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Remote Team Bursts

Concentrate in-person creative work inside an otherwise remote operating model

Difficulty
Moderate
Time to result
~weeks to results
Steps
4
Confidence
97%

A burst is Shopify's structured way to preserve the strengths of in-person work inside a digital-by-default company. Roughly once a quarter when useful, a team comes together for high-velocity creative work, social connection, or a mixture of both. The company removes logistical friction through centralized booking, lodging, food, payment, and check-in support, so managers do not spend their time coordinating individual travel plans. Teams can use destination experiences or repurposed former offices as community spaces. Afterward, ratings and participation data help the company understand whether bursts are working and identify teams that have not met for a long time. The absence of a recent gathering becomes a prompt for a conversation about circumstances or team energy, not automatic evidence of a problem.

Origin

Shopify created bursts after becoming digital by default during the pandemic and recognizing that remote work's advantages did not erase the value of periodic in-person collaboration.

Core principles

  • 01Remote-first work does not eliminate the value of being together
  • 02In-person time should concentrate high-velocity creative work and relationships
  • 03Centralized logistics protect managers from becoming travel coordinators
  • 04Remote flexibility should be treated as an advantage rather than merely a compromise
  • 05Participation and ratings can reveal teams that may need reconnection

How to run it

  1. 1

    Diagnose the need to gather

    Identify whether the team needs concentrated creative work, social reconnection, or both. Treat time since the last gathering as a prompt to investigate rather than a mandatory cadence.

    Pro tip Ask whether low energy or a demanding creative problem would materially benefit from being together.

    Watch out Do not assume a team is unhealthy solely because it has not traveled recently.

  2. 2

    Design the burst

    Choose the purpose, location, group size, and balance of work and social activity. Build the agenda around the interactions that remote work handles least well.

    Pro tip Use existing office leases as bookable community spaces when destination travel is unnecessary.

    Watch out A normal week of desk work relocated to a hotel wastes the advantage of meeting in person.

  3. 3

    Remove logistical drag

    Centralize flight, hotel, food, expense, and check-in support. Make organizing the gathering simple enough that travel coordination does not consume the team lead.

    Pro tip Integrate a travel provider rather than building complex booking operations from scratch.

  4. 4

    Measure and follow up

    Collect participant ratings and track which teams have gathered. Use the information to improve future bursts and to open a conversation with teams that may need reconnection.

    Watch out Participation data needs context such as family constraints or a team that is already operating well.

In the wild

One-click Laguna Beach burst

Chu describes a 20-person team initiating a burst, choosing Laguna Beach, and having flights, hotels, food, payments, and check-in handled through Shopify's internal infrastructure. The gathering can combine creative work with social time.

→ The team gets concentrated in-person collaboration without turning its manager into a travel planner.

Common mistakes

Treating remote as never meeting

Digital-first work still benefits from deliberate periods of face-to-face creative work and relationship building.

Making managers run travel operations

Distributed booking and expense coordination adds friction and distracts team leaders from designing valuable time together.

Is it for you?

Best for

It is best for distributed teams that work well remotely but periodically need richer collaboration or renewed social energy.

Not ideal for

It is not ideal for organizations that cannot support travel or whose work and team health do not benefit from periodic co-location.

From the episode

Brandon Chu on building product at Shopify, how writing changed the trajectory of his career, the habits that make you a great PM, pros and cons of being a platform PM, how Shopify got through Covid

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