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15 Comments

Do You Think We'll See More Remote-First Teams In The Future? ๐Ÿค”

Since the first lockdown started, me and @harshvijay have been running our design agency 100% remotely. While managing over 20 team members now (large part of them joined us during this online period that too!) on multiple projects, I have realized one big takeaway.

Remote work has become the new normal for many companies since the pandemic. Even industry leaders like Facebook, Shopify, and Twitter are starting to adopt permanent remote work policies.

Even a company like Automattic (that is behind the worldโ€™s most popular content management system WordPress) is fully distributed and has 1335 employees in 77 countries speaking 99 different languages.

In this scenario, remote-first teams, according to me, pose a lot of advantages. Having employees all over the world sharing their different perspectives to always having people working around the clock due to differing time zones.

Today, when we have tools like Slack, Trello, and Google Meet at our disposal, remote-first teams are on the path to success and theyโ€™re here to stay for a long time.

What do you guys think the future will bring? Do you think remote-first teams are likely to succeed?

Love,
Siddhita โค๏ธ

  1. 3

    For sure, remote work can be considered as a competitive advantage rather than a nice perk or way to save money.

    Pandemic has only accelerated the shifting process.

    For sure fully remote model won't be adopted everywhere, but remote work, in general, is here to stay.

  2. 1

    Siddhita, first of all congrats on the transition from co-located to remote-first ๐ŸŽ‰

    I am an absolute believer in remote-first. From 2015-2019 I built my previous company from idea to exit completely remote. Now I'm writing an email-based course about the "80/20 of Remote Team Leadership ๐Ÿ" so I might be a bit biased ;)

    The more interesting question for me is: Will Hybrid work models work at all?

    The promise is that some organizations will have a mix between co-location and complete distribution, but my intuition tells me that it would be an operational nightmare since you would have to have at least 2 distinct ways of working (co-located & distributed).

    If the entire team is co-located or distributed it works. But what happens if you have a partial split (30/70; 50/50; 80/20... etc.) with constantly changing schedules.

    I think it sounds nice on the surface but the devil is in the practical details.

    My bet: co-located and remote-first will thrive. Hybrid will struggle & revert to one of the other two options.

  3. 1

    Remote first is now the default. Some firms will decide to co-locate if they feel they have to or when they can afford it.

  4. 1

    Absolutely. However, remote work does not fit everyone or every product and we still have ways to go when it comes to productivity.
    What happened is now it is more socially acceptable to go that route. So, we'll see more teams that benefit from that environment as well as more tools to coordinate the effort.

  5. 1

    100%. The biggest play in this isn't just companies realizing this, but employees desiring remote options. It's becoming more than how much folks earn, but also how they earn it. If companies aren't able to make the shift, they're going to miss out on landing top talent. More and more talented folks are moving to remote freelancing models, giving them control over when, where, and how they work. And we're doing everything we can over at MarketerHire to make sure folks have the options to work this way.

    Our CEO actually wrote a piece about this for Forbes recently: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/08/20/marketers-are-resigning-en-masse-heres-why-thats-good-for-business/?sh=5ffc0d0684e9

  6. 1

    Yes definitely but people will still crave human interaction. So even though many companies and teams will be remote-first, they will also need to have the flexibility for those employees who have the need for in-person interactions to hang out and collaborate in an office, offsite, events etc.

  7. 1

    I'm not completely sure, but I'm leaning towards an affirmative answer.

    At the moment, me and my colleagues are working on BotMeNot completely remotely. It seems like it's working out just fine. I do know however that there are some people who much more prefer working from the office.

    Are remote-first teams likely to succeed? I think it really doesn't depend on whether you're remote or not - it will still be about your product and the value it provides.

  8. 1

    Yes, remote work is here to stay. More and more organizations will evolve towards allowing for more flexibility; certainly as talent decides to move away from old-school places. That's my hope at least...

    I wrote about this recently, as my employer forces us to get back to the office: https://medium.com/management-matters/going-back-to-work-no-thank-you-5429d60acd12

  9. 1

    Yes, the pandemic definitely opened minds about this topic.

  10. 1

    It's happening! Last year I started my job fully remote (now hybrid) and it still goes very well. Large companies such as Trello, LinkedIn, Atlassian already announced that most of their job offers will have fully remote options.

  11. 1

    Is it a rhetoric question? I think it's absolutely certain :).

    1. 1

      I think the aim of this post is to get some engagement. That's it. Which I am happy to provide.

  12. 1

    One downside I would say to a globally-distributed remote workforce is the time difference. I've worked with people that are 12 to 15 hours different from mine and communication had been a challenge

  13. 1

    I really think that remote teams are good for programmers(and other services too), mostly they go to office and code and upload server and go home. they waste time in traffic, it adds up also cost that travelling does, travelling also makes us tired to some extent, and don't forget people shouting in offices and drama that doesn't come in remote work haha!

  14. 1

    Big supporter of remote work! I work as a consultant remotely whilst also working with team members on micro projects. I only see the upside of remote work. I get the argument that the community aspect of work might be missing but you can easily find there elsewhere in your physical location through clubs, sports, family etc. Keen to hear the thoughts of others!

  15. 2

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