It’s Not the Whiteboard We Missed, It’s How It Made Us Feel

In the domains of research software and science, geographically dispersed, virtual, and remote software teams are nothing new— and likely here to stay. Nevertheless, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many scientists and software teams who transitioned from co-located offices to working remotely fulltime often lamented about missing the whiteboard most of all during the pandemic. So, was it the whiteboard that we missed, or the way we used it? Could we even go so far to say that we missed how it made us feel? As some of us now head back to co-located or hybrid office configurations, let’s contemplate the role of the whiteboard in many software teams and give it the props it deserves.