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Successful onboarding is challenging when it’s done in person. It becomes exponentially more difficult when the new teammate is remote. Successful remote onboarding requires a structured approach. We’ve created a recipe that works at Surge and Catalyte that has helped us grow from 40 people to more than 700 in six offices, with a network of hundreds of fully remote software engineers. Our contractors routinely onboard and roll off from projects as remote technical specialists. Having proven remote onboarding strategies helps increase the rate of initial productivity in any business environment, allows engineers to focus on building software, enables HR…

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A remote workforce has advantages for talent selection (no geographic restrictions), productivity (work from anywhere) and reduced overhead (no office space). But maintaining a cohesive company culture with a remote workforce can be more difficult with the lack of in-person interaction, need to build trust at a distance, communications challenges and absentee managers. Tom Iler, Chief Product Officer for Surge and Catalyte, shares advice on how to maintain a cohesive company culture regardless of where your workers are located. In this podcast he discusses: Building trust, on both employer and employee side Monitoring outcomes, not activities Having the right tools…

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COVID-19 has thrust all of us into uncharted territory. Many businesses are following the advice of public health officials and having their entire workforces operate remotely. Some for the first time. This can be a difficult transition. From technologies, to corporate and interpersonal communications, remote working has its challenges. Surge has navigated these challenges for over a decade. Here are a few quick and easy pointers to make this transition easier. Treat All Workers the Same Never treat remote and office-based developers differently. There should be the same accountability, same hours and the same oversight for remote and in-office workers.…

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The typical American today is born into technology. A handheld or laptop is ubiquitous even in junior high school. As the connected generation matures, the idea that we need professionals to tell us how an application should work may seem like an unnecessary expense. However, there is an incredible gap between what an application should do and how it should do it. Every custom application ever built will provide its own user experience and your design will determine how effective you will be at moving your business forward. When Google reinvented email it was by thoughtful design that solved decades…

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Programming is hard. Since programmable computers went mainstream in the ’70s, software development has required highly skilled professionals with years of education and experience. The problem with creating a complex computer program that solves real-world business problems is that computers and humans speak fundamentally different languages. Computers deal in concrete terms while humans communicate in abstractions. To a computer, the meaning of a sentence never changes, but to a person, a single sentence and even single words may have different meanings in different situations. Over the years, providing a computer language that matches human intentions with the correct computer behavior…

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7 min read While once a distant dream of science fiction, today, Artificial Intelligence is everywhere. AI is in the algorithms that govern how you use social media. AI is in the Google or Amazon-powered home device that understands and carries out your basic commands. And now it’s becoming a staple of UI/UX design. Should you be worried about the rise of AI in the design field? Will software that makes decisions on its own put humans out of a job? Will Artificial Intelligence one day gain sentience and enslave humanity? No, no, and probably not. Let’s examine just what…

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