Best practices to setup overseas teams for success
This post is a continuation of last week’s which addressed why I view hiring overseas as a necessity for startups, especially in a non-ZIRP environment. Hiring engineers overseas can be challenging, but the challenges will pale to enabling these engineers to succeed. In this post, I cover some of the best practices and lesson learned, sometimes the hard way, that I developed over the years.
Structured, and in person, onboarding
Onboarding is a critical step in setting up remote teams for success, as it lays the foundation for new employees' understanding of the company, its culture, processes, and expectations. The onboarding process should be comprehensive and structured to cover all the necessary areas over a span of weeks or even months. It’s important to provide thorough training in the specific tools and technologies that the company uses for communication, project management, and collaboration. This not only equips new hires with the necessary skills but also ensures they are comfortable navigating the digital landscape of their new workplace.
I have found that the most effective manner to onboard new overseas engineers (or any engineer for that matter) is to staff a team comprised of new + existing team members to work together on a feature. Now, obviously for an overseas team that is challenging due to timezone differences. The best way to onboard these first new engineers on an overseas team is in -person. Fly some people from your current team to spend at least one week, two is even better, to work together on small features.
I can’t stress that point enough. Invest in onboarding your overseas new hires, especially the very first ones. Those must be done in person
Fostering a sense of belonging
Imagine a team scattered across different geographies yet feeling right at the heart of the organization. This feeling of belonging is crucial for overseas teams, and it can be achieved through thoughtful interactions with senior leadership and the remainder of the team at large. One of the most impactful tactics I have developed over the years to foster that sense of belong is in-person visits. You should make it a recurring habit to visit your overseas teams and vice versa. I usually try and visit overseas teams once every quarter. My visit could be aligned to a new project launch, the hiring of new members of the team, or for no reason other than visiting the team.
In the same vein, these visits aren’t a one-way street. Remote team members should also have opportunities to travel to the company’s main offices. Such visits allow them to connect personally with the core team, gain insights into the broader business operations, and bring back valuable knowledge and enthusiasm to their remote bases. Through these reciprocal visits, a bridge is built that integrates the remote team more deeply into the company’s ecosystem.
Meaningful and impactful work
When I build overseas teams, I build them with the intent that they are part and parcel of the broader team. That in turn implies that they will be working, alongside the rest of the organization on high impact work. When an overseas team knows that their work directly contributes to the company’s success, their engagement and motivation soar. This strategy not only enhances productivity but also embeds a strong sense of purpose within the team.
Additionally for overseas teams to truly excel, they need to have ownership of their projects. This means that they manage the majority of the decision-making processes, steering their projects towards success with minimal external interference. Such autonomy empowers the team, fostering a proactive attitude and a sense of pride in their contributions.
It is imperative to structure these projects so that they do not require constant coordination with teams in significantly different time zones. This autonomy in scheduling and decision-making avoids the inefficiencies of waiting for responses and approvals, thus maintaining a smooth workflow and keeping the team focused and productive.
If you find yourself constantly on Zooms very early or late in your day, you’re doing this wrong.
Aside from the practices mentioned earlier, there are a few tactical ones that should not be omitted
Communication: Invest in tools like Slack, Zoom that can facilitate synchronous forms of communication
Equipment: Make sure your overseas teams have access to the same set of equipment (laptops, cloud resources..etc) as the remainder of the organization and invest in break/fix too; laptops will break and need repairs or replacements.
Feedback and 1:1s: Just because your hired overseas employees doesn’t mean you should not invest in their well-being and personal development.
I’ve hired overseas software developers in South America, Asia, Europe and Canada (strictly speaking not overseas). These practices have been essential in fostering a sense of belonging for the overseas employees and have been crucial in developing motivated and highly engaged teams, irrespective of where they are located.
On a different note, my good friend and ex-colleague
started his own Substack. Ben brings a wealth of product management experience building enterprise-grad infrastructure software. Highly recommend!