Things to Watch Out for When Recruiting Side Project Team Members
I recently started recruiting team members for a side project, and it's been more challenging than I expected. Everyone was enthusiastic in the first week, but over time, participation dropped and people stopped committing. For those who have successfully managed side projects, could you share some tips on team management and schedule coordination? I'm especially curious about asynchronous collaboration tools or rules.
3 answers
I've had a similar experience. While initial passion is essential, I've found that setting clear minimum contribution standards helps maintain consistency. For example, working at least 30 minutes once a week or submitting a PR every two weeks. Using asynchronous tools like GitHub Projects or Linear helps keep progress transparent. I also recommend documenting the rules and sharing them, as well as keeping short weekly retrospectives in text.
When I look for team members, I first ask 'why are we doing this project?' The level of participation varies greatly depending on whether it's just for a portfolio or genuinely for fun. For asynchronous collaboration, the Discord + Notion combo worked best for me, and we set a fixed 30-minute voice meeting every Saturday morning to share progress. As for rules, we kept them minimal—things like 'notify the team channel if there's no response for more than 3 days.'
In the end, side projects seem to come down to people. It's natural for everyone to be passionate at the start, but realistically, when life gets busy, things get dropped. When recruiting team members, I made it clear that I was looking for 'someone who can commit consistently for at least 3 months,' and I fostered an atmosphere where people could step away gracefully if needed. For asynchronous tools, we used Slack + Trello, and important decisions were always made through voting, with the results documented. As a tip, the key is not to set weekly goals too ambitiously.