Director of Grasshopper Labs
I joined Grasshopper in 2009 as the Director of Grasshopper Labs. Our primary goal within Labs was to prototype and develop new tools and services that helped empower entrepreneurs and small businesses to succeed. If and when those tools and services matured beyond the prototype stage we were tasked with building a team to continue product development and beyond.
Remoteness
You'd think that brainstorming, idea generation sessions, rapid app prototyping, and continued product development requires an onsite team. In fact, the entire Labs teams is spread out across the globe. One of our developers is in Rio, the others are in every US timezone.
How do we get stuff done?
We get stuff done like any productive team does: we break down what needs to get done into the smallest chunks possible, plan an iteration, and split off (or even pair up) to get the work done. Being remote has very few disadvantages.
Tools & Techniques
Communication
We use Skype to talk. We avoid any sort of conference call solutions because you can't really hear someone. We need to hear the nuances of speech, the sighs, the enthusiasm. Anything that strips those subtleties reduces our ability to communicate. For this reason we also make sure we have good hardware. Good USB microphones, good headsets, good cameras.
We also use Campfire. Where Skype lets us talk immediately, Campfire lets us talk more passively. If something is said in Campfire, it's acceptable if I don't see it for an hour.
Project Planning
If we were onsite, we'd have a cork board with index cards. Instead, we use Pivotal Tracker. We meet weekly, break down features, chores, and bugs, and prioritize them. Every morning we have a 5 minute standup where we talk about what our plans for the day are.
Other Good Stuff
join.me is a great screen sharing service. Not just great - really great. It allows one of use to share our screen with everyone else on the team at the same time - no other app or service we've seen does it as well as join.me (if they even do it at all).