Hey, happy Monday,
you’ve probably experienced smart working thanks to the virus or perhaps you’ve discovered that companies that would never have allowed it are actually more “ahead of the curve” than you thought and you’ve had to reschedule your meetings by turning them into calls.
And while we were playing tetris with Google Calendar, 3 things happened that made me think.
We rediscovered the value of communicating
As soon as we were taken out of meetings, we felt lost. As if suddenly not having to sit in the same room anymore undermined our productivity.
We know that very often meetings lead to nothing, especially those that begin with “so where do we start.”
Shares of Zoom, the cloud-based video conferencing software, have doubled in value since the pandemic broke out.
In the collective frenzy, traders were typing so fast that they even, for much of the day, bought the wrong shares of an eponymous Beijing-based Zoom Technologies that makes components for smartphones. +70,000% (in the links below two Bloomberg articles). It can happen 🙂
But back to why we have breakfast together every Monday, that of shortening the distance between Design, Business and Technology where communication is one of the crucial aspects.
In each working group, talkers and makers are identified early on. Those who talk and those who do. The talkers often don’t do, but the makers often don’t talk. And what happens is that thick bubbles build up and repel each other.
How is it resolved?
Let’s try this: replace the labels talkers and makers with learners and see what happens.
If you do something but don’t tell about it, you haven’t done it.
It is necessary that from time to time you stop doing and start talking. Allow others to capitalize on your time. To accelerate the acquisition of knowledge. If you succeeded, great, explain in full how you did it. If you failed, even better, your time is worth more, you are allowing everyone not to make the same mistakes, you are accelerating the emergence of more efficient solutions.
If you are a Designer talk about your creative process, share it, tell what got you there. If you’ve done user testing, show it to engineers. Understand together how what you do blends into the everyday lives of users.
If you are a Developer it tells why the product, under the skin of the interface, is taking a certain shape. What is possible, and what is not possible to do. What are the limitations and opportunities.
If you are in Business, tell what customers are telling you, what picture you can make with the data you have. How the market reacts to the decisions you make daily in business.
Build a Logbook. A place where everyone leaves their contributions.
Talking has the same importance as doing.
I correct the sentence from a few paragraphs ago.
If you do something but (I) don’t tell it I learn, you haven’t done it.
We rediscovered the value of collaborating
Collaboration is crucial. When we do it well we achieve a greater result than we could do alone.
The moments of meeting during this period have not decreased; on the contrary, they have increased.
We realized that technology allows us to dematerialize and appear at short distances in meetings thousands of miles apart. So we did it more often.
The difference between these calls and those before the epidemic is that these, were more productive.
Was it only me that noticed it? What was the difference?
If there is one thing the virus has failed to do, it is to have moved the deadlines.
We solved specific problems. Well-defined ones. Common for the first time, from one end of the conference call to the other.
So how do we extend this feeling of productivity for as long as possible?
I prepared this checklist for whether or not to attend a meeting. I attend those that have a higher number of YESes.
Which of the scheduled meetings…
▢ does it make it possible to improve the quality of work?
▢ Do you have a facilitator?
▢ has who will document and distribute progress and decisions besides me?
▢ doesn’t it require special tools that I don’t know or can’t use?
▢ I can’t miss it?
Use it yourself if you want.
We rediscovered the value of adapting
Agile, lean, scrum… we constantly encounter these words in every work group, regardless of whether those who utter them really embrace their philosophy and adopt their modes of operation, it is a sign that a new way of working is needed that among all methodologies has only one thing in common: to bring something incomplete to market.
But to make this paradigm work, however, it is necessary to redefine the concept of “done right,” which has to do with the “speed” with which people like us make products and services consistently better, systematically meeting demand.
When you get to the office, you won’t realize it, but Google will be better than when you left home. So will Spotify. Facebook and Instagram will also be better. Siri will also be better however you will not ask her anything because in front of your colleagues you will still be ashamed.
You open the browser and the “next version” is there silently already part of your life.
This happens when Designer, Business and Technology replace the C in Customer with Computational in the equation. The experience adapts in real time because computers in the cloud, without a hint of fatigue or error, chew up the crumbs we sow by living a life that is half real and half virtual.
The user experience must constantly evolve to survive the antibiotic of competition.
Like the virus.
Good work!
Make yourself heard!
