Remote Work Practices and Toolset for Small Companies

This article shares the experience of a TVP (Tencent Cloud Valuable Professional) entrepreneur who decided to adopt remote work during the COVID‑19 pandemic and provides a detailed practical guide for small companies.

Background : The Chinese New Year holiday was extended, causing concerns for micro‑enterprises about returning to the office. Inspired by PingCAP’s five‑year remote‑work practice and other TVP discussions, the author decided to implement remote work.

A Day in Remote Work : The author outlines a typical schedule, from 06:00 waking up and checking pandemic updates, to using Tencent Enterprise Mail, WeChat Work, TAPD, and Tencent Meeting for communication, task assignment, and client interaction. Highlights include daily health reporting, virtual red‑packet greetings, project kickoff meetings, task distribution via TAPD, client updates through WeChat groups, and end‑of‑day reporting.

Toolset Checklist :

Company registration (business license).

Tencent Cloud (optional) – domain, TKE containers, enterprise mail.

WeChat Official Account – for public communication.

Enterprise Email (Tencent Enterprise Mail) – employee mailboxes.

Enterprise WeChat – instant messaging, group chats, video meetings, file sharing.

Tencent Meeting – online meetings with up to 300 participants, screen sharing, recording, background blur, etc.

Tencent LeXiang – enterprise live streaming, surveys, training.

TAPD – agile development management, task tracking, documentation, DevOps data bus.

Code management – GitHub (primary) and CODING (Tencent DevOps platform).

Tencent Docs – real‑time collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations.

Tencent Micro Cloud – cloud storage and file sync.

Common Issues and Solutions :

Coverage: remote work can include occasional office trips, full‑time remote staff, or fully remote organizations.

Efficient Collaboration: online meetings, cloud‑based shared workspaces, task/workflow management.

Security: multi‑factor authentication, encrypted connections, permission controls, DLP.

Requirements: MFA for Enterprise WeChat, unified collaboration platforms (WeChat Work, Meeting, Docs, Micro Cloud, LeXiang, TAPD, CODING), secure resource access, content security policies.

Remote Work Culture : Emphasizes self‑discipline, frequent communication, task decomposition, result‑oriented mindset, and the importance of building trust and transparency in distributed teams.

Quotes from TVP Experts : Various TVP members share insights on remote work benefits, challenges, and tool integration suggestions.

Author Bio : Zhang Shanyou, CTO of Shenzhen Youhaoda Technology Co., Ltd., Tencent Cloud TVP, with 19 years of .NET development experience and active community contributor.