
Ask HN: What are the key processes for a remote-first company? - nicolasbistolfi
Any company needs processes, they are clearly more necessary for a remote-first company.<p>It&#x27;s important to be pragmatic and don&#x27;t over-design processes. I believe some companies take advantage of being remote to micro-manage or add extra layers of control over their employee&#x27;s work-life.<p>Besides that, there&#x27;s no point on generating extra information that no one will ever review or use to take action.<p>For me, key processes should focus on:
- Team communication
- Simple day to day reporting
- Self-management tools and goal-oriented thinking<p>I&#x27;ve learned a lot from Zapier&#x27;s guide but I think some stuff might be an overkill https:&#x2F;&#x2F;zapier.com&#x2F;learn&#x2F;remote-work&#x2F;<p>Here is a draft we are working on at my company
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.notion.so&#x2F;piio&#x2F;The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Work-at-Piio-fb3b341e30be454cba6cc760aee4103e
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mrwzy
> Hire people who are ok without a social workplace

>>> Local support system: If the only support system someone has is their work
one, then being in a remote environment will likely make them go crazy. You
need people who have outside support systems so they have people they can
interact with on a daily/weekly basis.

I found this really interesting. We've been a "remote first" company for about
2 years now, after being a non-remote company for the prior 3 years to this.
Initially, the feedback on remote was great from employees. However, more
recently the feedback from 1 on 1s is that "It's not as fun anymore", "I miss
the <buzz about the office> <going out for lunch> <random nights out> with
colleagues ", from certain people. I think these people fall into this
category of not having a strong social life / support group outside of
workmates.

~~~
nicolasbistolfi
Remote companies come with a redefinition of what a social workplace is and
how you get to know someone. In my past years, I've mostly worked remote and
still I think I know the people I've worked with very well.

Communicating regularly every day and doing things like online gaming or
company retreats can help to redefine social interactions.

The support system is really important, if you are remote it should mean that
you prefer to be close to your support system. If you are not, then something
is wrong and that's going to be a challenge.

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PopeDotNinja
A friend of mine said their engineering processes came from pooling their
knowledge about what sucked at other places. So maybe focus more on what not
to do?

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toper-centage
My main one as a remote worker of a non-remote company: don't leave your
remote workers out-of-the-loop of design or api changes. Documentation must
exist, APIs must be documented before implementation. I spent 1 month
implementing something that wasn't read. "just mock it" they said. Then the
mockers all became totally obsolete.

~~~
nicolasbistolfi
Completely agree! Being remote in a non-remote company is one of the hardest
things as those companies don't have procedures in place for keeping everyone
in the loop.

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octokatt
I would also go for having people post office hours -- hours when they can be
easily interrupted and answer questions.

This allows people to manage their energy and use their best time for deep
work, and allows people who need an answer to know when a good time will be to
virtually drop in and get an answer.

~~~
nicolasbistolfi
On the guide, we wrote we have by default ALLOW ANY, DENY SOME. If you are
online then you can be interrupted unless you set your status to the headphone
emoji.

Otherwise posting office hours may force the idea of how many office hours
each person is doing and that's not something we want to measure.

It depends on which things you need to measure based on the type of company
you have or you want. A D2C company clearly needs a fixed amount of office
hours where a SaaS company may not.

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sharma_pradeep
Like the buddy part. I can contribute to the list.

