Remote developers are certainly part of the solution. In my experience, they're great when all you want is a developer to implement well-specced features. I hav

Remote developers are certainly part of the solution. In my experience, they're great when all you want is a developer to implement well-specced features. I have no problem hiring and managing remote developers in such situations (in fact, half my team is currently remote). However, I do think there's a fundamental ceiling for remote developers in becoming leads or "product engineers." Collaboration, especially with non-tech stakeholders, is still much harder when you're not in the same office. As such, it's unlikely that we'll see many remote developers in positions which require extensive product discovery and brainstorming or high-level architecture. Unfortunately, such work (ie. senior developer work) is precisely where the talent shortage is most acute. I have no problem finding junior/midlevel developers who can implement a function locally or remotely—but finding local senior developers is nigh impossible.