There are dozens of habits that go into making a remote culture work and ours does work. But I'll focus on two that I think are critical: transparency of the work and opportunities for discussion.Much of a remote culture is dependent upon the ability of everyone on the team to know what's going on and be able to proactively participate. I actually think this is true of more traditional office cultures, too, but it's especially critical when people are not in the same room. We have a variety of tools — GitHub, Dropbox, various project management systems, so on Breaking Down Barriers
— which make each person's work visible and accessible to every one else. Feedback and collaboration are a natural side effect of that accessibility.
Additionally, we have lots of avenues for discussion. One of the ways I characterize how we communicate is that there are times when redundancy of communication is really valuable. That is, when a group of people are collectively thinking through ideas and trying to arrive at the right solution, the more and varied ways they discuss those ideas, the more likely they will end up with a work that is meaningful and good.
That experience of working remotely has definitely shaped Editorially: we're keenly aware that transparency of the work and opportunities for communication are critical and have worked to bake those in wherever possible. The version system in Editorially ensures that everyone can see the work as it evolves and understand how each person contributes. It encourages a kind of observation and participation in the process, which make shared understanding and collaboration easier.