Management

How to Manage a Remote Team: The Complete Management Guide

Name: React.js Development Services
Brand: Trio
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Managing remote teams is probably not one of your favorite subjects. But in recent months, phrases like ‘remote work’ and ‘work from home’ have dominated the subject matter of casual conversations.

While nearly 80% of employees have always expressed the desire to work from home for at least part of the workweek, only about a tenth of workers in the United States actually do so. Yet the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed that reality for the time being, and possibly forever.

Only when stay-at-home orders first went into effect around mid-March 2020 did employers truly encourage and/or plainly require their employees to work from home.

Now, almost a year later, about a third of Americans are working from home.

Many companies are adapting entire teams to a remote model of work and hoping for the best. Just as many businesses have relied on remote work for the better part of their existence and were fortunate to be prepared for what lied ahead.

Whether you are new to remote work or quite familiar with the concept, knowing how to manage remote teams should be one of your main priorities.

Keep reading to learn more about how to manage a remote team in your company!

8 Best Practices To Manage a Remote Team

Managing remote teams will look a little different for each company depending on your specific business goals and the people you choose to employ.

That said, there are basic guidelines for managing any remote team. Below are 8 best practices for managing remote teams.

1. Use Tools To Improve Communication

Relying on remote work tools to manage your remote team can enhance communication between you and your employees for the better.

There are a couple of go-to tools that every remote manager should know:

Slack: Slack is more or less a virtual office. It offers channels to categorize different work-related content, a feed, and instant messaging.

Zoom: Zoom is a tool for video chatting. Many find Zoom to be the most reliable tool for conferences as it works best for large groups.
GitHub: Most software developers are more than likely familiar with GitHub. Formally called a repository, it stores programming projects and allows users to pull and push changes, in effect saving new code.

2. Incentivize Daily Talks

It’s important to check in with your remote team. Managing a remote team requires a constructive relationship with the people you are working with.

Make sure your employees feel comfortable talking to you about any problems that arrive and that their anxieties are relieved following a talk.

3. Manage Expectations on Both Sides

Putting yourself in your employees’ shoes is a useful way to manage your expectations.

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect from your remote team and when you can expect it.

Hold yourself accountable too. Your employees have their own expectations about how you should manage a remote team and they’ll want those expectations to be met.

4. Create a Culture of Outcomes and Accountability

After building expectations, manage them by defining standards for your team. Set up a system where those involved will always be held accountable for those standards.

Examples of relevant standards are deliverables – that is, the results you want from the project – and the scope of the project, which relates to goal-setting.

5. Establish Clear and Direct Goals

Goal-setting is key to being triumphant in the workplace. A 2015 study showed that those who wrote down their goals were 33% more successful than those who did not.

Strong and intentional goals have a substantial impact on growing businesses.

Utilize SMART or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based goals to hone in on your goal-making.

6. Promote Social Interactions

Developing a rapport with those you work with is considered to be a worthwhile endeavor.

Part of developing rapport is associating with coworkers and other employees on a social level in addition to the context of the workplace.

You can arrange gatherings and light-hearted activities for team-building purposes, like online group-based games or icebreakers.

Being truly collaborative in this way strengthens engagement between yourself and the employees.

Companies with high engagement make twice as much annual revenue as companies with little to no engagement.

7. Automate Tasks Whenever Possible

It goes without saying that automation speeds up the workflow. Businesses can automate tasks to make managing remote teams easier for you.

For instance, with Slack, you can set auto-reminders for your remote workers and manage Google Calendar events in a database.

8. Offer Your Teams Ways to Avoid Distractions

Managing remote teams also makes you the task manager. Give tips to your remote team to help them work faster and with fewer distractions. Taking breaks is one thing, but there is a limit.

Pomodoro timers are a method of staying proactive via 25-minute working blocks divided by short break times.

You can also advise your remote team to put their phone on silent to avoid responding to messages and notifications immediately.

The 7 Biggest Challenges of Managing a Remote Team

Though most people prefer to work from home, managing remote teams still comes with some challenges.

In theory, remote work should be as simple as re-locating your work to a home laptop.

But in actuality, home environments can present some adversities when it comes to workers managing themselves and in turn, your capacity to manage your remote team.

1. Communication

How often do people in the same room struggle to understand each other? Now imagine needing to communicate with someone hundreds of miles away. Communication is arguably the biggest problem when it comes to managing a remote team.

Even with technology that allows us to communicate instantly, a lack of face-to-face interactions can affect the team negatively. Misunderstandings appear more often in online communication, rather than in regular dialogue.

Teamwork heavily relies on collaboration, which means that ongoing communication is the foundation of a successful project

2. Training & Onboarding

Hiring new developers to work on your project can be a long and challenging process. When you are managing a remote team, it can be harder for team members to learn new procedures because they aren't able to watch and learn critical processes in-person.

Getting familiar with the company's practices usually requires some time and guidance. It can be frustrating to rely only on emails or phone calls when you need to onboard new employees.

Often new hires will have tons of questions that you will need to answer. Currently, digital communication is not an ideal option for the onboarding process.

Consider creating detailed documentation and guidelines to relay as much information as possible to new employees.

3. Establishing a Company Culture

Having a well-established culture is an indisputable advantage in business. When people believe in what they are doing, and feel united over a mutual cause, this leads to increased performance.

For the companies that have remote employees, creating and maintaining company culture can become a little tricky.

Without a physical presence, management can find it hard to get the company’s ideas across to remote teams. As a result, remote employees may experience a significant drop in motivation and momentum.

Professionals who are actively involved in the company life feel more appreciated and valued. Their mindset shifts from ‘working for a company’ to ‘being part of something greater’.

Make an effort to bring remote teams together through group activities and events.

4. Decreased Supervision

Face-to-face interactions from managers to employees in an office space might involve daily check-ups and constant exchanges between one another.

If you want to manage a remote team, you must make sure to give them the space they need to do their work effectively.

By doing this, you will have to trust that your employees work just as hard in lieu of direct monitoring.

Those managing remote teams have noted these concerns often; in reality, evidence shows that remote workers can be even more productive than their counterparts.

5. More Alienation

When there is less contact, there is more alienation. Social isolation is not unheard of in the remote world.

Many people use work as their primary initiative to interact and socialize with others. This is not to say that people are unable to make friends outside of work but that work is a big part of everyday life.

Managing remote teams should not be limited to executive performance. You have a responsibility to help build social relationships as well.

6. More Distractions

Largely because of the home workspace, many remote workers struggle to compartmentalize their home lives from their work lives.

Parents with young children especially may use remote work as an opportunity to care for their children at home. Frankly, this does not result in the best outcomes.

Those who endeavor to manage remote teams should warn their employees to have appropriate childcare in place as well as an optimal workspace that is advantageous to their productivity.

In other scenarios, remote employees become bored. Without social interaction, they may seek out other distractions to quell their boredom. This can include scrolling through social media or watching television outside of breaks.

It’s a good idea when managing remote teams to offer advice on staying focused.

Many remote workers struggle to compartmentalize their home lives from their work lives.

7. Less Contact

Given the remote environment, your employees have to work quite independently. The result of this is less contact with other coworkers and the inside information that they can usually offer.

There is a lack of mutual understanding between coworkers, whether that understanding is related to work affairs or personal troubles.

Even if employees do not feel alienated, having common ground between employees is essential. Luckily, there are many examples of how team efforts have been successful in a remote environment.

7 Ways To Improve Communication with Remote Teams

The biggest difference between managing remote teams and having employees at a central office is that your face-to-face interactions will be severely lacking.

These interactions provide a sense of personability and accountability that are critical to small businesses.

In remote work, you can give your team this same experience by organizing a parallel structure through the cloud.

With that in mind, you can use these tips to your advantage and learn the best tools and practices for enhancing communication with remote teams.

1. Daily Stand-Ups

Once you truly internalize the idea that communication is everything, the next question is how often should your team communicate?

The answer is every day.

That is at least if you want an effective communication plan for highly performant virtual teams.

Experience has taught us at Trio that conducting daily stand-ups is an essential piece of communication with remote teams. It also doubles as an excellent team-building exercise.

Daily stand-ups are meant to be very quick and efficient because let’s face it, we are here to get stuff done.

It’s not a watercooler session. If you are managing both remote and in-house teams, then you will need to conduct your stand-up through remote team communication tools such as Zoom or Google Hangouts.

If an in-depth video conference seems like overdoing it, you can also try a quick Slack check-in.

Each member should answer the following three questions:

What did you work on yesterday?
What are you working on today?
What issues did you face that hurt your progress?

2. Weekly Sprint Planning Meetings

Good software teams value their time, and sprint planning reflects that. If your team is entirely in-house, then weekly sprint planning is done together in a room.

In the case that your team is both remote and in-house, then ideally you will want everyone together in a virtual room.

Remember that the sole objective of sprint planning is to come up with a plan of action for handling backlog tasks in a way that matches your team’s ability to meet their objectives.

One of the marks of a good manager is understanding your team's velocity and capacity:

Velocity refers to the speed at which tasks are completed based on previous sprints.
Capacity is essentially each member’s ability to work, i.e the total number of hours available and the percentage of time they can dedicate to each task.

3. Retrospective Meetings

It would be nice to know what’s been working and what hasn’t, right? Retrospective meetings can offer you just that.

While sprint planning typically occurs at the beginning of the week, retrospectives are held at the end of the week. They are reflective and provide an open, honest, and constructive atmosphere to share ideas and opinions.

Retrospectives can also be feedback sessions, small unveilings of a prototype, and even problem-solving sessions. They are meant to help your remote team improve their process and catch roadblocks as early as possible, resulting in less friction.

Do not overlook the value of retrospectives in communication with remote teams.

4. Create Requirement Docs and Engineering Tasks

Weekly sprints work even better when they have supporting documentation outlining the requirements for what needs to be accomplished.

A requirement doc can be something as simple as a Google doc that team members can access to gain information about what needs to be built.

You can segment your doc like so:

Background: Here, leave a little background on the feature that is to be created. This is a great place to explain why the feature is valuable to the product.
Core Concepts: Core concepts can be a bit misleading, but essentially this section is where you explain what the feature is supposed to do. Usually, this is done using bullet points.
Open Questions: This section is pretty self-explanatory. Any questions or concerns regarding the feature should be listed here for other members of the team to comment on.
Requirements: The requirements section is where you put in all of the details regarding the functionality (i.e requirements) of a particular feature for it to work properly.

For example, if you were working on building out an authentication feature, requirements might entail the different kinds of platforms a user can sign into your product with. Another requirement could be SMS and email validation.

Using a cloud platform like Google Drive is really all you need to manage these requirements and allow team members to comment for everyone else to see. This creates a focused conversation without the need to schedule more meetings.

For each requirement, there should be another doc called an engineering task that describes possible technical approaches to solving the defined requirements..

The benefit of keeping information organized in docs is that they can easily be accessed and edited by both remote and in-house teams.

When a developer changes his or her thinking regarding a specific task, they must actively update the requirements document to keep the rest of the team on the same page.

5. Create Opportunities to Help People Connect with One Another

Daily stand-ups are one way to advocate for team-building, but they’re not the end-all-be-all for communication with remote teams.

Some of those face-to-face interactions that you’ll be missing include lunchroom breaks or after-hours drinking.

You have the opportunity to re-create these experiences in your own way. To do that, you’ll need focused exercises and activities to help your team get to know each other.

Some common team-building exercises include the following:

Two truths and a lie
Virtual games like Pictionary or UNO
Movie night via a streaming video conference
Roses and thorns

These exercises will fuel better communication and collaboration overall. Remote teams will enjoy work more when they enjoy who they’re working with.

6. Encourage Your Team to Communicate Effectively

Nonverbal cues frankly don’t exist in the remote world. You can’t simply nod or gesture a thumbs up for affirmation. Unless, of course, you use an emoji. But you shouldn’t.

Teams that communicate remotely have to make sure that they’re over-communicating, rather than under-communicating.

While your team might be connected in the virtual world, you can’t be certain what your team is doing in the real world.

This makes it easy for team members to provide cursory answers and explanations if they are preoccupied. Really, every work-related interaction should supply as much detail as possible. Anything less can lead to miscommunication.

Better to be safe than sorry. Encourage your team to be specific and extensive with their communication.

7. Invest in Project Tracking Software

Project tracking software is the difference between teams that get things done and teams that don't.

Any manager worth their salt will understand the benefit of being able to organize and manage your remote team in the most efficient way possible.

The primary reason you’d want to invest in project tracking software is for remote collaboration. You want to give remote teams every resource you can to optimize their workflow.

Project tracking software, such as Jira, allows the team to have a single source of truth for what’s going on and can keep the team updated.

This is a key ingredient for communication with remote teams.

It is also based on agile principles that interface well with weekly sprint planning meetings and daily stand-ups.

In building solid communication with remote teams, you will often find yourself using two to three different project management tools.

At Trio, we use Slack, Google Docs, and Zoom to connect our teams together. It is up to you to decide which tools will best help you manage your remote team.

How To Motivate a Remote Team?

Keeping employees on task is another duty of a remote team manager. But more than mere performance, managing a remote team involves keeping employees motivated.

Possessing strong communication skills is pertinent. Managing remote teams entails being the chief liaison between your employees and a well-done finished project. Be clear about project requests and details.

And though remote schedules may be a bit more flexible, you should check-in with your employees about the status of your project. Employees work most aptly when they know what needs to be done.

Given that your team works well, give positive feedback. Employees want to feel recognized for their work and a little gratitude never goes too far. Something as small as an email expressing thanks is all that’s needed.

Perks and benefits are another way to garner enthused interest from remote employees.

Even if remote employees are at home, benefits like vacation time let employees know that you prioritize their wellbeing.

Altogether, remote employees feel the most motivated when they are being treated in accordance with reasonable expectations. Think of their needs as your own.

What is the Role of the Manager for Remote Teams?

To manage a remote team, you need a thorough comprehension of your role as manager.

The job title of manager is reserved for those who can lead and/or guide the teams they manage to do their best work, and efficiently at that.

Essentially, your objective is to be a direct contributor to the ongoing function of your company.

With remote work, you want to make certain operations run parallel to how they would in an onsite team.

For example, meetings tend to be a crucial element of how businesses operate. As the manager of a remote team, one of the many pivotal roles you have is to find a way in which an effective means of communication can be facilitated virtually.

Using remote work tools for chat and video would ensure a platform where important company matters can be discussed.

A synchronized calendar would also be helpful in organizing your remote team around deadlines, vacations, meetings, or group activities.

Similarly important is an online document management system or digital organization tool to gather all the team’s work.

Conclusion

Every business model has its pros and cons. But given their trendiness, it might be worth it to give remote teams a try.

Remote work has many pros including work flexibility, financial savviness, and environmental preservation.

The cons of remote work include dealing with distractions and social isolation. However, a capable remote team manager can placate these concerns.

Fortunately, Trio has the resources you need to hire a remote team of developers to help your company thrive. We can guarantee that your deadlines will be met and well-received.

At Trio, we offer top-notch software insights and connections to South American developers. Discover our exceptional Chilean, Brazilian, and Argentinean developers for outsourcing success.

Learn how you can hire a remote developer now.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some tools to improve communication for remote teams?

Popular remote team tools include Slack, Zoom, and Github.

What are some ways to manage remote teams' communication?

Besides using online tools, remote teams should make sure to have frequent meetings and check-ins, like daily stand-ups, retrospective meetings, and weekly sprint planning meetings.

What are the biggest challenges of managing a remote team?

The biggest challenges of managing a remote team involve a lack of face-to-face interaction and establishing a company culture.

Cordenne Brewster

Cordenne Brewster is a tech enthusiast whose ardor is best expressed through the written word. With contributions ranging from software development to scaling, Cordenne provides insights to keep the curious and inquisitive informed, well-read, and on-trend.

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What Is a C developer?

C developers are closely familiar with the fundamentals of systems programming. They develop code that integrates into base computer systems. Embedded systems, operating systems, and kernel modules all rely on systems programmers like C developers.

C++ is nearly a superset of C. Save a few minor details, the two languages are very similar. Expert C developers may learn C++ as well to increase their effectiveness.

Other languages in the repertoire of C developers might be higher-level languages and frameworks that work well with C like Java, Node.js, and Python.

As systems programmers, C developers have strong problem-solving skills and use structural programming to write clean, reusable code.

Why Use C?

The first and foremost justification for using C would be if you wanted to build an operating system. After all, in the 1970s, C was the vessel in which UNIX was re-designed. But despite the goal-oriented origins of the C language, various elements of its development make it a fitting language to use for an array of needs.

Middle-level

There are only a handful of middle-level languages. And if you were to pick them out, you’d probably come up with Java and C++ in addition to C, and there’s even some dissent there.

Either way, the general consensus is that C is a middle-level language. Because of this, C is one of the best languages for building both systems and applications. Therefore its usage is by definition flexible.

Structured

As a programming paradigm, structured programming allows developers to make complex programs by compartmentalizing their codes into simpler structures via task-oriented functions. Some examples of structural programming in action are if-else statements and for-loops.

Though many languages make use of this type of programming, C may very well be the oldest structural programming language that still maintains its popularity. This is because C is reliable.

Portable

Portability describes how compatible certain computer programming languages are in diverse environments. In the case of C, the language plays a major part in Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems, demonstrating its portable nature.

General

C is general-purpose. In effect, no matter what you want to develop, C is there for you – for games, graphics, applications, and more.

Advantages of Using C

C is equipped with a number of supportive features to develop keeping high-level functionality in mind. As the intent of C was to develop operating systems, its features must be fully comprehensive and performant.

Case-Sensitive

C is case sensitive. Lowercase and uppercase letters are differentiated. This can make certain elements of coding far less confusing and more direct. It’s also easier to parse through case-sensitive code.

Dynamic Library

The library C offers is rich with built-in features and is furnished with dynamic memory allocation. What’s more, C has much less library functions than other languages but just as many functions, simplifying their deployment.

Keyword Simplicity

In computer programming, keywords are the smallest building blocks of programming that work as gateways to writing complex code.

Keywords like if, else, and return may be familiar to you. The C language only has 32 keywords, overall only a small number to remember and eventually master.

Embedded Usage

C is the go-to language for developing embedded systems, Embedded systems contain hardware and/or software designed for specific functions. Digital cameras and robots are good examples of embedded systems.

Developers use C for embedded systems because it is flexible. The high-level abstraction of C combined with its low-level alliances make it a great language for this sort of development.

Companies That Use C

IBM
Nokia
Samsung
VMWare
Huawei
Microsoft Windows

Reasons to Hire a C Developer

It’s fairly common for businesses to go the mobile app route in contemporary software development. They’ll cross out a couple of months on their calendar, get a grasp of Java or Swift – for Android or Apple respectively – and be on their way.

App development is an accomplishment no matter how you do it. But when things become commonplace and you follow the lead of your competitors, it becomes difficult for your business to stand out.

If you wish to stay competitive, your business needs to be challenged. Rather than putting an app on the app store, why not develop an entire software.

Adobe, most Google applications, and the entire Linux operating system was built with C. These are software systems that have topped the technology sector and have garnered worldwide familiarity and usage.

Most popular C programs aren’t simply apps, they’re relevant components of daily work and life for millions of users. Depending on the developers you hire, you’ll have the resources you need to do the same.

It starts with a good idea, and the right developers to manifest it. Hire a C developer.

Hire a C Developer

C is well over 30 years old. With languages being built every other fortnight, it’s hard to keep up with the competition. But somehow C has managed all the while.

Of course, old age does come with consequences. The market favors young people who favor young languages. This doesn’t make C less trustworthy or useful, but it is a little tougher to find the professionals you’ll need to program in C.

Trust the process, trust your research. Trio also has resources to help you. Take a look.

How do you hire a C developer?

For those who wish to take the high road and hire C developers on your own, we’re still here to help.

Hiring a developer on your own is a very focused and hands-on process that requires considerable knowledge about software development in general.

The last thing you want to do is trust your hiring process to someone with no technical ability. If you are a non-technical manager looking to learn a thing or two, we have a great resource here for you to learn more about the hiring process in detail.

Otherwise, we’d recommend you contact Trio for consulting and developer allocation.

What should you look for in a C developer?

C developers at a high-level should demonstrate the following skills:

Proficiency in C and preferably in C++ as well
Knowledge of high-level languages that are often integrated with C such as Java, Python, Go, or Node.js
Abstract critical thinking and problem-solving aptitude
Ability to write and implement algorithms and data structures

How much do developers cost in the U.S.?

ZipRecruiter data reports that the average yearly salary of a C developer is $117,673 On the higher end, C developers can make as much as $155,500 per year. But C developers can also make as little as $67,500 annually.

How much do developers cost in South America?

Due to economic differences between the United States and South America as a whole, the cost of offshoring software development is significantly lower than hiring full-time with U.S talent. For Senior C Developers in South America, the average salary is currently around $100,000 whereas a mid-level developer costs around $76,000.

How much do developers cost in Ukraine / Eastern Europe?

Eastern Europe shares very similar rates to South America, again due to the economic differences. When looking at salaries in Eastern Europe, data shows that a Senior C Developer costs around $100,000 on average.

Hourly Rates for Developers

Another way to look at developer costs is through hourly rates. While salaries are good to understand for hiring developers for full-time and long-term, you might just need a developer for a period of 3-6 months or 6-12 months. In these types of situations, it’s best to calculate your costs based on the hourly rates of a developer.

Below is a table that lists the various hourly rates of developers in different locations based on their job title.

Why Hire a C Developer?

Trio C developers are pre-vetted, interviewed, and then trained further to become true software professionals, capable of adapting to situations that are both within and outside of the scope of their general expertise.

At Trio, we hold our developers to a higher standard. Much like how elite special forces units recruit only the best from main branches of the military, we recruit developers who either show amazing potential or demonstrate exceptional skill. We then take their talents and sharpen them even further.

Another benefit of hiring a Trio developer is that you won’t incur the costs of hiring, which can add up to be around 30% of a developer’s salary on average, as well as overhead costs associated with full-time employment.

By working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance.

To learn more, tell us about your project and we’ll get you started.

C Resources

Daniel Alcanja •

6 min read

The Ultimate Flutter Hiring Guide for 2023 Success

Introduction

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of hiring a Flutter Developer? Perhaps this particular technology is not your area of expertise and are you are unsure how to structure your hiring process. Fear not, as we are here to help you navigate this process and find a skilled Software Engineer who can add value to your business.

By leveraging our expertise in hiring high-level developers, we can help you evaluate technical talent and strengthening your engineering team. With our guidance and support, you can confidently conduct a hiring process with Flutter Developers and enhance the performance of your Engineering Team.

We would like to thank you for taking the time to visit us today. We hope that you will find the information provided to be both helpful and informative. Please stay with us and read on as we share some valuable tips that we believe you will find useful in your daily life.

What’s a Flutter Developer?

A Flutter developer is a software engineer who has proficiency with the Flutter framework to develop mobile, web, and desktop applications. By association, Flutter developers have fluency in writing code using the Dart programming language and are therefore Dart developers as well.

Flutter developers can be web or mobile app developers. As such, they may have prior experience and expertise in other frameworks and languages like JavaScript or Ionic. Some Flutter developers may only be familiar with Flutter.

The Flutter framework is intentionally and wholeheartedly tied to UI design. Widgets are one of its defining characteristics. They must have comparable skill in optimizing graphical interactions for the user.

The role of this type of developer is crucial in the software development industry. The responsibilities of a Flutter developer may vary depending on the project requirements, but some common tasks include:

Developing and maintaining applications;
Developing and implementing custom widgets and UI components;
Integrating third-party libraries and APIs;
Ensuring the application's performance, quality, and responsiveness;
Collaborating with cross-functional teams, including designers, product managers, and other developers;
Participating in the development process from design to deployment and maintenance.
Working with cross-platform frameworks.
Debug and test Flutter code, using tools such as the Flutter DevTools, unit testing, and integration testing.
Use version control tools such as Git, SVN, or Mercurial to manage their codebase.

What you can build using Flutter

Flutter is a versatile and powerful framework for building mobile applications for Android, iOS, and other platforms. With Flutter, developers can build a wide range of applications, including but not limited to:

Social media applications: Flutter is a versatile platform for building social media apps that can include a range of features, such as instant messaging, push notifications, and media sharing capabilities.
Business applications: Flutter is a great option for creating business apps that require robust functionality, such as CRM, inventory management, and project management tools.
E-commerce applications: Flutter is a great option for creating e-commerce apps that offer features such as a product catalog, shopping cart, payment gateway integration, and more.
Educational applications: Flutter enables developers to create educational applications such as e-learning platforms, online courses, and interactive learning tools, all while providing a user-friendly experience.
Gaming applications: Flutter is also capable of building games with 2D and 3D graphics, animations, sound effects, and other exciting features.

In general, Flutter offers developers the versatility and features to create a variety of mobile apps for various industries and purposes.

Companies that use Flutter

The New York Times
Square
Google
eBay
BMW
Alibaba

Which are the soft skills a Flutter Developer should have?

As you need to hire a Developer who can perfectly unfold within your team and company taking into account just technical skills would not be enough, and this is when soft skills play a big role. So now let’s dive into some basic soft skills good developers should have.

Some essential soft skills for a Flutter Developer should include:

Communication: Being able to communicate effectively, especially in remote and asynchronous environments, is a real necessity for any professional nowadays. Communication skills are always in high demand, whether it's through describing ideas, discussing approaches, giving presentations, providing status updates, giving feedback, asking questions, or voicing concerns. The ability to communicate ideas clearly and to understand communicated ideas is of critical importance to ensure a well-aligned, agile team.
Team Work: Individuals should demonstrate adaptability to various projects and environments. However, it is extremely important for them to value working within a team that allows for easy navigation, knowledge sharing, idea contribution, and learning from other team members. They should also be able to provide and receive feedback, pass on information, ask questions, and offer help when needed.
Collaboration: Every project involves multiple people, and team members must be able to work with one another effectively. Collaboration is the combination of all of the above qualities in order to effect positive change and move the project and company forward.
Adaptability: The ability to adapt to new circumstances, situations, scenarios, and environments is vital for professionals to cope with changes, challenges, fast-paced environments, uncertainty, and lack of predictability. It enables them to be more creative and resilient, providing solutions and new strategies whenever any shifts occur.

Hiring Process for a Flutter Developer

To hire technical talent who is the best fit for your company and project, you should ensure that your hiring process is aligned with your needs. This will provide you with useful and valuable information to help you make an informed decision before extending an offer letter to a developer.

We have listed below some steps that can be implemented in your hiring process to help you ace it and bring on board the right developer for your business.

Main Steps in the Hiring Process

Job Description

A great process starts with a well-written job description. It should contain important information, such as a brief description of the company and project, the main responsibilities of the professional, the seniority needed for the role, technical requirements, desired soft skills, salary, and perks.

An appealing and accurate job description can better attract targeted candidates, providing you with a more qualified list of applicants. It's important to remember that you don't want to get attention of all software engineers available in the market, but rather the ones that are aligned with your company's culture and the specific role.

Sourcing

Unlike other fields, the technical industry has its own unique challenges when it comes to attracting candidates. Simply posting job openings on job boards may not be sufficient to generate a substantial pool of qualified applicants. Therefore, it is important to proactively source candidates from a variety of channels, rather than solely relying on applicants to respond to job postings. Some of the sources that tech recruiters use to find candidates include GitHub, GitLab, LinkedIn, Telegram, Discord servers, and consultancy companies.

To use some of the aforementioned platforms, your team should know how to apply Boolean search to filter only candidates that align with your vacancy.

Screening

After gathering a sufficient number of applicants, you will begin screening candidates to determine their suitability for the position. During this part of the process, you may review resumes, portfolios, cover letters, and repositories to ensure that you only got to candidates who meet the minimum requirements for the role.

Among the relevant skillset for the vacancy, recruiters and hiring managers typically look for experiences, seniority, certifications, fluency in some specific language, educational background, certain projects or business, main technologies used, location and candidates’ salary expectations.

Screening can be done manually, through a specific platform or an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Choosing the best option for your needs will depend on the company's budget. A robust ATS with integrations with other tools and the ability to filter candidates by their expertise is ideal because it saves a lot of time and resources.

Interview

This is one of the most important steps of the hiring process for developers. It’ll allow you to fully understand if the talent is really aligned to the company and project. A good interview can extract valuable information from candidates that will make it possible for you to decide whether they will continue in the process or not. For that, it’s essential to have good questions to gather answers regarding technical and soft skills.

During an interview, you can ask various types of questions, such as behavioral, situational, competency-based, fact-based, skill-based, and technical questions, among others.

It’s also important that you present the company to the candidate, letting them know more about your culture, working environment, way of working and anything else that defines your company.

Technical Validation

After making sure the developers align to the skillset the role requires, you will need to check their technical abilities to ensure it meets the project’s expectations. Knowing exactly what’s the technical level that the candidates should have can help you design the type of technical validation that best adapts to your needs.

To technically validate candidates you can use technical interviews, technical tests/assessments, pair programming, project executions, live coding, work portfolio/GitHub reviews and team interviews, among others.

If you don't feel prepared to conduct technical interviews with developers because you're unsure of what questions to ask or how to evaluate their answers, you can try Genie, Trio's AI-powered interview question generator.

Hire a Flutter Developer with Trio

Trio Flutter developers are pre-vetted, interviewed, and then trained further to become true software professionals, capable of adapting to situations that are both within and outside of the scope of their general expertise.

We offer flexibility in terms of project requirements and team size adjusting it according to the project's needs. This allows our partners to scale up their project requirements as needed.

Moreover, we are committed to delivering high-quality apps within a reasonable time frame, with a proven track record of delivering projects on time and within budget without compromising on quality. A Trio developer is that you won’t incur the costs of hiring, which can add up to be around 30% of a developer’s salary on average, as well as overhead costs associated with full-time employment. All in all, by working with Trio, you can enjoy a highly experienced full-time developer for a fraction of the cost, along with the added project management assistance.

Last but not least, we value excellent communication and support throughout the project's life cycle. This ensures that our partners’ requirements are understood, and the project is delivered as per their expectations.

How much do flutter developers cost?

The cost of hiring a Flutter Developer can vary depending on the size of the company, their budget and also the seniority of the role. It is advisable to ask candidates about their salary expectations and compare them to your own budget. This helps to avoid putting candidates through the entire hiring process only to find out you cannot meet their expectations. It is important to be transparent throughout the hiring process.

It is also essential to consider that the cost of hiring software engineers in Latin America is significantly lower compared to American or Canadian professionals.

While hiring developers in Ukraine or Eastern Europe may also yield cost savings, the time zone difference may present challenges depending on the team's availability for collaboration. In such cases, hiring developers from Latin America proves to be a viable alternative as they can readily adapt to the Eastern or Pacific Time Zone.

At Glassdoor you can run some searches about the paid salary for Flutter Developers accordingly to their region.

We hope this guide can assist you in structuring your hiring process. However, keep in mind that you do not have to do it alone, as Trio is here to add value to your business by providing vetted and experienced talent that can easily meet your requirements and navigate across various business and project types. Additionally, Trio simplifies the hiring process by providing valuable insights into candidates' salary expectations, allowing you to make informed decisions about who to hire. Overall, if you require a senior Flutter developer, Trio is an excellent resource to consider.

Camila Rodrigues •

7 min read

The Ultimate Guide to Engineering Manager One-on-Ones

Structured one-on-one meetings are like following a recipe, they provide managers with the opportunity to connect with your team members, understand their goals and challenges, provide feedback and guidance, and ensure all the necessary ingredients are in place so that everyone is aligned and working towards a common goal. In this guide, we'll explore some best practices for engineering managers hosting one-on-ones with team members.

7 benefits of one-on-one meetings

You can use one-on-one meetings for a variety of reasons, including:

Connecting with team members

Creating a supportive space for discussion can foster a team culture of open communication and feedback. One-on-ones provide managers an opportunity to get to know team members as a person and teammates.

Helping employees achieve their goals

Identifying goals and action items for your employees is an important part of supporting their growth and development. Here are some steps to help you identify goals and action items for your team members:

Discuss aspirations: Ask about career aspirations and what your employees would like to achieve in their role. This can help identify areas where they are motivated to develop their experience.
Identify areas for improvement: Review performance and identify areas where employees can improve their skills or knowledge. This can include technical, soft, or management skills.
Establish accountability: Determine who will be responsible for each action item and set deadlines for completion. This can help ensure that progress is being made and that goals are being achieved.
Set SMART goals: Work with your employee to set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals that align with their aspirations and areas for improvement. These goals should be challenging yet achievable and provide a clear direction for their development.
Create action items: Identify specific actions individuals can take to achieve their goals. These should be practical, realistic, and aligned with the employee’s skills. Some examples include:
Attending a training course or workshop
Shadowing a senior team member on a project to gain more experience and exposure to new skills and techniques.
Setting up regular 1:1 meetings with a mentor or coach to receive feedback
Taking on a leadership role in a project
Collaborating with another team on a project to gain experience in cross-functional team dynamics.
Writing a technical blog post
Contributing to an open-source project

Sharing performance feedback

Providing constructive feedback to your peers as an engineering manager is an important aspect of building a strong and effective team. Here are some tips on how to provide constructive feedback to your team:

Be specific: Provide examples to support your feedback. This will help your team members understand what they did well or what they need to improve on.

Example: "I noticed during the last team meeting that you interrupted others while they were speaking. I love that you're excited about this topic, but try to let others finish their thoughts before sharing your own ideas."

Be objective: Don’t making personal attacks or being overly critical. Focus on the facts and be objective in your feedback.

Use a positive tone: Frame your feedback in a positive way, emphasizing the things your team members did well and offer suggestions for improvement.

Example: "You did a great job presenting during the last client meeting. However, I think it would be even more effective if you could use more visual aids to support your points."

Focus on behavior: Focus on the behavior or actions that you are providing feedback on, rather than on the person.

Example: "During the last sprint, there were a few instances where your communication with the team could have been clearer. Let's work on improving our communication going forward to avoid any misunderstandings."

Offer solutions: Provide specific solutions or suggestions for improvement. This can help your team members understand how they can improve and feel more motivated to make changes. If you have a solution or action plan right away, that’s OK. You both can take time to brainstorm possibilities.

Example: "I noticed that you've been struggling with a particular coding challenge. Perhaps some training sessions or taking an online course to improve your skills in that area might help. What do you think?"

Follow up: Check in with your team member after providing feedback to ensure that they understand the feedback and are making progress towards improvement.

Example: "Thanks for taking my feedback on board. Let's check in next week to see how things are going and discuss any further"

Addressing concerns or issues

Giving your team a safe environment to discuss concerns or issues allows managers to identify and resolve hiccups before they escalate and become bigger problems.

Prioritizing career development

Helping employees identify areas for growth and development, as well as provide guidance on how to achieve their career goals is essential for long-term success.

Aligning team members Bringing team members together

Carving out time on a regular basis (i.e. monthly) to review team objectives, discuss progress, and identify areas for improvement is key to making sure your team is working toward the same goals.

Offering recognition and rewards

Recognizing and rewarding team members for their hard work and achievements can boost morale and motivation. Regularly acknowledging successes, offering praise, and discussing rewards creates an environment in which everyone feels trust, safety, accountability, and equity.

How to prepare for one-on-one meetings

Be consistent but flexible

To create consistent and open communication, establish a regular cadence (weekly or bi-weekly) for one-on-one meetings with each team member. However, leaving room to adjust as needed is crucial. For instance, if a team member is struggling with a particular issue or project, you may decide to increase the frequency of your one-on-one meetings to provide additional support and guidance.

Give ample time

The length of one-on-one meetings between a manager and a team member can vary depending on the needs and goals of the team member and the availability of the manager. However, a typical length for a one-on-one meeting is between 30 to 60 minutes. It's important to note that the length of the meeting should not be the primary focus, but rather the quality of the conversation and the outcomes achieved. The meeting should allow sufficient time to cover the key topics on the agenda and provide an opportunity for open and productive communication between the manager and team member. The one-on-one meeting should be focused on the team member's goals, challenges, and development. Give the team members ample time to speak and share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns.

Provide an agenda

Before your one-on-one meetings, take some time to review the team member’s recent work. This will help you identify any areas where the team member needs additional support or guidance. Use this information to create and share an agenda 24 hours prior to the meeting that outlines the topics you want to discuss. Here's a sample agenda:

Topic	Summary	Time
Check-in	Begin the meeting by asking how the team member is doing and if there are any updates or concerns they would like to discuss.	5 mins
Progress and accomplishments	Review the team member's progress on current projects and discuss any accomplishments since the last one-on-one meeting	10 mins
Challenges and obstacles	Discuss any challenges or obstacles the team member is facing and work together to identify potential solutions.	10 mins
Feedback	Provide feedback on the team member's performance, including strengths and areas for improvement. Encourage the team member to provide feedback on your performance as well.	10 mins
Goals and development	Set goals for the team member, both short-term and long-term, and identify actionable steps to achieve them. Discuss opportunities for growth and development within the team or organization.	15 mins
Action items and follow-up	Recap the key takeaways from the meeting and identify any action items and next steps. Follow up on action items in the next one-on-one meeting.	5 mins
Wrap-up	End the meeting by thanking the team member for their time and contributions, and reiterate your support for their success.	2 mins

Questions to ask yourself before your next one-on-one

Career desires	What does each team member see as their next role?
	Does each team member have a career plan, or are they seeking guidance?
	What are their aspirations for their next role and how can we help them get there?
Team skills	Who are your high performing team members?
	Which key skills does each team member own?
	What do they enjoy doing the most?
	Which projects did they excel at?
	What is their main area for improvement? How can I help them improve?
	Who works in a close capacity, and which team members rarely speak with one another?
Strategic team alignment	Does everyone on the team feel on the same page?
	How is team communication?
	Are there frequent fire drills, and how are fire drills handled?
	Is anyone carrying significantly more weight?
	How are they feeling about their workload?
	What obstacles are they running into with their current work projects?
	What makes their job harder?
	Is there anything I can do to be more helpful leaders to them?
	Do team members know the strategy for the quarter and year?

Questions to ask during one-on-one meetings

By asking the right questions during one-on-one meetings, you can encourage your team to share thoughts and ideas and support development and career growth.

Here are some questions to ask:

Type	Use case	Example
Open-ended questions	Use open-ended questions that encourage team members to share their thoughts and ideas in detail.	"What's been challenging for you lately?" or "What do you think could be improved on this project?
Clarifying questions	Ask clarification questions to ensure you fully understand your team members’ perspective.	Example: "Can you explain what you mean by that?" or "Can you give me an example of what you're referring to?"
Follow-up questions	Ask follow-up questions to explore a topic in more detail.	"How did that make you feel?" or "What do you think we could do differently next time?"
Goal-oriented questions	Ask goal-oriented questions that help your team members focus on their development and career aspirations.	"What are your career goals in the next 12 months?" or "What skills do you want to develop in your role?"

End the one-on-one meeting on a positive note, acknowledging the team member's progress and accomplishments. Provide clear expectations for the next meeting.

How to handle difficult conversations

Listen

Actively listen to your team member's concerns and show genuine interest in their perspective. This can help build trust and encourage more open and honest communication.

Stay calm

Keep the conversation focused on the issue at hand and avoid getting emotional.

Focus on solutions

Brainstorm ideas together and come up with a plan for moving forward.

5 reasons why taking notes matters

It’s important to capture key points and action items, but also to be present and engaged in the conversation. Your notes don’t need to be a transcript, rather use a consistent format or template to recap the conversation. You can use a shared document or note-taking app, to keep your notes organized and easily accessible. Here are five reasons why meeting notes are essential to success.

Document progress: Taking notes can help you document the progress of your team members and keep track of their goals, accomplishments, and areas for improvement.
Prepare for future meetings: Notes can be used to prepare for future one-on-one meetings and ensure that you are following up on action items and addressing any ongoing concerns.
Identify patterns: By taking notes on common themes or issues that arise during one-on-one meetings, you can identify patterns or trends that may require further attention.
"John expressed some concerns about workload and time management.
Provide feedback: Notes can be used to provide feedback on the team member's performance and identify areas for improvement. "Steve has been struggling to meet deadlines lately. Let's work together to identify any obstacles and come up with a plan to improve."
Demonstrate active listening: Taking notes can demonstrate to your team member that you are actively listening and engaged in the conversation.

4 tools to enhance your one-on-one meetings

There are many tools available for capturing one-on-one meeting notes and actions as an engineering manager. Here are some we’ve found helpful:

Note-taking apps: Apps like Evernote, OneNote, and Google Keep are popular for taking notes during one-on-one meetings. These apps allow you to create notes, tag them for easy organization, and share them with others.
Task management tools: Tools like Trello, Asana, and Monday.com can be used to track action items and deadlines discussed during one-on-one meetings. You can assign tasks to team members, set due dates, and track progress.
Communication platforms: Platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat can be used to record notes and actions during one-on-one meetings in a dedicated channel or chat. This allows you to easily reference past discussions and keep all related information in one place.
Dedicated software: There are many dedicated software solutions available specifically for one-on-one meeting management. Examples include Lattice, 15Five, and Reflektive.

By prioritizing regular check-ins with your team, you can improve communication, foster stronger relationships, and ultimately drive better business outcomes. If you're looking to take your staff augmentation efforts to the next level, Trio can help!
With our experienced team and comprehensive solutions, we can provide the support and expertise you need to achieve your goals.
Visit our website today to learn more.