Remote work made us faster. Then it made us slower.

The first year of remote work was a clear win. No commute, fewer interruptions, more deep work. Our shipping cadence went from one release every 3 weeks to one every 10 days.

The second year, something shifted. We were still shipping, but the quality of decisions was worse. We would spend two weeks on something, ship it, and then realize in a call that we had all misunderstood the same requirement in different ways.

What we had lost was the accidental conversation. The two minutes after a meeting where someone says "wait, I thought we were doing X." That never happens on a scheduled call because the call ends and everyone closes their laptop.

We now run one mandatory in-person day per month. Not for meetings, for proximity. Ship cadence stayed the same. Rework dropped by roughly a third.

For those who have been fully remote for 2+ years: have you found the thing that replaces accidental alignment, or have you accepted the tradeoff?