I have been building, leading, and managing remote teams since the covid-19 pandemic started. As someone that came from a computer software engineering background, remote work seemed prefect as all my team did was type on keyboards all day and show up for a couple of meetings and these meetings had already been occurring over video conferencing software as the teams and some bystanders were split among offices. I have come to love remote work for all the benefits it provides, it has also come with some draw backs.
With the shift to remote work, almost all of my teams enjoy the added time back in their lives from not having to sit in traffic, dealing with car repairs, frequent office outings, and everything else that comes with a commuter lifestyle. As a manager, I have been able to pull on talent from across the United States and beyond to fill roles faster, cheaper, and with almost no noticeable impact on the actual code delivered. However that is the key part, the metric I used was impact on the code delivered.
If I change the metric I have seen an impact in another area: creative work. Having people in the same room as each other allows them to easily over hear others, build ideas on each others ideas, and catch on to things that are going on that may not have been communicated well by official channels. For my current organization this seems to impact the planning process the most, where we have large product asks with a new platform that is quickly getting developed and requiring many creative solutions to align them.
Now an area I have been watching hopefully, was the virtual reality space as a way to give that in person collaboration as an option teams can use, probably not all the time, but on a regular interval. When Meta (previously called Facebook) set their future vision as creating the Metaverse a place people can work I was skeptical and even after what I am about to say I am still skeptical that Meta will use the work data as inside knowledge to their advantage (their work target applications do clearly state that they will not do this – but my trust is lacking).
I have recently purchased an Oculus Pro and have experimented with the facial expression tracking, eye tracking, hand tracking, and the augmented reality mode. When combined with the virtual desk, virtual meeting room, and virtual whiteboard that you can share with your team, this has given me true hope for what virtual reality and augment reality could allow us to do in the future.
If I did not work in a security company with concerns over Meta’s reputation, I would push to use the Quest Pro over flying everyone into a central location for meetings. It would even pay for itself after just one in-person meeting skipped.