Remote Working and Collaboration

Jan 312011

: Image via CrunchBase

For the last few months I have had a project on the go that is coming along nicely. (See a post here about I love it when a plan comes together) Bit by bit the kernel of an idea is beginning to take shape and prosper. However we have had certain challenges along the way because the three people working on the project live in total 700 km apart and we are working on projects that require input from Australia, the States and the UK amongst others.

Is it too bold? We will eventually see but last week saw the next stage of the project and we were seperated by even more space with one of us being in San Diego.

So what has been the major impulse to the project and when has it waned?

Firstly, whenever we keep up a regular set of Skype meetings with action plans before the next one and deadlines then we move forward greatly. When we let things lapse for a week or so until the next meeting things go a lot slower of course. This may seem obvious but getting a meeting organised virtually every day, staying on topic when there are hundreds of ideas bubbling up all over the place and doing the necessary steps despite us all having full time occupations can be challenging.

We have our calls round midday when any self respecting person living in Spain should really be having a siesta and we continue to follow our mentoring calls in the middle of the night along with studying the market and more for the project we are doing.

Now before starting this project I had a full time job which I still have. Therefore how have we managed to fit in the time to get this done. Sheer willpower. When you know something has potential, that something is working, that there is synergy in the team and it has huge long term benefits in so many ways then you make the sacrifices necessary to get it done.

We now know that the project will go live in October probably and it will be huge, for us at least. We know it is initially a two year commitment followed by the possibility of much more so it must be worth it otherwise why do it?

In order to take it forward we are using a few tools for collaboration. Skype conference call is the first. Obviously all of our conference calls are recorded for future reference if needed and for that we use Call Recorder (It costs $20 but is worth it Not an aff link). We then use Dropbox which is the ultimate cloud based solution for putting up mad ideas and work so that everyone can see it immediately. Finally we are findng that email is rather unworkable as I am useless at making sure I respond on topic to the mails so we are looking at other possibilities there. I think we might be starting to use Basecamp to keep on top of the project very soon.

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