Alexandra Sunderland - Remote Engineering Management: Managing an Engineering Team in a Remote-First World

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Back in 2012, I got my first ever job as a programmer at a local startup in Ottawa called Fluidware , which built the online survey software FluidSurveys. I was absolutely thrilled, but there was only one problem: I was going to be moving out of town in a few months. I took a chance and asked if I could continue working for the company remotely, something practically unheard of at the time, and to my surprise they said yes! This was back before Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, and all the remote-friendly tools and services that we rely on so heavily nowadays existed. We communicated over Google Chat, phone calls, and email threads.

That early introduction to the world of remote work was just the start. After a while, the company was acquired by SurveyMonkey, where I continued to work remotely and traveled to their international offices from time to time, even working in person full time for a while. In 2018, I rejoined the cofounders of Fluidware who had started a new company, Fellow (a meeting management platform), as the twelfth employee, fifth software engineer, and first remote member. Even though I had worked remotely for companies for seven years already, there was skepticism that being remote would actually work outand for a while, it was tough. Startups dont have the same resources as large companies, which meant that the meeting rooms didnt have videoconferencing hardware, and everyone had to remember to call me from their laptops so I could join in on discussions. For town hall meetings with the whole company, I was dialled into a laptop which was placed on a chair, as if I were there sitting in the audience with everyone else. It was tricky being the only one, but we made it work.

Fast forward to today, all of Fellow is now operating fully remotely, and were stronger than ever for it. Being a remote-first company has allowed us to hire across the world, and creates a more level-playing field for everyone: no longer does anyone have to join meetings from a laptop on a chair in a room with poor acoustics! In that time, my role has evolved from Software Engineer to Senior Engineering Manager, where I lead three incredible engineering teams. That growth and the variety of remote experiences that Ive had over the years has allowed me to learn a lot about how teams function, and how they differ in operation when working in an office together as opposed to working remotelywith a healthy dash of experimentation to test the boundaries of collaboration.

This book is a collection of the best practices, thoughts, and insights that I have put together throughout the last ten years of working remotely. Many of the concepts Ive written about in blog posts and articles, given conference talks on, and created internal guides around within Fellow, but I felt that they deserved to all live together in one single spot that anyone could access. Much of it is based on the many, many mistakes that Ive made throughout this whole time. My hope is that other engineering managers who are leading remote teams use this book as a resource that will help them skip over those same mistakes, and lead with a thoughtful and people-first approach .

While the topics themselves arent specific to remote work, each chapter explains why the remote version is different than the in-person version, and what an engineering manager should do to adapt how they lead to better suit the remote environment. Ill cover topics that arent often discussed elsewhere, like the remote-specific biases that are introduced when hiring, or why remote one-on-ones are actually better than those done in person. Each chapter can stand on its own and be referred back to as needed, but together creates a full picture of how to be a strong remote leader.

And even if your team is not working remotely, or is considering making the switch from remote to office based or hybrid, I hope that you still find the lessons in this book around communication, leadership, and teamwork helpful to your management journey. Because no matter where or how work happens, teams always deserve to have the best and most thoughtful version of their manager.

To my brother Nicholas, who read through every chapter that I sent his way; thank you for helping me shape this book into something that Im proud of. Thank you to my parents Deirdre and Jamie, my sister Rebecca, my Oma, and my Grandpa Mark for always cheering me on and always being as excited as I was about this.

Thank you to Anarosa for asking me to be her writing accountability buddy for NaNoWriMo and for the constant encouragement; I wouldnt have ever started writing this if it werent for her. Thank you also to Laura, Anna, Sarah, and Manuela for always celebrating the highs with me and being there for the lows.

To the entire team at Fellow, who cheered me on throughout this process and always checked in, thank you so much! Everyone asking me how the writing is going meant more than you know. Special thanks to Sam and Aydin who gave valuable feedback on early chapters and made space for me to work on this.

And, of course, thank you to Colin who has always believed in me and has been encouraging me to write a book for the last few years. He kept me caffeinated and on track, gave me the confidence that I didnt always have, and celebrated every little win with me. His constant support means the world.