Is there a way to guarantee the success of a new remote team?

While there are no guarantees, you can give your remote teams a much greater chance of success, in both the short and long term, with a few simple steps.  Here are six steps to take:

1. Make sure that the team knows its purpose.  Purpose is central because it is the one thing all team members must work toward together.  A great way to gage the health of your team is to ask each member (privately) to identify the purpose(s) of the team.  If team members identify the same purpose(s), you have a good foundation.
2. Communicate any external and internal constraints to your teams, such as deadlines and costs.
3. Communicate the roles of team members so that the boundaries between responsibilities are not blurry.  Blurry roles become even more blurry online because online spaces have fewer cues than face-to-face spaces.
4. Provide as many communication technology choices as possible so that the team can choose how to use what.  You might provide options for a web conferencing tool, email, texting, Slack, etc.
5. Hold a web conference to kick off the team, and cover the first 4 steps during the meeting.
6. Provide time for metacommunication so that the team can establish their communication expectations.  Record those expectations.  The team can update expectations as needed as long as the team agrees to the changes. 

With these six simple steps, you can improve remote team performance significantly.   (from International Virtual Teams: Engineering Global Success, by P. E. Brewer)