Remote: Office Not Required

by David Heinemeier Hansson

The big transition with a distributed workforce is going from synchronous to asynchronous collaboration. Not only do we not have to be in the same spot to work together, we also don’t have to work at the same time to work together.

This works just as well for asynchronous collaboration in slow time. When someone wants to demonstrate a new feature they’re working on at 37signals, often the easiest way is to record a screencast and narrate the experience. A screencast is basically just a recording of your screen that others can play back later as a movie. It can be used in several ways, including for presenting the latest sales figures or elaborating on a new marketing strategy. And if you’re shaking your head right now bemoaning your lack of tech savvy, rest assured: this isn’t just for techies—it’s incredibly easy to do. On a Mac, screencast capability is built in: just start the QuickTime Player and select “New Screen Recording.” Show what you want to show, narrate the experience using the computer’s microphone, and voilà, everyone will be on the same page about what you’ve been working on. Don’t worry about trying to make it perfect, either. Screencasts can easily turn into a time suck if you try to make them Oscar-worthy or without a single mistake. Just let the tape roll and it’ll be more than “good enough.”