Remote vs. Hybrid: Inside Modern Design Teams

A podcast host talks to two design managers about how their teams operate across different cities.

Remote vs. Hybrid: Inside Modern Design Teams

True or false?

Julie works at a studio in London.

• True
• False

Adam's team has endless meetings every single day.

• True
• False

Adam's team uses a design critique session where nobody can show a screen.

• True
• False

John thinks headcount is currently very high everywhere.

• True
• False

Julie's team uses Figma and Jira.

• True
• False

Listen again and complete the sentences

• John: Welcome back to Design Weekly. I'm your host, John, and today we're talking about how creative teams organize their daily work. Joining me are Julie from a fintech studio in London and Adam from an agency in Austin. Julie, let's start with you. How does your ____ handle office days and remote work?
• Julie: Hi John. We're fully hybrid. People come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but it's totally flexible. We have a ____ of twelve, and everyone belongs to a specific squad with developers and product managers.
• Adam: Well, we're mostly remote, so async communication is super important for us. We don't like endless meetings because they slow down our ____ .
• Julie: I completely agree, Adam. Tooling also matters a lot. We rely heavily on Figma and Jira, but sometimes the tools ____ to create more noise than actual clarity.
• Julie: All the time, John! Headcount is tight right now, so every ____ has to own a feature from discovery to release. It's intense.

Sources: photo by Reza Tavakoli on Pexels