Remote working isn’t for everyone

I know I’m rehashing an old topic but before anyone rolls their eyes in indignation, I’m asking for three short paragraphs worth of patience to justify myself.

First of all, I’m all for remote working. Living in a bustling city-state with a rapidly increasing head count, remote working is favourable as an alternative to long commutes in cramped conditions. Working out of office also caters to certain personality types and most would agree that working in isolation does increase productivity, while collaboration in a coworking space leads to more innovation (Marissa Mayer just recently raised this point).

It is this last point that is particularly relevant to companies of a certain size. Jeff Gothelf, in his book Lean UX lists Small, Dedicated, Colocated Teams as one of the Principles of Lean.Why?

The benefit of small teams comes down to three words: communication, focus, and camaraderie. Smaller teams are easier to keep current on project status, changes, and new learning. Dedicating your team to one project keeps everyone on the team focused on the same priorities all the time. Having the team all in one place allows relationships to grow between colleagues.

His book advocates communication over documentation in the lean product development process — the team should have a collective, common understanding of the product without the time consuming process of documentation. Small teams probably don’t have a standard operating procedure, and before they actually have any semblance of a team culture, working closely together in the same room is probably the best way to create one.

After working on a small team for many months now and seeing how we try and sometimes fail to effectively communicate when we’re all out of office, I am convinceed that there is no single right way to work.