There's been some heated discussion about remote teams as of late. So we're going to focus on helping you with one of the most important aspects of working as a remote dev team: tools. We've combined Leanstack data on these services with insight from highly successful remote teams (and some new startups) about why they use each tool.
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Reply to an evening email reminder with what you did that day. The next day, get a digest with what everyone on the team got done. Learn More
Used by the remote team at
It allows us to track performance, which easily gets lost in a chat room or an in-person standup. If new people come on board, they can look through and see what has been worked on. And of course, it’s amazing to keep in sync with everyone, working as a remote team. iDoneThis is invaluable to us and has changed our productivity for the better...It’s a way to understand what teammates are working on, and every time I read people’s iDoneThis, I feel connected with the team.- Inside a Completely Transparent CompanyAlso used by Mozilla, Foursquare, Twitter, Uber, Heroku, and a handful of others. |
Buffer
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Draft is a streamlined online word processor with version control. Features include: Transcription Tools, Copy-editing, Publishing, Markdown Todos, WebHooks, Analytics, Comments and more. Learn More
Used by the remote team at
You're bound to do a lot of writing at any company you work for. At Zapier, it's no different. Whether it's a blog post, an important email, copy for the site, or documentation for the product it's important that we put a lot of effort into crafting our words. Draft is like GitHub, except for writing. Draft lets you easily version your post and then get feedback from teammates asynchronously.- 21 Months In: How to Manage a Remote Team |
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Sqwiggle is a persistent online workplace for your remote team to work together throughout the day. Learn More
Used by the remote team
Since discovering Sqwiggle, it’s like we found the missing part of Skype. Having the ‘freeze frame’ image of your team seemed like a total gimmick at first — until we started using it. Seeing the people you’re working with, laughing when you see them spill coffee down themselves, commenting on their latest hair cut… these are social interactions that slowly build natural social bonds over time. A much more experienced reader in sociology or psychology could put the proper theory to this argument, but trust me, it has an effect. Also, Sqwiggle has the advantage of jumping into instant conversations (very different to ringing for a phone call) which mimics the real world effect of being in an office. You don’t shout across the office and ask permission to talk to someone, you just walk over and start talking.- Remote Working Policy At Trak.io |
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Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process. Learn More
Used by the remote team at
We’re now using Trello for all our company projects. We switched from Asana because Trello is more visual and it’s a little easier to see how things are progressing. They’re both great tools - we just found the left-to-right kanban-style layout of Trello very easy to parse quickly. Each card is an atomic todo and you can see it moving through various stages to completion.- How I Manage 40 People Remotely |
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Campfire is like instant messaging, but designed exclusively for groups. Share text, files, and code in real time. Save transcripts so you don’t forget. Learn More
Used by the remote team at
GitHub didn't have an office for the first two years. Chat rooms (in our case, Campfire) is where things got done.- How GitHub Works |
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HipChat is a hosted private chat service for your company or team. Invite colleagues to share ideas and files in persistent group chat rooms. Get your team off AIM, Google Talk, and Skype — HipChat was built for business. Learn More
Used by the remote team at
The best group chat software we’ve tried, HipChat lets us create private rooms where our various teams can communicate in real-time. It’s simple to search and refer back to previous conversations, and everyone stays on the same page.- 3 Reasons Why Our Startup Embraces Remote Working |
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Hangouts bring conversations to life with photos, emoji, and even group video calls for free. Connect with coworkers across computers, Android and Apple devices. Learn More
Used by the remote team at
Google hangouts are the lifeblood of our organization. If you haven’t tried them for video chat, you’re living in the Stone Age. We have persistent hangouts for every team available at URLs that everyone knows. We spin up one-off hangouts for quick video chats. We use them for meetings, for hanging out (no, seriously), for demos, for teaching… for everything. There really is no substitute for face-to-face conversations, and when you get to the point where people in the office are actually preferring hangouts to talking in-person because it’s easier, you know you’re on to something.- Why We (Still) Believe in Working Remotely |
