberate synchronous time, intentional culture building, and outcomes-focused management.
It doesn't work well when teams try to recreate the office remotely: constant video calls, surveillance-style monitoring, and assuming information will spread naturally. The teams that struggle usually haven't adapted to what remote requires.
The future is probably neither fully remote nor fully in-person for most companies. It's finding the right balance for your team, with clear norms and the infrastructure to make whatever model you choose work well.
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