Remote Work Isn’t the Holy Grail - Why Product Teams Need Office Time

~1000 words. 5 min read.

Remote work: the great equalizer, the modern dream, the "pants-optional" revolution. Since 2020, it’s been hailed as the savior of work-life balance and the ultimate productivity hack.

And for product teams? It’s… complicated. Sure, you’ve got flexibility and fewer awkward elevator conversations, but does it really stack up against the magic of shared in-office time? Let’s dive in—but first, let’s talk Spotify.

Spotify’s recent ad proudly proclaimed: "Our employees aren't children. Spotify will continue working remotely." A spicy little mic drop, right? Wrong. This take is about as nuanced as a toddler’s finger painting. I could easily see an ad stating “Our employees aren’t children. We will return to the office.” be an equally attention-grabbing platitude.

The ad glosses over a key point: it’s not about trust. It’s about what you miss when you’re NOT in the room. Those chance encounters, the impromptu brainstorms, the moments when someone yells, “Wait, what if we did THIS?” and suddenly you’ve got a breakthrough.
Oh and – white boards. Yes, there’s Miro and Figma and MS Teams, but three people with markers standing in front of the same white board? Magic!

Remote Work > Sliced Bread

Advocates of remote work argue that it’s the best thing since sliced bread. They’ll tell you about:

Enhanced Focus: Fewer interruptions, no colleagues practicing drum solos on their desks, and a quiet space to strategize.
Broader Talent Access: Want to hire a UX designer in Finland and a data scientist in New Zealand? Remote makes it happen. Diversity of thought, FTW!
Cost Savings: No fancy office beanbags or "hydration stations" required. Budget reallocated to actual work tools? Yes, please.

One thing remote work has done, is sell. Look at all these books:

*Cracking the Code of Remote Work. I like the ones with islands and no pants on the cover.*

Sliced Bread > Remote Work?

Before you cancel your office lease, let’s look at the dark side:

Maintaining Alignment: Without shared physical spaces, it’s like playing a never-ending game of telephone. Only instead of “purple monkey dishwasher”, you’re ending up with “launch a blockchain-based toaster.”
Building Relationships: Trust doesn’t grow in Slack threads. Sure, you can bond over a funny .gif, but deep connections? Those need occasional eye contact. And maybe donuts (I choose Krispy Kreme). Or maybe even this.
Decision-Making: Remote work is the land of “Can we circle back on this?” Everything takes longer. Quick hallway huddles? Gone. Now you’re booking a Zoom meeting three days out. Any Product Manager who had their scrum team sit next to them on the floor knows what speed in decision-making is.

Hybrid Models: The Goldilocks Option?

Hybrid work promises to give us the best of both worlds. But, spoiler: it’s not without its hiccups.

Coordination Chaos: Half the team’s in the office, half’s on mute. Whose bright idea was it to schedule an all-hands during lunch in Singapore?
Culture Dilution: When some folks are remote and others aren’t, keeping that team spirit alive is like trying to inflate a balloon with a pinhole. I have written a lot about culture, but y’all know that it eats strategy for breakfast. Good luck building your #highperformingteam culture with everyone being everywhere and nowhere all the time.

Maybe this could work:

1. Redesign Collaboration Spaces

The office isn’t dead; it’s just evolving. Think fewer cubicles, more spaces for whiteboarding and shouting, “Let’s pivot!”. How about that product huddle in the morning, where everyone stands around the whiteboard and actually understands what everyone else is working on. You want synergy? Plant some seeds. The office provides fertile soil for it.

2. Master Asynchronous Communication

Document everything—decisions, debates, doodles. Make your team’s Confluence page a shrine to clarity. All the “freedom” that the many books on remote work advertise comes at a price: the price of having to put more work into comms. The second you neglect that part, remote work fails.

3. Foster Team Culture

Virtual happy hours are great. But when possible, go analog: team retreats, office reunions, or just bowling nights. Nothing bonds a team like gutter balls. I also like ‘accidentally’ hitting coworkers with pickleball balls. Pickleballs.

4. Set Clear Expectations

Be explicit about when and why the team should be in-office versus remote. Hint: Fridays for bagels and brainstorming. Once you start thinking like this, you may find that almost everything would be better in person.

One more note on this: You can really make an impression on stakeholders, fix relationships, and tilt the power dynamics if your team is the one that shows office presence in full force for important meetings, like initiative kickoffs or strategic alignment sessions. People notice - subconsciously even.

Diverging Viewpoints

Pro-Remote Camp: Some swear remote work is a manifested utopia. They cite productivity stats, happy employees, and global hiring sprees realizing talent optimization.

Skeptics: Others argue that innovation is collateral damage of remote work. Zoom just can’t replicate the energy of a heated whiteboard session or a designer and developer locked in a debate over button placement.

My Perspective

Here’s the deal: Remote work has its place. If you’re churning out incremental updates or running a "feature factory," it’ll do fine. But for product teams tackling disruptive challenges or transformative projects, shared in-office time is irreplaceable.

A serendipitous coffee chat with a stakeholder, an engineer’s doodle that sparks an idea, a designer’s impromptu mockup— these are the moments when product management is what you wanted it to be when you took the job.

Offices aren’t just for meetings; they’re breeding grounds for synergy, creativity, and momentum. And to state it clearly: Don’t talk about culture as your competitive advantage when all your people know of each other is their top half. You know, the part you can see on zoom.

So, while Spotify’s ad may sound catchy, it’s missing the plot. Trust is important, but shared physical spaces create the kind of unplanned interactions that no remote setup can replicate. Let’s embrace flexibility, sure—but let’s also remember that for the big, bold stuff, sometimes, you’ve just got to be in the room.