diff --git a/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts b/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts
index 81f769d713..e3d6119fad 100644
--- a/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts
+++ b/packages/animations/browser/src/render/shared.ts
@@ -15,12 +15,17 @@ import {AnimationDriver} from '../../src/render/animation_driver';
 // types. `process` is just declared locally here as a result.
 declare const process: any;
 
-export function isBrowser() {
+export function isBrowser(): boolean {
   return (typeof window !== 'undefined' && typeof window.document !== 'undefined');
 }
 
-export function isNode() {
-  return (typeof process !== 'undefined');
+export function isNode(): boolean {
+  // Checking only for `process` isn't enough to identify whether or not we're in a Node
+  // environment, because Webpack by default will polyfill the `process`. While we can discern
+  // that Webpack polyfilled it by looking at `process.browser`, it's very Webpack-specific and
+  // might not be future-proof. Instead we look at the stringified version of `process` which
+  // is `[object process]` in Node and `[object Object]` when polyfilled.
+  return typeof process !== 'undefined' && {}.toString.call(process) === '[object process]';
 }
 
 export function optimizeGroupPlayer(players: AnimationPlayer[]): AnimationPlayer {