Yes, in my experience the key to a highly functional remote environment is async collaboration. By this I mean written roundtables/stand-ups (with a focus on p

Yes, in my experience the key to a highly functional remote environment is async collaboration. By this I mean written roundtables/stand-ups (with a focus on putting the detail in the tickets and just bringing up blockers), written RFCs and review periods for larger initiatives, comprehensive action logs (admin logs, etc), detailed documentation, detailed commit messages, etc etc. Deadlines are fine, but people need to be able to be aware of the timeline up front and have autonomy to work within their own schedule to meet it. This becomes especially important when multiple time zones come into play. Essentially it's a matter of replacing as many meetings as possible with recored (written and/or multimedia) versions that convey the same content, focusing on maximizing transparency and collaboration.