Time zone overlap
Time zone overlap is the number of working hours two teams share. Full overlap, such as a nearshore team on Central European Time working with a Dutch client, means questions resolve in minutes and work can be corrected mid-build. It is the single biggest predictor of whether a distributed team feels close.
Overlap is why nearshoring works and far-offshoring struggles. With a full working-day overlap, a blocker raised at 10:00 is cleared before lunch and a clarifying question costs minutes, not a day-cycle.
It also changes what your tooling has to do. When everyone is awake at the same time, the standup, the board and the chat are just plumbing. When they are not, no amount of process buys back the day you lose on every round trip.
