Work Has Changed. Here's What We Might Do About It | Figma Blog
Distributed work has permanently changed how teams collaborate, but many organizations have not yet adapted their processes. Figma’s research finds that product development is strained by three forces: more participants, greater geographic distance, and more simultaneous work. The strongest teams counter this complexity through transparency, shared understanding, and intentional connection. ## Distributed Work Is Now Permanent - In a Figma survey, 75% of designers in Europe and Asia said they work from home more often than before the pandemic. - U.S. work-from-home days are now five times higher than in 2019. - Teams meet in person less frequently, making remote collaboration a lasting feature of modern work rather than a temporary adjustment. ## Product Development Faces Widespread Barriers - Forrester Consulting found that 9 in 10 respondents experienced barriers during product development. - Six in ten reported at least one of the three most significant obstacles: - Lack of alignment across teams - Difficulty making decisions - Lengthy development cycles - These problems existed before the pandemic but have been intensified by distributed work and faster product-release expectations. ## Three Forces Increasing Workplace Complexity ### More People Involved - Product development now includes designers, engineers, data specialists, security, content, marketing, product management, and executives. - Broader participation brings more expertise and enables global collaboration. - It also increases the number of perspectives, dependencies, and decisions that teams must coordinate. ### More Distributed Work - Physical distance can create emotional distance and make it harder to build trust. - Teams lose some of the informal coordination that came from working together in the same office. - Digital tools provide real-time editing, shared files, and multiplayer collaboration, but can also produce notification overload, fragmented discussions, and confusing comment threads. ### More Work in Progress - Companies are expected to release new versions of websites, applications, and digital products more frequently. - The growing volume and speed of work can allow high-performing teams to achieve more, while leaving others overwhelmed and frustrated. ## What Separates Effective Teams - Successful collaboration requires more than simply placing everyone in the same digital file. - High-performing teams distinguish themselves through: - Greater transparency - A shared understanding of goals and work - Intentional efforts to maintain connection and trust - These behaviors help turn distributed collaboration from a “cooperative mess” into productive teamwork. Teams should treat distributed work as a permanent operating model and deliberately invest in visibility, alignment, decision-making, and human connection rather than relying on digital tools alone.
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