Distributed teams are hard. Distributed teams, where some people are in office and others at home, are harder. Widely distributed teams with people working across countries and time zones are exceptionally hard. Widely distributed teams in a pandemic are damn near impossible to get right. Culture clash alone is an enormous challenge. I once had a fantastic American product manager piss off an equally strong director of engineering (in India) by complaining that the tool the PM needed “had fallen and can’t get up.

“Creative thinking requires a relaxed state, the ability to think through options at a slow pace and the openness to explore different alternatives without fear.” - Fixing our Unhealthy Obsession with Work Email