[ironmagma]

> I don’t pick an arbitrary bucket of tasks at the beginning of each week and declare “Finish these by Friday” and not care if it takes 10 or 100 hours.

I’d say that’s your first problem. Isn’t this the whole (popular) idea of creating a sprint, then not modifying the sprint as it’s ongoing?

> velocity drops come summer time like clockwork

I don’t see how this makes things harder to measure. The very statement of it implies you have measured it and know it to be true.

> Finally, not everyone’s work is 100% isolated and asynchronous

This is true of in-person work too. If anything, someone being at a desk means that the collaborative work is probably not getting done in that scenario.