Lee Nazari on How to Build an Effective Remote Team

SWOOPOS is a truly global start-up. With social media in The States, sales in Birmingham, marketing in London and coding in India, we’ve become somewhat experts in how to communicate and trust people without sitting next to them. So we interviewed Lee Nazari, SWOOPOS founder and CEO, about his experiences building this global network.

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What gave you the idea of using a remote team for development?

SWOOPOS lives or dies by our ability to develop a better product than what is currently on the market. But as a lean start-up we knew from the beginning that this would not be feasible within our budget unless we looked beyond our own boarders. I've spent many years abroad and have a good grasp of the talent that has been offering it’s services to ‘us’ westerners for nearly 10 years now; so outsourcing our development work was a natural choice for me.

What were your initial concerns or worries when building your remote team?

Even with my experience and meticulous vetting process it was really important to me that I found a team who not only had the skillset on paper but who also understood my long-term vision for the business. Being able to find these people isn’t easy even when you’re working in the same office. I needed to recruit a team who would go the extra mile because they could see the potential in what we are building.

How did you go about finding a good team that you could trust?

All developers I work with have to pass two tests.

The first thing I look for in my new team members is how quickly they can not only understand my vision and concept but how well they can convey it back to me in their own words. If they can do this clearly and passionately it illustrates to me that they have an in-depth understanding of what we’re doing and, crucially, an ability to communicate this.

I also start by setting the team a small but challenging project as a test run. This test run allows me to confirm they deliver high quality work in a timely manner – ahead of me fully investing in the team.

Describe how you work with the team inIndia. What's your process?

Over the last 10 months my team and I have cultivated a fantastic line of communication. Six days a week I have at least a 2 hour Skype meeting with my development team in India, as well as constant chat communications throughout the day. We use Basecamp and Trello to help focus on certain modules or tasks and I also visit my guys inIndiaonce every three months. I strongly believe that regular, structured communication is absolutely crucial to success. I’m not saying it’s easy to manage but at the end of the day the product speaks for itself.

What are the main advantages to working this way?

My global team and I have worked tirelessly to build an amazing product and I put a lot of our successes to date down to having a remote team. To achieve all that we have in the UK would have cost upwards of £1,000,000 and would have taken double the time. Because of our global approach we are a fast, agile and scalable start-up and it’s safe to say without it we’d never be where we are now.

What advice would you give to someone just starting out and looking to outsource abroad?

I think following my two-stage vetting process is a good start. Also do plenty of research before you commit and establish a strong, constant channel of communication from the start.

SWOOPOS have actually also started to be approached to help manage development projects for other companies who have recognised our ability to combine the best of both worlds; outsourced development with western quality standards. So feel free to get in touch with the team and we'll be happy to help. With a team of over 400 developers at our disposal, we are perfectly positioned to help others to bridge that gap between uncertainty and building your dream business: sales@swoopos.com

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For more information about SWOOPOS please contact us on sales@swoopos.com