One tactic that worked really well while I was a coding engineering manager is to have engineers in opposite timezones that don't mind sharing git branches.

We have a small team of 4 engineers (1 in Seoul, 1 in NYC, 2 in Brazil) + myself (CA) and we shipped a brand new product line with paying customers for our startup in a few weeks (subsequently added more features). I correlate that strongly to us having a 24hr engineering cycle and us being willing to pick up where others left off.

The small team acting as a startup really resonates with my experiences.