building a remote hub

Remote working has been our thing since the dawn of Dwarves. Saigon HQ usually is where we spend our 9-to-5 life, when we need a moment for human interaction.

In late 2021, we wanted to stretch the Dwarves territory. Dwarves nomads are located everywhere. Dwarves Hub should be placed across the country.

Our first time went from sketches to reality. Ergo, these are lessons learned during and after our building time with Dalat Chalet - our mountain hub in the highland of Vietnam.

Kick-off the unknowns

It’s hard - if you haven’t built a house before. More specifically, never have any tech firms ever done this.

There is no playbook, and you have to research without references. You may find it struggling to communicate with the contractor, and you may face failures if their output doesn’t meet your standard.

So be ready to clean up the mess. Have your plan B.

Build what the team needs.

Why would teammates want to be there instead of their local cafes? Does it have the proper workspace setup? How do we provide the feasibility of commuting and accommodating?

We seek answers to fulfill the office. We send out a team survey and keep asking for input. But that’s where the problem of online communication lies. You may receive few to no answers. So try to find the link between your mates and what you’re about to build. Keep asking yourself: Do people really need this?

Design what shapes how we become

We spend 87% of our lives inside buildings. So build it with thoughts and behaviors that shape who we want to be. That office frames how we work. Do we want to lock ourselves up in glass walls and ACs? No.

We need outdoor space. We keep the ground floor close to the sunny garden area, fill our eyes with pine woods, and use that balcony to feel nature.

We utilize all those tranquil perks, then make it our pros.

Finish is better than perfect

If we keep waiting for the perfect, no output will be shipped. We took nearly 6 months to ensure the contractor finished what they promised. Ironically, they didn’t.

And as I said previously, be prepared for the mess. We picked up that shovel and started finishing the leftovers. We were behind schedule with no real photos. Our Marketers improvised using the sketches of how we vision the final version, with the help of our Designers.

We kept speaking about it on Dwarves Fanpage, while adding those last touches.

Open is the new bonding

Time to ditch the old school office notion with a hub close to nature, soaked in the sun, served with green views and sweater weather. No space for senseless quotes, formal meeting rooms, or shiny certificate frames.

No. We design an open, functional and cozy hub for digital nomads to take that real mood booster. For the human. From the nature.

And we stay proud of how it turned out.

Come join us

We welcome all peeps and non-Dwarves to stop by, so join our Discord and be one of them.

If you happen to seek a remote role, look no further: https://careers.d.foundation