The world has entered a new and unusual time. People are experiencing ways of working that are, sometimes, entirely outside their experience. I’ve been fortunate in that my work for the last ten years has been predicated on being remote and coordinating with a variety of people who may or may not themselves be remote workers. What’s new for so many people is a typical day in my dining nook/office.
While on the one hand, being remote isn’t that hard, there are definitely some tips and tricks to make it easier on everyone involved. There are a number of blogs and webinars out there on how to motivate and develop leadership skills in this new model of working; I want to focus for a moment purely on the tools and tips for using the tools that will let you work with others. It’s one thing to say “build your team by giving people a few moments to check in at the start of the call” but if you and your participants don’t know the basics of conference call etiquette or how to use your tools to best effect, then you’re not going to get very far.
So here’s what I’ve found to be the basics of remote project management. This is geared towards people who are very new to this space; if people who have been doing this for a while also find pieces of it useful, then yay! If there is enough interest, I’m happy to put together a 201 and maybe even a 301 level deck to get further into the details of what I’ve seen work for managing projects remotely.
There’s a PowerPoint and PDF version attached. I’ve slapped on a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license, which means:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
If you find these useful, or if you have other suggestions, please add a comment and let me know!