Toward a Computer-Supported Remote Serendipity: Understanding the Role of Collaboration in Remote Innovation

Since 2016, the demand for remote work has grown by nearly 400%, with 3.5 million remote job vacancies posted, and it is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. Therefore, one of the challenges in advancing remote work is fostering innovation, particularly serendipity, in a remote workforce. This fortunate discovery can pave the way for technological advancements, new business strategies, or even scientific revolutions. However, creating moments of serendipity in a remote work environment is a significant challenge. Thus, finding the right approach to stimulate serendipity in a remote work environment is an ever-evolving challenge. Therefore, this work aims to understand the possibilities of serendipity that collaboration tools used in remote work can support. The methodology used for this work was a Rapid Review. First, we explore the factors related to serendipity in physical offices, for which we identified twenty-three elements. Next, we compiled 38 strategies for remote work that were found to promote serendipity, which we organized in a framework for better observation. Our findings can serve as a starting point for designing new tools and identifying existing software and tools that already play a supportive role.