Remote Work Is Not New — But 2020 Changed Everything
Remote work existed long before 2020. Companies like Automattic, GitLab, and Basecamp had been fully remote for years, proving that distributed teams could build world-class products. But the pandemic made remote work the default for millions of companies that had never considered it, compressing what might have been a decade of gradual adoption into a matter of weeks.
At StrikingWeb, we have been a remote-first team since our founding in 2018. We did not choose remote work because of a pandemic — we chose it because it aligns with how we believe great software is built: by giving talented people the autonomy to do their best work from wherever they are most productive.
Remote-First vs Remote-Friendly
There is a critical distinction between companies that are remote-first and those that are merely remote-friendly. Remote-friendly companies have an office but allow some employees to work from home some of the time. This creates a two-tier system where remote workers are at a disadvantage — they miss hallway conversations, are excluded from spontaneous meetings, and have less visibility with leadership.
Remote-first companies design every process, tool, and communication practice around the assumption that everyone is distributed. There is no office to fall back on, so asynchronous communication, documentation, and intentional connection become the default. This creates a level playing field where every team member has equal access to information and opportunity regardless of location.
The Competitive Advantages of Remote-First
Global Talent Access
When you are not limited to a 30-kilometer radius around your office, you can hire the best person for the job regardless of where they live. This is particularly powerful in technology, where demand for skilled developers far exceeds local supply in most markets. Our team spans multiple cities, and we have access to talent that a single-location company simply cannot reach.
Reduced Overhead
Office space is one of the largest expenses for technology companies. Remote-first companies redirect those funds toward higher salaries, better equipment, professional development, and team retreats that create deeper connections than daily proximity ever could. Our savings on office costs have been reinvested into better developer tools, ergonomic home office stipends, and annual team meetups.
Higher Productivity
Studies consistently show that remote workers are more productive than their office counterparts. Without commute time, open-office distractions, and unnecessary meetings, developers can focus on deep work for longer stretches. At StrikingWeb, we have found that our developers consistently report being more productive working from home, with fewer interruptions and more control over their work environment.
Better Work-Life Balance
Remote work eliminates commutes, gives people flexibility to handle personal responsibilities during the day, and allows them to design their work schedule around their most productive hours. Happier employees produce better work, stay longer, and contribute more positively to team culture.
Tools That Make Remote Work Effective
Remote-first requires intentional tooling. Here is the stack we use at StrikingWeb:
- Communication: Slack for asynchronous messaging, organized by project channels. We avoid DMs for work-related discussions so that information is accessible to the whole team.
- Video: Google Meet for synchronous meetings, kept to a minimum. We have two standing team calls per week and schedule ad-hoc calls only when asynchronous discussion has not resolved the question.
- Project management: Linear for task tracking. Every piece of work is documented with clear acceptance criteria and linked to relevant conversations and code changes.
- Documentation: Notion serves as our internal knowledge base. Architecture decisions, onboarding guides, client briefs, and process documentation all live in one searchable place.
- Code collaboration: GitHub for version control, code review, and CI/CD. Pull request reviews are our primary mechanism for knowledge sharing and code quality.
- Design: Figma for collaborative design work. Designers and developers work in the same tool, reducing handoff friction and enabling real-time feedback.
Building Culture Without an Office
The most common objection to remote work is that you lose company culture. This is only true if you define culture as ping-pong tables and free snacks. Real culture is about shared values, trust, communication norms, and how people treat each other — none of which require physical proximity.
Practices That Build Remote Culture
- Written communication as a default: Writing forces clarity of thought and creates a searchable record that new team members can reference.
- Intentional social time: Virtual coffee chats, team game sessions, and informal Slack channels for non-work topics create personal connections.
- Annual retreats: Once a year, we bring the entire team together for a week. These in-person gatherings strengthen relationships and align the team on long-term goals.
- Transparent decision-making: We document the reasoning behind important decisions and invite input before finalizing. This builds trust and gives everyone a voice.
- Recognition: Public acknowledgment of good work in team channels reinforces the behaviors and values we want to see more of.
Challenges and How We Address Them
Loneliness and Isolation
Remote work can be isolating, especially for extroverts and people living alone. We address this through regular social calls, encouraging co-working sessions (virtual and in-person where possible), and checking in with team members individually to ensure they feel connected.
Overwork and Burnout
When your office is your home, the boundaries between work and personal life blur. We encourage team members to set clear working hours, take regular breaks, and use their vacation time. Leadership models these behaviors — if the founders are online at midnight, the team feels pressure to do the same.
Time Zone Coordination
With team members in different time zones, finding meeting times can be challenging. We solve this by defaulting to asynchronous communication and limiting synchronous meetings to core overlap hours. Most collaboration happens through pull requests, Slack threads, and documented discussions that team members can engage with on their own schedule.
The future of work is not about where you sit — it is about what you produce. Remote-first companies that invest in communication, tooling, and intentional culture will outperform office-bound competitors in attracting talent, reducing costs, and delivering results.
Looking Forward
The pandemic accelerated remote work adoption by years, and there is no going back. The companies that will thrive in the post-pandemic world are those that treat remote work not as a compromise but as a competitive advantage. At StrikingWeb, remote-first is not a pandemic response — it is a core part of who we are and how we deliver excellent work for our clients.