We get a fair bit of work from the other side of the world. For most of these customers, this is the first time they have worked with someone they aren’t able to catch up with face to face and I think the idea is initially quite frightening. I find, it works BETTER than when you are in the same place, and here is why.

Meetings are short and to the point

Long distance projects have limited forms of communication, i.e phone and email. When you have to specify a time for a phone call to the other side of the world, you tend to stick to that time, not arrive 10 minutes late, and you come with an agenda, because it may be a week before you get a chance to talk again.

These may seem like pitfalls but actually they are benefits. What is missing in a lot of tech projects these days is a sense of organisation. Everyone wants to pitch their ideas in the melting pot and have endless discussions over features and ideas. When you work from a distance, there is simple no place for mucking around with this and very quickly people work out where their capabilities are best suited.

Meetings are organised and always less than an hour. You go in with specific talking points and you come out with new targets. It’s really simple.

Stuff gets done all the time

I send a screenshot to the US at the end of my day, and by the beginning of my next day, someone has had a chance to look over it and give me some feedback so I can immediately launch back into design mode. This cuts out immense amounts of waiting around and means that the project is being worked on literally around the clock.

There is a lot more trust

It sounds a bit weird, but when you have to rely on someone you have never met to get a very important project finished on time, you simply have to trust them. Sometimes I find working with local customers is hard because everyone thinks they are a web designer and therefore want to tell you how it should be done. International customers still pitch in, but they respect that you are there for a reason and you know what you are doing. It seems like the opposite would happen, but it doesn’t.

You get to the point

I’m a fairly blunt person about design, I love it when customers say either ‘I love it’ or ‘I hate it’. When you work face to face with people, they seem to find it harder to tell you the flaws they see and it often gets to the end of the project before they bring them up or they give vague descriptions of the problem. When you email someone, it’s easier to cut to the point and list points of disagreement which can then quickly be overcome.

I am yet to find a downside to working from afar and I suspect our customers can’t find too many either. The entire process is more efficient, less complicated and so much faster. And those midnight wakeup calls are awesome too ;)