How 5 Fully Remote Companies Organize Work

Remote work isn’t just about where you sit — it’s about how you structure time, decisions, and collaboration. The best distributed teams don’t try to replicate the office online; they rebuild the mechanics of work itself.
Here are five fully remote companies and the specific tactics they use to stay aligned, productive, and human — without sharing an office.

1. Zapier — Asynchronous Everything

Zapier organizes its work around asynchronous communication. Almost every project update, decision, and discussion happens in writing — inside shared docs, task boards, or threads. Teams only meet when absolutely necessary. This allows Zapier’s 800+ employees, spread across dozens of time zones, to move projects forward without waiting on synchronous check-ins. Managers are trained to measure output, not presence, and all major decisions are documented in public channels. The rule of thumb: if it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.

2. Help Scout — Documentation as a Management Tool

Help Scout treats documentation as part of management, not an afterthought. Every process — from onboarding to support workflows — lives in an internal handbook. Product specs, project briefs, and retrospectives follow consistent templates. This creates clarity for remote workers joining mid-project and minimizes dependency on specific people. Their philosophy is simple: documentation replaces proximity. A well-written doc is the digital equivalent of a shared desk.

3. Lokalise — Structured Autonomy

Lokalise organizes work through structured autonomy: teams define their own quarterly goals and metrics but follow a shared execution rhythm. Each team operates in two-week sprints with async status updates and end-of-cycle demos. There’s a company-wide “Monday Memo” summarizing priorities and a “Friday Wrap-Up” highlighting results. This lightweight cadence replaces daily stand-ups and keeps everyone aligned without micromanagement. Lokalise’s approach shows how rhythm, not rigidity, sustains distributed momentum.

4. Remote — Time-Zone Aware Project Design

At Remote, every project is designed to minimize time-zone friction. Tasks are broken into small, independent units so contributors can work in parallel without blocking one another. All decisions and context are stored in shared project hubs (Notion, Linear, or GitHub), and handovers between time zones are handled through detailed async updates. Meeting slots are rotated monthly to distribute inconvenience fairly. Remote’s organization principle: the process should adapt to geography, not the other way around.

5. Redbooth — Autonomy with Lightweight Sync

At Redbooth, teams are distributed across the world, but work moves fast because the company is built around autonomous units. Each team owns its roadmap, priorities, and metrics — reducing the need for constant coordination. Sync points are intentionally light: brief weekly check-ins, clear project dashboards, and transparent task ownership inside Redbooth itself. The result is a rhythm that favors momentum over meetings. Redbooth’s organizational principle: give teams full autonomy, connect them just enough to stay aligned, and let velocity emerge from clarity, not control.