about us

why we are here

As early as choosing the company name, we have followed the belief;

“effective remote working is a key pillar of a more sustainable and equitable future.”

While this is true, I don’t think it’s an earnest reflection of the problem we’re trying to solve. Some organisations use remote work as a lukewarm retention strategy. At least as many have forced remote work to reduce costs. Others bide their time, waiting for a talent recession to force people back into CBDs around the world.

We are here to reshape work, so you can do extraordinary things at your best time and place. The workers of the future are going to find 9 to 5 office work quaint when they see it depicted in period movies. So why wait?

There are (at least) three key challenges that need attention to reach this future;

• Asynchronous working (async) needs to become the default mode of value delivery in business.
• Conservative organisations need to find value in async.
• Productive, sustainable, inclusive and equitable workplaces are integral factors for corporate results.

Solving these challenges and the ones that follow is the mandate of the remote:af team.

It’s not enough to remove 9 to 5 office work for the human element, it needs to be the optimal strategy for any organisation that wants to be competitive. That is what remote:af is here to do.

how we do it

We make tools that help teams and organisation clean up the mess people generate over time. Here are some examples;

• The frustrating process that doesn't make sense.
• The days your meeting schedule determines your lunch break.
• People structures that funnel information away from their work.
• Learned helplessness that grinds things to a halt.

This and things like it are organisational entropy, and it’s exactly what remote:af tools address.

I tend to think of it as cleaning up the mess that makes work harder than it needs to be. Like cleaning in your home, it’s unlikely to be something you do once and if left long enough the mere thought of cleaning becomes unappealing. At remote:af we find methods, research and experiences and distil them into tools. These tools clean your organisation.

a fine start

In two years of operation, remote:af has enabled somewhere north of 120 Guides to liberate people of organisational entropy. The tools we’ve supplied have enabled a spread of Fortune 500 companies, scale-ups, government and heritage brands. Each one of them finding the methods of doing business that work for their context.

Different business functions also get value parity from the same products. An e-commerce sales team achieve the same benefits as a health insurance software delivery team, or a marketing team in the automotive industry. If you work in an organisation, then remote:af will work for you.

Entering our 32nd month of operation, I’d estimate that ~5000 professionals have benefited from our products. Only a few of them have ever met a member of the remote:af team. This is a great start, but where to next?

our own path

Most of our team’s effort is looking outwards. Maintaining, updating and developing new tools is effort intensive and doesn't work in an echo chamber. This focus is the right thing to do, but our attention needs to contend with some other needs;

Connecting with the community.
While we’ve never stopped focusing on this, most would agree that we’ve drifted away from what used to make this exciting. By May 30 we’ll be on track with regular events.

Combining tools.
Second only to the feedback about ‘compounded knowledge’, advice on how to sequence or combine tools has been a hot item. You can expect this by September 30 this year.

Modular access.
Right now, most people need to become a remote:af Guide to use any of our tools. A hardware store doesn’t force you to buy a whole toolkit when you just need a hammer. The same should be true for remote:af, we’ll make this a reality by June 30 this year.

Decompressing the knowledge transfer.
The term ‘compounded knowledge’ haunts most feedback forms I’ve had the privilege of reading. My 9-year-old sister would be able to use some of our tools by the end of this year.

We can’t wait to see this and much more come to fruition over the coming months. We hope you’re excited as well. If you’re curious about what we have available then check out our tools. If you’d like to speak with me about your experience retiring the relic of 9 to 5 office work then book a call.

- John Tooth, CEO