Global Team Coordination: US-Israel Collaboration
Lessons from managing perception development across continents - timezone challenges, communication patterns, and building trust remotely.
Our perception team spans Florida and Israel. 7 time zones apart. Making this work requires intentional structure.
The Timezone Challenge
Israel: GMT+2/+3 Florida: GMT-4/-5 Gap: 9-10 hours
When Israel ends their day (6pm), Florida is just starting (9am). When Florida ends (6pm), Israel is sleeping (3am).
Overlap window: ~2-3 hours on a good day.
Communication Patterns
Synchronous (Overlap Hours)
- Daily standups (15 min)
- Technical deep dives
- Decision meetings
- Live debugging sessions
Guard this time fiercely. No routine meetings during overlap.
Asynchronous (Everything Else)
- Written design documents
- Recorded demos
- Issue tracker discussions
- Pull request reviews
Default to async. If it can be written, write it.
Documentation Culture
Global teams can't rely on hallway conversations. Documentation becomes infrastructure:
Design docs: Every significant change gets a written proposal
- Problem statement
- Proposed solution
- Alternatives considered
- Open questions
Decision records: When we decide something, document why
- Context at time of decision
- Options considered
- Rationale for choice
- What would change our mind
Meeting notes: Every meeting produces written summary
- Decisions made
- Action items (with owners and dates)
- Open questions for async discussion
Building Trust Remotely
Trust is harder without casual interactions:
Video by default: Seeing faces builds connection. Cameras on.
Informal touchpoints: Weekly "coffee chat" video calls with no agenda.
In-person investment: Quarterly visits in each direction. Worth the cost.
Explicit appreciation: Recognition that would be casual in-office needs to be deliberate remotely.
Assuming good intent: When message seems curt, assume timezone fatigue, not hostility.
Ownership Clarity
Ambiguous ownership kills distributed teams. Clear divisions:
| Israel Owns | US Owns | Shared |
|---|---|---|
| Synthetic data | SLAM | Integration |
| Eye tracking | Mapping | API design |
| Sensor eval | Hand tracking | Architecture |
| Calibration | ML infra | Release |
When ownership is shared, decision authority is explicit.
What Doesn't Work
Expecting real-time response: If you message someone and they're asleep, wait.
Synchronous-first defaults: Scheduling meetings across 9 time zones for every discussion.
Hidden context: Decisions made in local meetings without documentation.
Separate backlogs: One team's priorities invisible to the other.
Our Rhythm
- Daily async standup: Written update by end of local day
- Weekly technical sync: All senior engineers, video, overlap hours
- Bi-weekly all-hands: Full team, recorded for async viewing
- Monthly planning: Align priorities, allocate resources
- Quarterly visits: Build relationships in person
It's not perfect. Nothing replaces being in the same room. But with discipline, global teams can execute at high velocity.