How we run a remote-first engineering week

Our week has two synchronous points: a Monday planning call and a Thursday demo. Everything else happens in writing, in the open, on the clock of whoever is doing the work.

Written updates replaced standups. Each engineer posts what shipped, what is blocked, and what they intend to do next. It takes four minutes to write and thirty seconds to read, and it leaves a searchable record.

Demos are non-negotiable. If nothing is demonstrable by Thursday, that is the signal — not a status colour on a board.

The meetings we removed: retrospectives on a fixed cadence, estimation sessions, and any recurring call without an agenda. Retros still happen; they are just triggered by events rather than by the calendar.