Last week, I participated in a fully-remote design sprint, a 5 day, 6+ hours/day, highly focused exercise to solve a problem and prototype a product with a cross functional group. As the week went on, I came to a surprising realization. The activity wasn’t worse for being remote. It was actually better. 

I’ve always been a huge proponent of in-person work, particularly for creative activities. I gain energy from the infectious enthusiasm of passionate people solving a problem together in close physical and temporal proximity. With the pandemic causing a shift to fully-remote work, I’ve tried to work as effectively, enjoyably, and collaboratively as possible. However, it seemed obvious to me that, even done well, remote work would always be somewhat lesser than ‘the real thing’. While trying hard every day to make it as effective as in-person work, I hadn’t considered the ways in which it could actually be better.

The design sprint succeeded in part due to a highly-competent and engaging facilitator. Surprisingly, though, the remote aspect was a major positive factor. The fact that all engagement was done over Zoom as well as a shared design space (mural.co) made it so everyone could produce real artifacts immediately visible to the full group. It truly felt like ‘working in public’. In addition, the fact that so much of the communication took place in writing made for a more diverse set of perspectives, whereas in-person meetings can be dominated by the loudest and most confident people. Ultimately, this resulted in a sharper framing of the problem, a more diverse set of potential solutions, and highly compelling output formed by the combined efforts of many talented individuals.

What other remote experiences could actually surpass their in-person equivalent? Rather than serving as a poor facsimile of the physical-world, what are the things that are uniquely possible in an online medium that we haven’t previously considered?