Remote-First Works. But Not With Everyone.

The remote work debate is exhausting.

One side insists that “real work” happens in offices. The other side claims remote is universally superior. Both are wrong — because they’re arguing about the wrong thing.

After years of leading distributed engineering teams, I’ve learned something that most remote skeptics (and advocates) miss:

Remote-first doesn’t fail because of the work model. It fails because of the people.

The Misconception

Most companies approach remote work like this: take an office-first team, send them home, add Zoom, and hope for the best.

Then they’re surprised when it doesn’t work.

They blame remote work. They mandate return-to-office. They write think pieces about “collaboration” and “culture” and “water cooler conversations.”

But the problem was never the location. The problem was expecting office-first people to suddenly thrive in a completely different environment.

Office-first and remote-first require fundamentally different mindsets:

You can’t just flip a switch. These are different ways of working — and they attract different kinds of people.

The Right People

Remote-first needs people who:

1. Work autonomously from day one

They don’t wait for instructions. They see a problem, figure out a solution, and move. If they’re blocked, they unblock themselves or communicate clearly about what they need.

This isn’t about being a “lone wolf.” It’s about being self-directed while staying connected to the team.

2. Optimize for goals, not tickets

There’s a huge difference between “I closed 15 tickets this sprint” and “I made sure we shipped the authentication system.”

Ticket-closers do what they’re told. Goal-owners do what’s needed — even if that means pivoting, helping a teammate, or pushing back on scope.

3. Over-communicate by default

In an office, you can see when someone’s struggling. Remote, you can’t. The right people share context proactively. They write things down. They surface blockers before they become crises.

4. Trust their teammates — and earn trust back

Remote-first can’t survive micromanagement. It requires mutual trust: managers trust people to deliver, and people trust each other to pull their weight.

If you hire someone you don’t trust to work without supervision, you hired the wrong person.

The Framework: Goal Owners

At Abusix, I implemented a framework that makes remote-first actually work. It’s simple, but it changes everything.

How it works

Every sprint, we define goals — not tasks, not tickets, goals.

“Implement login flow” is a task. “Users can securely authenticate and access their dashboard” is a goal.

Each goal gets an owner.

The owner is not the person who does all the work. The owner is the person responsible for the goal being achieved. They might write code, but more importantly, they:

• Break the goal into what needs to happen
• Coordinate with teammates who contribute
• Identify blockers and communicate them early
• Say “we still need X and Y” when the team drifts
• Ultimately own the outcome, not just their individual contribution

Why it works

Autonomy with accountability. The team works autonomously toward the goal. No one’s asking “are you still working?” because progress is visible through the goal, not through presence.

Clear ownership without silos. Everyone knows who to talk to about what. The owner isn’t gatekeeping — they’re coordinating.

Focus on outcomes. When you own a goal, you think differently. You’re not optimizing for “looking busy” — you’re optimizing for “did we ship it?”

Natural documentation. Because owners need to communicate asynchronously, context gets written down. This creates institutional knowledge as a side effect.

What it looks like in practice

Monday: Sprint starts. We have three goals for the two weeks. Each has an owner.

Daily async standups (written, not meetings): Owners post progress toward their goal. Blockers surface immediately.

Mid-sprint: One goal is at risk. The owner flags it, explains why, and proposes a scope adjustment. We discuss and decide — async, in a thread, with context preserved.

End of sprint: We review goals, not tickets. Did we achieve what we set out to achieve? Owners present their goal’s outcome.

No “what did you do yesterday?” surveillance. No counting commits. Just: did we hit our goals?

The Results

Since implementing this framework:

• Fewer meetings. We replaced daily standups with async updates. Meetings are for decisions, not status.
• Faster shipping. Clear ownership means less diffusion of responsibility.
• Better retention. Good engineers hate micromanagement. Give them ownership, and they stay.
• Actual documentation. Because async is the default, things get written down. New team members onboard faster.

But the biggest change? Hiring became clearer.

We stopped asking “can this person do the job?” and started asking “can this person own outcomes?” It’s a different filter — and it finds different people.

How to Get Started

If you’re running a remote team that’s struggling, here’s where to start:

1. Audit your team’s mindset. Are your people waiting for tasks or hunting for goals? The answer tells you a lot.

2. Shift from tickets to goals. Next sprint, define 2-3 outcomes you want to achieve. Make them concrete and measurable.

3. Assign owners, not assignees. For each goal, pick someone who’s responsible for the outcome, not just their piece.

4. Default to async. Every meeting should earn its existence. If it could be a document, make it a document.

5. Hire differently. Screen for autonomy and ownership. Ask candidates about times they drove outcomes, not just completed tasks.

Remote-first isn’t for everyone. That’s not a bug — it’s a feature.

The companies that thrive remotely aren’t the ones with the best tools or the fanciest async workflows. They’re the ones who understood, from the start, that this is a people problem.

Hire accordingly.