What is the follow-the-sun model?
The follow-the-sun model passes work from one team to the next as the working day ends in each region, so something is always moving and customers get 24-hour coverage across time zones without anyone working nights.
A follow-the-sun model example
A support team has people in Sydney, London and San Francisco. Sydney works the queue first, London picks it up as Sydney’s day ends, and San Francisco takes over from London. Follow-the-sun support is the most common use, but software teams use the same pattern for testing and incident response.
The follow-the-sun handoff
The model lives or dies on the handoff. Each region ends its day with a written note covering what was done, what is open, what is blocked and what is urgent. Without that note, each team spends its first hour rediscovering the previous team’s work.
Follow-the-sun pros and cons
- Pro: round-the-clock progress and response without night shifts.
- Pro: faster answers for customers in every region.
- Con: every handoff loses some context.
- Con: hard to run with fewer than three well-spread locations.
- Con: needs shared tools and habits, or each region drifts into its own way of working.
What it needs to work
Written, asynchronous communication by default, one shared place for tasks and decisions, and a little overlap between regions for the moments that need a live conversation. Remote Team Collaboration Hub is built around written standups, threads and task updates, which is what a team spread across continents needs to stay aligned.
Last reviewed 2026-11-01.