Things that are really hard to do when building a team

During the two years since the pandemic seriously limited travel, we have been able to grow one of our satellite development teams by three people. As anyone who has hired new talent or started a new job during the pandemic you will know that onboarding remotely is a challenge. 

We have always worked with small satellite teams and we are very good at remote working. However, there has always been time to meet up, get proper introductions, grab some dinner and share stories together. These are important aspects of building a strong team. There are some things you can’t do the same way remotely. 

This week we finally had the chance to visit one of our amazing satellite teams in Sarajevo. It was long overdue and we had a fully stacked schedule. Here are the main takeaways from physical meetings that are hard to replicate in a remote environment when you never have met before. 

• It is easier to be informal with someone you have a relationship with. These informal relationships save loads of time when working and are very hard to establish when you can't read body language. However, these things are very easy to create when you can talk informally over a dinner and hang out during some activity that is not directly work related. 
• Setting aside time to dig deep into passion projects. It’s hard to stay late over a beer and let the discussions run completely free for hours on end. This is unnatural to do in a remote setting. However, when you have a few days set aside with dinners and bar crawls planned these conversations happen naturally and great ideas seem endless. 
• Having Ćevapi is very tricky online and it’s a great idea, I wish everyone got a chance to try it!

Thanks to Softhouse for arranging an amazing couple of days in Sarajevo, see you again in 2022!