Receiving Series A funding is a significant milestone for any ambitious startup, marking the start of rapid growth and opportunity. However, with this expansion comes the critical challenge of hiring and onboarding engineers quickly. The most common mistake? Moving too fast. Rushed onboarding can lead to inefficiencies and misalignment, making it essential to implement a strategic process that ensures new engineers integrate seamlessly and contribute effectively to your growth journey.
Building a distributed development team—where members work remotely across different locations or time zones—requires more than simply hiring coders and expecting instant results. Startups often overlook the importance of integrating remote engineers into the company’s culture and operations, leading to misunderstandings, lack of cohesion, and declining performance. Instead of focusing on scaling the customer base or refining the product, companies find themselves fixing personnel issues. To avoid this, take a thoughtful and measured approach to onboarding, ensuring your team is set up for success from the start.
While technical expertise is essential for remote engineers, startups often over-prioritize coding skills and underestimate the importance of soft skills like relationship management, diplomacy, and adaptability. These skills are crucial for fostering collaboration, resolving conflicts, and understanding team dynamics—especially in distributed teams where differing working styles and personalities can lead to friction.
As Alexey Pavlov, Business Development Manager at Fuzionest, explains, Keeping five engineers aligned is one thing; managing 20 remote engineers with varied egos and working styles is a completely different challenge. He emphasizes the importance of selecting engineers who bring interpersonal skills to the table, ensuring smooth collaboration and minimizing conflicts in fast-growing, remote teams.
Whether hiring independently or through a vendor, startups should prioritize candidates with a background in interpersonal relations alongside technical capabilities. At Fuzionest, we’ve incorporated soft skills training into our programs for in-house engineers and tech students in Central and Eastern Europe, recognizing that the human side of teamwork is just as critical to success as technical expertise.
Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Be quick but don't hurry.“ It’s a principle startups should heed when scaling their engineering teams. Quickness leads to efficiency, but hurrying often results in costly mistakes.
Expanding your team from five to ten engineers is significant, but scaling from five to 30 or even 50 is monumental. To grow fast without rushing, we recommend a staggered staffing approach. Start small — onboard a team of five engineers initially. Treat this as an opportunity to refine your onboarding process and iron out any challenges before scaling further.
This approach not only prevents operational chaos but also provides a key advantage: the buddy system. Early hires who’ve become familiar with your processes can mentor new team members, easing their transition and fostering a collaborative culture. By scaling deliberately, you build not just a larger team but a stronger, more cohesive one primed for long-term success.
Bringing a distributed team on board starts with making your orientation and operations clear, accessible, and easy to understand. The simpler your materials, the smoother the transition for your new hires.
Simplify Your Materials
Review all onboarding and operational documents, such as product manuals, company policies, and employee handbooks. Eliminate jargon, insider terms, uncommon acronyms, and irrelevant details that could confuse new team members. As Matt Stocker, Senior Engagement Manager, says, “The easier you can make it for an outsider to mesh with your team, the better. Spell out how you like to work and what you expect from new hires as simply as you can.“
Make Technical Docs Comprehensible
Ensure your technical documentation is written with first-time users in mind. Key materials to refine include:
These resources should be easy to follow and free of unnecessary complexity to help engineers hit the ground running.
Centralize Onboarding Resources
House all onboarding materials in a single, easy-to-access location, like your project management tool. Platforms like Notion offer wiki-style solutions perfect for organizing and sharing company-wide materials, ensuring that new hires can focus on learning without navigating unfamiliar systems.
By prioritizing clarity and accessibility, you empower your distributed team to integrate seamlessly and contribute effectively from day one.
In global tech teams, it’s vital to recognize and respect cultural and linguistic differences. Many remote engineers, especially from engineering hotspots like Poland or Uzbekistan, are highly proficient in English, thanks to excellent education systems. However, fluency in classroom English doesn’t always translate to ease with native slang, idioms, or rapid conversation.
As Dave Hecker, West Coast CTO, advises, “You can head off a lot of communication problems with your distributed team simply by speaking plainly and slowly.“ Use clear, generic English in spoken and written communication, avoiding corporate jargon and overly casual phrases.
Cultural differences in tone and formality also play a role. While American engineers may be naturally casual and forward, counterparts from other countries may initially seem more serious or formal. This isn’t a sign of disengagement—it’s often a reflection of cultural norms. Approach conversations with patience, plan for extra time during one-on-ones, and keep agendas concise in meetings. With this mindset, you’ll foster better communication and build trust across your
Remote developers, like any team members, want to feel like valued contributors. Even if your team operates across several time zones, make a genuine effort to include remote engineers in conversations, decisions, and team events that go beyond just work tasks.
Encourage participation in team calls, Slack discussions, or whatever channels your group uses to communicate. Invite remote engineers to virtual social events, and if your budget allows, include them in company-wide in-person gatherings. Even small gestures, like sending company swag (a hoodie or branded water bottle), can reinforce a sense of belonging and unity. These steps show you value each team member as an individual, fostering an environment where personalities shine and teams bond more effectively.
Avoid assigning trivial or non-essential tasks to new remote developers under the guise of giving them time to “settle in.“ While testing engineers on specific skills is valid, assigning only bug fixes or “busy work“ can be demoralizing and convey a lack of trust.
“If all you give at first are bug fixes and busy work, you're telling devs you don't trust them with the real stuff — and they can immediately sense it,“ says Dave Hecker, West Coast CTO.
Instead, assign meaningful work right from the start. Trusting your engineers with important tasks signals confidence in their abilities and sets the tone for a collaborative and motivated team dynamic. Remote engineers thrive when they feel trusted and empowered to contribute to your mission.
In an era of economic uncertainty—shaped by tech layoffs, global conflicts, a looming recession, and the rapid rise of AI—business leaders are rethinking traditional work models. The choice between in-house development
Since its inception 15 years ago, DevOps has gained immense popularity, with companies like Netflix, Adobe, Target, Walmart, and even the US government adopting its principles.
At Fuzionest, delivering results for our clients goes hand-in-hand with prioritizing the happiness of our developers. Why? Because happy developers who feel valued and