HowtoSetUpaCodeReviewWorkflowWithaRemoteContractor

With an in-house, in-office team, informal oversight happens naturally — a manager overhears a conversation, glances at a screen. With a remote contractor, that informal channel doesn't exist, so a deliberate code review process is what replaces it. This isn't about distrust; it's about maintaining the same visibility you'd have with any team member, just through a different mechanism.

Git-based version control with pull requests is the standard way to structure this — every change is proposed as a discrete, reviewable unit before it merges into the main codebase, creating a natural checkpoint and a record of what changed and why.

Even as a non-technical founder, you can get real value from a lightweight process: request that pull requests include a brief written description of what changed and why, and ask for a short video walkthrough of anything significant before it ships. If you have any technical advisor, even a part-time one, having them spot-check pull requests periodically adds a layer of oversight beyond your own read of the summaries.

For a solo contractor without a peer to review their own code, self-review discipline matters — a good contractor will describe their own reasoning clearly in pull request descriptions specifically because they know no one else is checking their work in real time.

This process shouldn't add meaningful friction to a small project — its purpose is visibility, not bureaucracy. A pull-request-based workflow with clear descriptions and periodic recorded walkthroughs gives you real insight into progress and quality without requiring you to read code yourself or schedule constant live reviews.