Soft Skills For A Strong Remote Developer

Get to know essential skills to differentiate yourself from others and become an independent developer.

Being a good developer ain’t only how clean and intuitive your code is. Eventually, most developers will make their way to write code that’s on a senior level. What’s challenging for many people is all the soft skills that require time and a holistic way of learning to gain.

These are important as we step into the age of remote work and massive digitalization. Being able to communicate clearly, or organize your work is nowadays important, just as your coding skills.

2016 my friend decided to go and work remotely for a few months from Thailand. At that time we used to work for the same company which had a remote option included. After he came home, it only took us one night and a few of his stories to decide on our next destination.

Since then, I never went back into the traditional office. Along the way, I had to gain new skills to stay productive and organized while traveling.

In a remote culture, many things can go wrong because of the lack of transparency and communication. It’s easy to lose track of information these days because we’re overwhelmed by them.

It’s upon us to decide which information is necessary for others in a team to know and the risks of not communicating that to others.

Having clear communication and transparency reduces the overall risks of failure. When a team is provided with information, the entire time is aware of risks early in the process. This gives the product team ability to navigate through obstacles as they arise in the project. With this in mind, the product team can adjust the scope, budget, or timeline early in development.

Open communication allows the entire team to be reminded of goals and objectives. This helps team members see the bigger picture and explains the importance of their work as individuals. It prevents from work in a vacuum which is often happening when teams are remote.

Besides this, lack of transparency can kill trust in the team, and that’s the most valuable strength needed when things go wrong.

What does it mean to be transparent & be good at communication:

In a startup world, everything is dynamic and changing fast. Many moving pieces have to be orchestrated to make a successful product. With this in mind, it’s challenging to ask someone to own everything.

I believe ownership should start from the top, and that should be spread down across the teams. However, you can always contribute by pivoting your mindset and owning everything on your plate.

I’ve heard these things many times before: “API didn’t return the right data,” “This wasn’t in requirements,” or “It’s not my fault.” This doesn’t go well with what ownership is really about. You should instead think about how to improve the current situation and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

So instead of blaming the other team, you can ask yourself: “Did I ensure that the API team understood my needs.” With this in mind, you’re putting a team in front of your feelings.

Another important thing is to own your mistakes and failures. When things go wrong (and they will), take the blame, stand behind it, analyze – so it doesn’t happen again, and move on.

What does it mean to own things in software development:

A self-organized individual doesn’t depend on or wait for a manager to assign work. Instead, they find their work, and they manage responsibilities and timelines. They usually drive deployments and know priorities. They don’t work in a vacuum for days or not at all when they’re blocked on their current task.

To stay on top of my work while traveling, I had to reorganize how I planned my work. In the beginning, it took me a bunch of time to write a simple daily plan.

Nowadays, I write weekly plans with prioritized tasks, links, comments, deadlines, learnings, and other things in life. This comes with time, but for anyone struggling to build this habit, I suggest they start small and write three things in notes they’ll be working on the next day.

Later on, you can upgrade this process to fit your needs and use it to overcome daily mess and disorder.

What does it mean to be self-organized?

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