Your remote teammates: How to stay sane if you have to work with people on the other side of the internet on a project

It was challenging. It was Sunday night, but, to be honest, it was 2:37 am on Monday, but we were still polishing the design of the PowerPoint we had to send before 6:00 am.

Did I want to quit? No, not for a moment.

Will we get to the semi-final? You should never lose the hope, right?

But it was an amazing experience.

I remember solving cases at work and many years back at University. I knew how to work with the process, I had all the people I need in the same room, or at least in the same place and we were communicating. A lot.

The brainstorming process would gather everyone in the same room and a whiteboard would stop being a whiteboard within a minute. Everyone is open and everyone is participating. No matter how challenging the task is, there is always somebody to talk to, to ask. And there is always someone who has an idea when you think you are finished.

I know how it works. I never encountered working remotely with a bunch of unknown to me people! Quite an experience!

I registered for this competition at the beginning of March. I did not have anyone who would like to participate in the English section of the challenge, but the rules stated the simple solution:

“Use out team-roulette option, and we will find your teammates, no hustle needed”

I liked this idea even though I did not know how exactly it is going to work.

The day X came and I, as a leader of the team received a letter with the names and emails of my teammates. Cool, right? I wrote them immediately, just to realize that two of them decided not to participate due to the lack of time.

They just quit. The day we received the case for solving. I was flabbergasted. I did not intend to win, but I really wanted to try my best in the competition and now I had no chance?

I had a nice chat with another mate I was teamed up with, and he said that he would ask around if anybody wants to participate… It was a long shot. Thank god we have social media! I found a few amazing guys almost immediately and once we settled into roles, we started working on the case.

While I was reading the materials I caught myself a few times that I wanted to express my ideas out loud. But I knew there was nobody else in the room with me. It was very unusual!

But we chatted. A lot! I would not put my phone down for first three days while we were getting the idea of what exactly we were supposed to do. And we had a few Skype-sessions, of course.

Did we manage it to the end? Oh, yes, we did!

I want to showcase our work because we did really put a lot of effort here. I cannot even say that somebody was especially good. No. Everyone has pulled enough weight, and I guess, this is the part I am so proud of.

We had to talk at night, saying:

“God, I am completely confused, can you help me?”

And we would google it together and wait until it hits us.

Did we do our best? I guess we did. I wish we had had more time. But…

I am glad that I took part in it!

And I found a few aspects that make the team working really good, even if you are remote and even if you have never met before in your life. I can even say that this makes it even better.

1. Keep it simple. Do not try to communicate too much, taking the lead, but also, do not be shy and stay away from others talking about stuff. If you do not know what to say, think of the questions you may ask. When they guys were working on the financial model, I had to ask a lot of questions! And they were glad to explain me the stuff I did not know!

2. Do not try to be the only one person taking all the responsibilities. Nobody needs it. Simple truth.

3. Do not criticize when brainstorming. It is really difficult to brainstorm in one room, but when you have to do this online… No criticism is allowed. Just write everything down and eliminate what you do not like after.

4. Share the effort. It was important. If we all kept working on the same problem we would not go farther than the first slide. Once you decide what is important, share it with teammates so everyone can work individually

5. Compare the results. Yes, you need to see that everyone goes the right direction. But more importantly, another person may have a great idea you have not thought of in your solution!

6. Be a human. No matter how far away you are all and how unqualified your team members (in your opinion) can be, never stop being a human. Even if you are not in the same room, it does not mean you can be a jerk.

I liked working with guys! And I am happy to showcase our work.

Have you ever had an experience where you had to work remotely with a team you have not met before?