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How to build a distributed marketing team
I have been working in the freelance marketing world for more than 10 years and have been considering outsourcing some of my projects to a remote team. I recently had the chance to sit down and speak with Josh Breinlinger, Director of Marketing for oDesk, and manager of their successful distributed marketing team to learn a bit more about the whats and whys of managing a team of remote workers. Here's what he had to say...
When, Why and How You Need to Hire a Freelance Project Manager
Most successful outsourcing buyers post their first freelance project to fill a specific skill need or budget gap on a particular project, finding a skilled worker or two and seeing the project completed successfully. Then, as success breeds success, their needs continue to expand and more freelance professionals are eventually hired. Suddenly, these outsourcing buyers find themselves managing a growing remote workteam, which is usually more demanding than anticipated and ultimately a resource stress. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the requirements of keeping your remote workteam in motion on an outsourcing project, perhaps you need to consider hiring a freelance project manager.
How to Effectively Manage Remote Workteams
As an outsourcing company, we work with offshore workteams as a matter of course. The two most pressing challenges we continually face are those of managing and measuring the outsourcing performance of our remote workteam, and facilitating communication between local co-workers and the remote workteam as they collaborate on projects. With most local workteams, outsourcing managers can set a series of milestones and checkpoints, and manage to those deliverables. However, when outsourcing to a remote workteam, this approach becomes problematic due to the distance and lack of regular workteam visibility. Here are a few of the things we believe are keys to successfully maximizing outsourcing workteam relationships:
10 Activities for Local-Remote Workteam Building
I was sitting in our conference room working on a project with a few on-site co-workers the other day - 5 professionals meeting to discuss a specific work-related project with the occassional sidebars about family, golf, airplanes, dating, and politics - when I started to think of the other 8 remote individuals that are part of our workteam. I started to think of the value that interpersonal relationships contribute to the overall success of a workteam and the greater company which employs and tasks it... When the meeting ended, I took a few minutes to sit down and come up with the following local-remote workteam activities...
Top 5 Qualities in an Outsourcing Company
What do freelance providers look for in an outsourcing company? What makes a company a preferred outsourcing buyer? We asked some of our freelance providers to think through their most rewarding outsourcing experiences and define the top qualities they observed in those buyers. Here's what they told us...
How to Conduct Effective Outsourcing Interviews
Though the newest member of your workteam may not be walking in the front door of your office any time soon, outsourcing to a freelance professional is often like hiring another on-site employee. Though the web is filled with multiple search tools, skills tests, and verification and feedback systems that can help you find quality freelance candidates, the interviews you conduct with them will ultimately be the basis for your final outsourcing selection. To help you streamline your interviews, we’ve compiled a few points to guide you through this all-important process.
Integrating Your Virtual Freelance Staff with Your In-House Team
Most outsourcing assignments start small--you hire a freelance provider to complete a specific project. Then, when the provider proves they can be relied upon, you start giving them more hours and increasingly vital outsourcing tasks. Soon you may find your remote freelance provider fully integrated with your in-house staff, changing the relationship between outsourcing buyer and freelance provider. Here's what we've learned (on the job) when it comes to integrating outsourcing and in-house workteams.

Other workteam Related Articles

How to Conduct Effective Outsourcing Interviews
Though the newest member of your workteam may not be walking in the front door of your office any time soon, outsourcing to a freelance professional is often like hiring another on-site employee. Though the web is filled with multiple search tools, skills tests, and verification and feedback systems that can help you find quality freelance candidates, the interviews you conduct with them will ultimately be the basis for your final outsourcing selection. To help you streamline your interviews, we’ve compiled a few points to guide you through this all-important process.
10 Activities for Local-Remote Workteam Building
I was sitting in our conference room working on a project with a few on-site co-workers the other day - 5 professionals meeting to discuss a specific work-related project with the occassional sidebars about family, golf, airplanes, dating, and politics - when I started to think of the other 8 remote individuals that are part of our workteam. I started to think of the value that interpersonal relationships contribute to the overall success of a workteam and the greater company which employs and tasks it... When the meeting ended, I took a few minutes to sit down and come up with the following local-remote workteam activities...
How to Effectively Manage Remote Workteams
As an outsourcing company, we work with offshore workteams as a matter of course. The two most pressing challenges we continually face are those of managing and measuring the outsourcing performance of our remote workteam, and facilitating communication between local co-workers and the remote workteam as they collaborate on projects. With most local workteams, outsourcing managers can set a series of milestones and checkpoints, and manage to those deliverables. However, when outsourcing to a remote workteam, this approach becomes problematic due to the distance and lack of regular workteam visibility. Here are a few of the things we believe are keys to successfully maximizing outsourcing workteam relationships:
When, Why and How You Need to Hire a Freelance Project Manager
Most successful outsourcing buyers post their first freelance project to fill a specific skill need or budget gap on a particular project, finding a skilled worker or two and seeing the project completed successfully. Then, as success breeds success, their needs continue to expand and more freelance professionals are eventually hired. Suddenly, these outsourcing buyers find themselves managing a growing remote workteam, which is usually more demanding than anticipated and ultimately a resource stress. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the requirements of keeping your remote workteam in motion on an outsourcing project, perhaps you need to consider hiring a freelance project manager.
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