Matt Mullenweg says there are five levels of autonomy that define how distributed companies evolve:
- 0 – a job that cannot be done unless you’re physically there.
- 1 – no deliberate effort to make things remote-friendly.
- 2 – they’ve accepted that work is going to happen at home for a while, but they recreate what they were doing in the office in a “remote” setting. (Many businesses now find themselves in this position.)
- 3 – the company begins to benefit from being remote-first (distributed with planned meetups) so teams can break bread and meet each other in person a week or two every year.
- 4 – “things go truly asynchronous.”
- 5 – “Nirvana! This is when you consistently perform better than any in-person organization could.” 🧘
