Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category
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Podcast #32: Louis Font of Zyncro
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
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Podcast #31: Joseph Moore of Pivotal Labs
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
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Podcast #30: Dan Menard of Macadamian
A discussion with Dan Menard of Macadamian, covering the importance of taking the time to build personal relationships; the advantages of having a team that’s split across time zones, the practice of distributed code review, and much more! Announcements: Show notes: 03:15 – Dan’s background 04:02 – History with oversea startup 06:00 – Schedule Flexibility 07:28 – Importance of relationships 09:50 – Advantages of working with teams across time zones 12:00 – Tools 14:40 – Smartboard 17:06 – Code Review 19:00 – Adjustment to working with distributed teams 20:52 – Future of working with distributed teams 21:24 – Advice to distributed groups
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Podcast #29: John Hawkins of 9Seeds LLC
In this episode, an interview with John Hawkins, one of the founders of 9Seeds, a company that specializes in custom WordPress development. The 9Seeds team is fully dispersed, with every team member working from home. We talked about how 9Seeds came to be a distributed company, and why John intends never to set foot in a brick-and-mortar office again. Show notes: John Hawkins is @vegasgeek on Twitter 9Seeds LLC The Event Ticketing and Affiliate Manager WordPress plugins 9Seeds sponsors WordCamp conferences
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Podcast #28: Shane Pearlman of Shane & Peter
In this episode I talk to Shane Pearlman of Shane & Peter, a fully dispersed software consultancy. We talked about recruiting the right kinds of people for a distributed team, and how to stay connected as friends as well as coworkers. Show notes: Shane Pearlman is @justlikeair on Twitter Shane & Peter Check out the Shane & Peter Lifeblog Redmine Adium Coworking Freelance Camp
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Podcast #27: Susan Tenby & Jessica Dally of TechSoup
This podcast is a departure from the dispersed software development teams I usually cover. I interviewed Susan Tenby and Jessica Dally of TechSoup, a nonprofit focused on providing other nonprofits with the technology they need to better accomplish their missions. One way they assist nonprofits is in helping them to use Second Life, a massive on-line “virtual world”, to collaborate and build community online. I talked to Susan and Jessica about why TechSoup is a distributed organization, and why organizations are using Second Life to meet, network, and do their work. For someone who spends a lot of time doing remote collaboration, it was eye-opening for me to discover this whole new frontier of online interaction. After listening to this interview you may just be inspired to add a virtual world meeting space to your
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Podcast #26: Sahil Parikh of DeskAway.com
In this episode I talked to Sahil Parikh of DeskAway.com, a web-based collaboration tool for distributed teams. This is another episode recovered from near-disastrous technical malfunction, and as a result all of my audio has been re-dubbed. Thankfully, Sahil’s insights into he advantages of a dispersed team have been fully preserved. Show notes: Sahil Parikh is @sahilparikh on Twitter. Check out DeskAway at DeskAway.com / @deskaway
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Podcast #25: Jared Goralnick of AwayFind.com
The conventional wisdom says that while some distributed teams might work, it’s not possible to have a geographically dispersed software startup. With AwayFind.com, Jared Goralnick is challenging that wisdom. I talked to him about time management, establishing rapport in a distributed teams, and the advantages of remote workers for a startup. Show notes: Jared is @technotheory on Twitter, and blogs at Technotheory. AwayFind.com is a great service for avoiding email overload
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Podcast #24: Derek Wade
In this episode, a conversation with Derek Wade, a collaboration expert and Team Coach at Kumido Adaptive Systems. We talk about building “high-gravity” distributed teams, work-scapes, and the benefits of simple, free-form tools for collaboration. This episode is “back from the dead” — all of the audio from my side of the interview was lost, but I reconstructed and re-dubbed my questions so that I could share this interview. Show notes: Derek can be found at derekwwade.net, and is @derekwwade on Twitter. Slides for the presentation “High Gravity Distributed Teams“ The #lrnchat hashtag on Twitter I did a video demo of the Cardmeeting tool
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Podcast #23: Interview with Rob Dempsey of LifeOfTheFreelancer.com (Part 2 of 2)
Part two of a conversation between Rob Dempsey of LifeOfTheFreelancer.com and myself. In this part we dig into the intersection of freelancing and distributed teams: the phenomenon of ad-hoc teams composed of independent consultants who come together to work on a specific project. If you’re a freelancer trying to figure out how you can take on bigger jobs, you need to check out this episode. Show notes: Rob’s site is lifeofthefreelancer.com, @lifeofthefree on Twitter. Since this podcast was recorded, he also launched The Itinerant Entrepreneur. Shane & Peter is a web development consultancy that organizes teams of independent consultants to take on larger projects. We discussed using Campfire from 37Signals for team chat
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The Wide Teams Podcast
A weekly podcast featuring interviews with people who are making dispersed teams work day by day.
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