Maria Gutierrez - A Clear-Eyed Look at Distributed Teams

A clear-eyed look at DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

HELLOmy name is

María Gutiérrez VP Engineering @ FreeAgent

@mariagutierrez

A clear-eyed look at DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

HELLOmy name is

María Gutiérrez VP Engineering @ FreeAgent

@mariagutierrez

“How did I freelance for 10 yrs

without @freeagent?

Bookkeeping a breeze, auto

invoice chasing and my support

email answered in 32 minutes”

@tomcopy

Committed to build a DIVERSE, HIGH PERFORMING,

AND HAPPY TEAM

1/3 engineers

WFH

2000

2000 2001

2000 2001 2004

2000 2001 2004 2008

2000 2001 2004 2008 2011

~180 e

nginee

rs

worldw

ide

~80 in

my team

DC, Portland, Boulder, All over the US, Scotland, India, Australia, Brazil

I was working

from my house

in Scotland for ~5years

Travel

ling to

DC

or oth

er off

ices

once a

quart

er

2000 2001 2004 2008 2011 2016

MIKAELA

NOGLE DEJLIGE GADE

ODENSE

DENMARK

DEAR MIKAELA,

THE WEATHER IS FAB AND WE ARE HAVING AN AMAZINGTIME ON HOLIDAY.CAN’T WAIT TO SHOW YOUALL THE PHOTOS!

LOVE, MARIA

BARCELONA10 JUNE 92

Show your

COMMITMENT

CRITICAL MASS Avoid snowflakes

Break through

GLASS CEILINGS

Treat on-site and remote

FAIRLY NOT EQUALLY

@mariagutierrez

Communicate

INTENTIONALLY

Patrick Lencioni, “Five dysfunctions of a team”

COLLABORATE daily to build trust

being visible being honest and open being responsive delivering being consistent

SHOW YOUR WORK

ETIQUETTE Permission to play values

WATCH THE WORK not the worker

DO YOUR HOMEWORK Budget, law, expectations

Strengthens your company

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

Angela

Senior

Softw

are

Engine

er

Staffo

rdshir

e

1 mont

h

Thomas

Head o

f

Infras

tructu

re

Cambri

dge

6.5 ye

ars

Anup

Mobile T

eam Le

ad

Sutton

4 year

s

Eva

Softw

are

Engine

er

Edinbur

gh

1.5 ye

ars

“I rarely think about looking for a

job at another company”

“I see myself still working at

FreeAgent in two years time”

“My manager genuinely cares

about my wellbeing”

BE INTENTIONAL

srsly!

THANKS!@mariagutierrez

I’ve got Winston stickers, come and say “Hi!”

Illustrations by the amazing FreeAgent designers