A time difference does not have to slow a team down. Plenty of companies run product development with engineers several hours ahead of them, and the ones that do it well tend to share the same habits: a protected overlap window, clear written updates and handoffs that do not depend on someone being online.
This guide covers the practical side of working with a team in India from the UK, Europe or the US.
Know the actual numbers
India Standard Time (IST) is UTC+5:30 and does not change for daylight saving. That means the gap to you shifts twice a year when your clocks change.
- UK: IST is 4.5 hours ahead during British Summer Time and 5.5 hours ahead in winter.
- Central Europe: IST is 3.5 hours ahead in summer and 4.5 hours ahead in winter.
- US East Coast: IST is 9.5 hours ahead during daylight time and 10.5 hours ahead in winter.
- US Central: IST is 10.5 hours ahead during daylight time and 11.5 hours ahead in winter.
- US West Coast: IST is 12.5 hours ahead in summer and 13.5 hours ahead in winter.
- Singapore: IST is 2.5 hours behind Singapore all year; neither country uses daylight saving.
- Australia East (Sydney, Melbourne): IST is 4.5 hours behind during Australian standard time and 5.5 hours behind during Australian daylight time.
The US and Europe change their clocks on different dates in March and in late October or early November, so for a few weeks each year the gaps are an hour off from what you expect. Put recurring meetings in a shared calendar that handles time zones, rather than agreeing a time in a chat message.
Find and protect the overlap window
The overlap is the set of hours when both sides are working. It is the most valuable time you have together, so use it for conversations that need a quick back-and-forth.
With a team working from 9 am to midnight IST and a client day of 8 am to 5 pm, UK and Central European teams share their entire working day. On the US East Coast, the shared window runs from 08:00 to about 14:30 in summer (13:30 in winter). US Central gets roughly 08:00 to 13:30 (12:30 in winter), and the US West Coast gets 08:00 to about 11:30 (10:30 in winter). Singapore overlaps from 11:30 to the end of the day, and Australian East Coast teams overlap from about 13:30 (14:30 during daylight time) until 17:00.
Good uses of the overlap:
- Standups and planning
- Clarifying requirements before work starts
- Code reviews that need discussion
- Sprint demos and retrospectives
- Unblocking problems that have stalled
Poor uses: status updates that could be written, and meetings with no clear decision to make. If the overlap is short, guard it. Do not fill it with routine calls.
Run standups that actually help
A daily standup keeps everyone aligned, but it does not need to be long. Fifteen minutes in the overlap window is enough. Each person covers what they finished, what they are working on and anything blocking them.
For US teams with a short overlap, consider a written standup instead. Each developer posts a short update in a shared channel at the end of their day. Your team reads it first thing and replies to questions, and the live call can be kept for two or three days a week.
Whichever format you use, the blockers matter most. A blocker raised at the end of the Indian day and answered the next morning costs a full day. Raise them early, and make sure someone on your side has the authority to answer.
Make handoffs explicit
When your day starts as theirs is ending, the handoff is where work either keeps moving or stalls overnight. A few habits help:
- End-of-day notes. Each developer writes what they finished, what is in progress, and any question that needs an answer before they can continue.
- Questions with options. Instead of “how should this work?”, write “I can do A or B; I would suggest A because of X.” Your team can reply with one word.
- Parallel work. Keep enough well-defined tickets ready that a developer waiting on an answer can switch to something else.
- Clear ownership. Every open question should have a named person responsible for answering it.
Write things down
Distributed teams run on writing. The more context is written down, the less depends on who is online.
Useful written artefacts:
- Tickets with acceptance criteria, not just a title
- Short design notes for anything non-trivial, explaining the approach and the alternatives considered
- A decision log, so nobody has to ask why something was done a certain way
- A weekly summary of progress, risks and next steps for stakeholders who do not follow the daily detail
Writing also helps with language. Many people find it easier to be precise in written English than on a call, and a written record avoids the “I thought you said” problem.
Choose tools that support async work
You do not need many tools, but everyone should use the same ones:
- Issue tracker such as Jira, Linear or GitHub Issues, with one board that reflects reality
- Chat such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, with channels per project rather than private messages
- Code hosting with pull requests, so reviews happen in writing alongside the code
- Shared documentation in Confluence, Notion or a repository wiki
- Short screen recordings for explaining a bug or walking through a feature without needing a meeting
Ask the offshore team to work in your tools rather than theirs. This keeps everything in one place and makes the team feel like part of your company.
Use the time difference to your advantage
The gap is not only a cost. Handled well, it gives you a longer working day.
- Your team reviews pull requests in the morning, and changes are made the same day.
- QA can test overnight builds so issues are waiting for developers when they start.
- A bug reported late in your afternoon can be investigated while you sleep, with findings ready in the morning.
This only works if the handoffs above are in place. Without them, the time difference just adds delay.
How Dotqode handles it
Our working day runs from 9 am to midnight IST, which covers the UK and European working day, gives every US time zone a shared window in the morning, and overlaps with Australian afternoons. Our dedicated developers work in your Jira, Slack, GitHub or equivalent and join your standups. If you are still at the planning stage, our guide on hiring a dedicated development team in India covers the decisions to make first.
Talk to us about your setup
If you want to work out a schedule that suits your team’s location, get in touch and we will walk through how the overlap would work for you.
