Async is cool, but there is a certain level of magic working on things in-person, tackling problems as a group. I fail to find the words for the magic behind this, but something about being face to face that feels special in this whole "let's go remote" movement.
Indeed! It does require to read more if you’ve got a wall of text as you wake up, but as things progress and people get in sync, communication tends to improve and become more efficient.
The teams that I’ve worked on have always just done everything via messages but to touch on your point, we never had check ins in the first place. People are given complete autonomy and are responsible for outcomes. With issue tracking it’s easy to see who is blocking the work but that person usually pushes themselves on without any additional input. The whole thing is rather casual.
Hmm, I haven’t really had issue. The teams that were already async seemed to have figured it out. Perhaps having a smaller team is key? I can see how larger teams may be more difficult to stay on top of.