What Still Matters About Distance?

Working in a geographically distributed product teams is increasingly common. Real time web technologies help deal with the many challenges. In this video Gary and Judy Olsen of the University of California at Irvine talk about what still matters about distance and prospects for the future.

The video is long. Salient points below:

• No overlap in timezones, means teams members need to meet face to face. Learn about each other socially. Thereafter even phone calls are more productive.
• Work needs bundling into local autonomous development, going back and forth to a head office on decision making ruins productivity.
• Some timezone overlap allows clarification of questions.
• Many vendors sell tools for working in distributed geographies, few vendors provide eduction on how to use the tools for distributed working.