Over the past two months, we had the opportunity to collaborate with a group of brilliant MBA students from the SMU Cox School of Business on a strategic project for Workana.

We didn’t present them with a theoretical challenge. We gave them a real business problem—rooted in the complexity of building a remote ecosystem, staying close to users, and navigating the growing impact of AI on how we work.

The students brought energy, critical thinking, and fresh perspective. We challenged them with difficult questions, and they challenged us right back. The project concluded with a final presentation full of insight and clarity, helping us zoom out and reflect on what’s next for Workana.

Why we did it

At Workana, we believe the future of work requires more than just debating whether we should be remote, hybrid, or in-person. It calls for a deeper transformation in how we lead, how we listen, how we build, and how we adapt to forces like AI that are already reshaping work as we know it.

This collaboration was a chance to explore those questions from a new lens—and sharpen our own thinking along the way.

What we explored together

We tackled three core strategic questions:

• How do we stay truly customer-centric while scaling a remote work ecosystem?
  How can we stay close to our users across diverse countries, contexts, and needs?

• How do managers stay involved without getting in the way?
  In distributed teams, how do we build alignment and accountability without falling into micromanagement?

• How do we evolve fast enough in a world where AI is reshaping work in real time?
  How do we ensure that our platform, processes, and people are ready for the shift?

What we took away

This wasn’t an academic exercise—it was a real collaboration.
We left the experience energized, challenged, and a little more prepared for what comes next.

We’re incredibly grateful to the team at SMU Cox School of Business for their rigor, curiosity, and thoughtful contributions.

Two of the students even shared their experience online—here are a few snapshots of what they had to say:

At Workana, we’re building more than a platform. We’re building a movement around remote work, autonomy, and transformation—and collaborations like this remind us how powerful that vision can be when it’s shared.