Episode #48: Kevin Old of DicomGrid

Kevin Old, of DicomGrid, talks about the concept of “think time,” his theories on people solving problems subconsciously, and the importance of trusting other team members and talking things out as a group.

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Show Notes:

Twitter: @kevinold
kevinold.com

00:44 – Kevin Old Introduction & Background

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• Software engineer of 16 years
• Self-taught in Perl
• Graduated to JavaScript & Ruby
• Family situations led him to try working remotely
• Has worked remotely now for 5 years

02:15 – Benefits of remote work

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• Freedom
• Work/life balance
• Ability to walk away from a problem
• “Think Time”
• Ability to slow down
• Ability to work at your own leisure

07:20 – A typical day

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• Things happen in the morning that you react to in the afternoon
• Solving problems subconsciously
• Working at times that you are at your best

11:40 – Working remotely for DicomGrid

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• Familiar faces + new folks
• Based in Phoenix, AZ
• Health Care industry

14:00 – Communication setup

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• Trello
• Asynchronous culture
• Skype
• Lessons learned from previous companies

17:30 – Collaboration

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• Customer-driven requests
• Idea board
• Bugs
• List of features

20:00 – Remote culture

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• Cutting ties when things aren’t working out
• Talking things out as a group
• Trusting the team

24:30 – Building trust

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• Navigation of tough situations
• There are no magic team-building activities

27:18 – Bringing someone on board a remote team

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• Mentorship
• Going through “seasons”

33:30 – Advice for distributed teams

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• If you’re stuck on a problem, revisit it later

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