Wide Teams

Podcast #34: Ron Evans of The Hybrid Group

May 31, 12 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, Ron Evans of The Hybrid Group talks about being a part of a consultancy and the importance of reputation, balancing family and distributed work, and a wonderful project aimed at our youth to introduce them to coding at a young age and keep the Ruby community alive and thriving! Show Notes: Twitter: @deadprogram The Hybrid Group Kanban Pad The Kids Ruby Project Clutch 00:51 – Introduction 01:50 – Interview begins 02:05 – Ron’s background 04:05 – Sustainable development 04:38 – Communication practices 06:00 – Being extreme 06:40 – Tools 11:45 – Consultancies 14:10 – Building a remote culture 23:40 – History of The Hybrid Group 29:35 – Pair programming and when to do it 36:48 – Does agile development work? 38:30 – Family and distributed work 41:50 – The Kids Ruby Project

Podcast #33: Keith Casey of Blue Parabola

May 24, 12 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode, Keith Casey of Blue Parabola talks about managing a successful PHP company with a 100% distributed team, being a buffer zone between corporate and open-source worlds, and what mainstream companies look for in hiring remote workers. Show Notes: PHP Architect Web2Project CaseySoftware Twilio 02:06 – Keith Casey introduction and background 03:12 – History of Blue Parabola as a distributed team 04:20 – Blue Parabola 06:30 – A day in the life with Keith 08:22 – Useful tools 09:05 – Web 2 Project 13:45 – Ups and downs of working from home 14:38 – Communicating in person as a team 16:45 – PHP Community 19:20 – Advice for future dispersed teams

Podcast #32: Louis Font of Zyncro

May 16, 12 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode I talk to Louis Font of Zyncro. We talk about his internationally distributed team and how they, as a company, seek to be available to customers 24/7 no matter what time zone they are located in, solving communication gaps between businesses and social networks, and how important physical communication is in the world of remote work. Show Notes: ZyncroBlog Twitter: @zyncro Facebook 00:40 – Introduction 02:22 – Louis’ background 04:20 – Distributed team structure and background 09:08 – Challenges working distributed 10:30 – Cultural differences between team members 12:00 – Zyncro as a company 16:22 – Advice for distributed teams 17:20 – Future of distributed teams

Podcast #31: Joseph Moore of Pivotal Labs

May 9, 12 • In Featured, Interviews, Podcast

In this episode I talk to Joseph Moore of Pivotal Labs. We talk about the challenges of moving from a collocated team to being a “satellite team member” thousands of miles away. What’s especially interesting about Joseph’s story is that he still pair-programs all day, every day with other members of his team despite being remote. Show Notes: 00:55 – Introduce Joe 01:41 – Interview begins 01:58 – Joe’s background 04:50 – Pair Programming 06:55 – Pair Programming 100% of the time while remote 09:10 – Patience and Social Skills while Pairing 13:55 – Keyboard back & forth sharing 23:08 – Daily Pair Swapping 25:09 – Going from co located to remote (Joe’s experience) 27:18 – Daily Standups 32:01 – Daily check-ins with clients 33:56 – Social impact of going from co located to remote 36:40 – Advice for