Inside 2023:

INVISION
The Future
of Work
INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK
Three biggest trends
that will shape the year
ahead
Words by Diana Buccella and Lori Alcala, 1
Illustration by Kristina Pedos
INTRODUCTION

As teams continue to adapt to hybrid and remote work, the past

year has been all about finding ways to satisfy both company and
employee needs, particularly in a market where workers face a
low cost of switching jobs and a global job market. However, with
the threat of an economic recession looming, layoffs and cost
cutting mean companies have had to place more of their focus
on helping distributed teams work more efficiently across the
organization and in ways that will sustain long-term growth.

INVISION
In this year’s report, we focus on three major trends that
companies need to prepare for in order to thrive in 2023:

1. Turning lean teams into dream teams

2. Winning the race with sustainability and efficiency
3. Cueing up cross-functional collaboration

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

To learn more about the topics most relevant to our readers, we
surveyed nearly 1,500 professionals in more than 12 different job
roles across 20+ industries. We also tapped into industry experts
to gather up the most talked about topics and ideas. Here’s what
to watch for in 2023:

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Trend 1: Turning
lean teams into
dream teams
From fitness and tech to apparel and automotive, companies
across industries have faced workforce reductions over the past
year due to changes to the economic climate.

INVISION
With changes abound, many teams have had to continue doing
the same amount of work, or even more, with less people — a sure
recipe for burnout. “The disruptions to the labor market brought on
by the pandemic continue to play out today,” notes NPR. “Workers
are responding to burnout by striking, quitting and refusing to
return to offices.”

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

And with companies already facing barriers around communication
and lack of alignment in remote and hybrid work environments, a
reduction in headcount only adds to the complexity.

InVision survey respondents report lack of

communication, time zone differences, email
overload, and remote collaboration issues as
the top barriers they faced in 2022.

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In addition, with 61% of respondents stating they worked with
new teams across the organization over the past year, finding
better ways to connect employees — whether they’re in the office
or working from home — is more important than ever.

In the upcoming year, organizations will also strive to overcome

challenges around increasing alignment and visibility, working in
a more agile way, and documenting both in-person and remote
work sessions.

The top challenges companies face in

2023 include collaboration of in-office
and work-from-home teams, ensuring

INVISION
equal representation of all teams, and
increasing visibility from ideation through
implementation.

Moving into 2023, the most successful companies won’t settle

for doing more with less. Instead, they’ll follow the advice of
Matt Hoffman, partner and head of talent at tech venture capital
firm M13. “It’s not about doing more with less — it’s about how

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

to get things done better with fewer people,” he states in a
FastCompany article.

Look for companies to incorporate a mix of synchronous and

asynchronous work to help them maximize the potential of pared-
down teams. This means accommodating schedules by enabling
people to work while their colleagues on the other side of the

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world sleep or team members are out sick. And gathering a wider
range of ideas and perspectives in less time by making it easier
for everyone to contribute, even if they don’t feel comfortable
speaking up in a group setting.

“There’s good evidence that the dynamics of remote

collaboration can actually encourage faster idea generation
and more inclusive representation of voices that might feel
intimidated to raise their points in an in-person environment,” said
Forrester VP and Research Director James McQuivey.

“Fifty-two percent of companies report

employees experience a sense of

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workplace loneliness. Knowledge workers
are simply burned out. Async enables
work to get done wherever, whenever
while also providing human engagement
we continually crave.”
—Christina Nguyen White,
Senior Director of Product Design, Loom

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

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Trend 2: Winning
the race with
sustainability
and efficiency
Business leaders around the world are bracing for an economic

INVISION
downturn which has prompted organizations to concentrate their
efforts on sustainability and cost reduction. In fact, 53% of InVision
survey respondents say their organization has a renewed focus on
efficiency and sustainable growth.

And while tech spend is expected to stay strong in the coming

year, savvy companies will be keeping a close watch on SaaS

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

spend. According to Zylo, companies use more than 300 SaaS
applications and overspend on licenses by 15% each year. Shadow
IT, organizational silos, and lack of visibility across the SaaS stack
contribute to skyrocketing software costs.

74% of InVision survey respondents use

specialized software to do their jobs

60% say they’ve seen reduced budgets,

restructuring and layoffs
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In 2023, companies will look for ways to weather the economic
storm by tightening their belts wherever they can. When it comes
to software, they’ll look for apps that help their hybrid and remote
teams work more efficiently across functions, communicate more
clearly, and reduce time spent searching for information they need
to do their jobs. The two most critical changes we’ll see are:

• A move toward tools that are easy for co-workers to adopt and
collaborate in, instead of specialized tools that are only used by
certain teams and departments.

• Consideration of cheaper alternatives. If a tool can do the same

job at a significantly reduced cost, teams will consider making

INVISION
a switch in order to continue to collaborate effectively while
meeting financial savings goals.

“The companies in a position to emerge from the economic crisis

as industry leaders are the ones that have a realistic strategy for
long-term growth — a strategy that will be good for their bottom
line and their employees,” notes Forbes.

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

“Having a single source of truth makes it
more efficient to get things done. No matter
their role or stage in the process, anyone
can jump into the Freehand canvas and get
what they need.”
—Kirti Bansal, Sr. Product Designer, AdvisorEngine

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Trend 3: Cueing up
cross-functional
collaboration
Collaborating across teams has always been an important
component of any company’s success. Cross-functional
collaboration can help increase engagement, streamline work,
boost innovation, and align your organization. As teams become

INVISION
more distributed, the ability to work across teams becomes even
more critical — and challenging.

When teams go hybrid, silos get stronger. The reason? Teams

translate their norms and routines into the technology they use,
customizing it for their specific needs and infuse these features into
daily work. This makes it harder to collaborate with colleagues who
don’t use the same tools or follow the same processes.

Respondents to the InVision survey echo the challenge people face INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

in working across tools and teams.

• 61% of respondents experience

challenges in sharing or handing off work
because it exists in a specialized tool

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• 55% lack visibility into the work of others
because they don’t have access to or
aren’t familiar with the specialized tools
other teams use
“You need to design your organization and technology stack to help
cross-functional teamwork thrive,” notes Rebecca Hines, co-author
of the study, A Distance Matters Paradox. “If you don’t, you’ll face an
uphill climb in setting your teams up for success.”

In 2023, organizations will adopt collaboration strategies that

facilitate changing workforces and help them reach their goals
faster by removing red tape, bringing the right stakeholders to the

INVISION
table, and making it easier to share ideas and feedback across
functions.

They’ll look to tools that are easy to use and enable smooth handoff
of work between teams, as well as those that shorten feedback
time and facilitate asynchronous work through features like
embedded video to explain a document or project to remote co-
workers. In fact, when asked to name the most important feature in

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

a collaboration tool, 65% of respondents named ease of use and
58% said the tool should be accessible to all.

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Many of the most common productivity tools such as Business
Instant Messaging, Videoconferencing, and Office Suites are
commonly rolled out company-wide, giving everyone access
and leveling the playing field. This is enabled by cost-effective
pricing with a low cost per seat or reasonable Enterprise Licencing
Agreements. On the other hand, tools such as Visual Collaboration
and Project Management are often priced at a premium per-seat
and thus treated as a specialized tool. Despite being critical places
to collaborate, access is restricted all too often.

“Getting non-technical, cross-functional

stakeholders to be able to speak the same
language in the same tool is really key.”

INVISION
—Stephanie Mencarelli, Senior Vice President of Design, InVision

Participants in the InVision survey predict that in the coming year,

their teams will engage in more collaboration with common tools,
increase asynchronous work, and better communicate across
teams—especially designers and developers.

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

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Finally, we asked participants: “how do you
predict your organization will change the
way teams collaborate in 2023?”
Here’s what they said:

• “I believe we’ll have a slimmed-down approach to be leaner and

get the work done.”

• “We’ll continue to work remotely but will invest in tools that help
us collaborate better and more efficiently.”

• “We’re looking to double our headcount, so the challenge will be

to create visibility and alignment among a growing team.”

INVISION
• “I hope to see increased focus on creating a centralized
roadmap to align project priorities and increase cross-team
productivity.”

• “Remote work and competitive salaries will impact how we

shape and grow our teams.”

• “I think we’ll work as pods of designers and developers, giving

INSIDE 2023: THE FUTURE OF WORK

the organization a lot of movement and freedom.”

• “We’ll collaborate by building better leads and setting up goals

and OKRs.”

This research is brought to you by InVision Freehand. The Visual

Collaboration tool designed and priced to be used by your whole
organization. Learn more about how Freehand improves how
cross functional teams connect and do work together.

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