Maybe it is only indirectly a growth question but I will still ask: Can anyone give advice about managing an online team? Maybe there is a youtube channel or something. Specifically, I would like to know how you deal with your online teams and what your expectations are in terms of availability, online status on slack, response time. I find it mostly disillusioning when team mates are online but don’t reply on Slack. Do you recommend to have stable and clear work times and do you expect to go offline when a response can not be expected?

Expectations will vary depending on the kind of job being worked, and this ultimately determines how Slack will be used: either like an instant messenger (IM) or like an email client. In a startup, there’s an expectation to respond during work hours, and with a latent expectation to do so (as needed) during non-work hours. Places like these tend prefer synchronous (replying instantly) over asynchronous (replying later) communication, as it allows decisions to be taken quickly. In an enterprise, there’s an expectation to respond only during work hours, unless your role explicitly requires it e.g. an executive or an SRE/DevOps role. Enterprises move much slowly than startups, so they generally skew towards asynchronous communication and tend to use Slack like email (although small teams embedded inside enterprises might use Slack like an IM.) So, how does your team use Slack? If they use it like email, then you need to have teammates include their working hours on their Slack profile, to allow the rest of the team know when to expect a response.

I'll explain how we do at our design agency that might help in some way - We use - Slack for instant communication Project Management tool for client and designer to maintain project level communication. Google meet for online video/audio calls Have a PM to manage the tasks and timeline for our team. Every morning there's a 30 mins stand up call to talk about assigned tasks, what's the status of the work and if there are any blockers Every after noon, there's a 15 min catch up call to see the status and if any team member needs a help. Every evening, a status update call with the team. Things are moving fine as of now. I hope this helps.

Go for the asynchronous work. The fact that somebody is online does not mean they have to respond immediately. They may be doing other stuff, and unless there is a real emergency (site is down, server is burning etc) you should not expect immediate answers.