Meetings, distractions, deep work
Some team members are constantly being disturbed, which is not good for productivity. We have to be mindful of this at all times.
Some team members have too many meetings, while others have very few. Each should be corrected.
We want to develop a culture where people stay informed while maximizing their time in the “flow,” with deep concentration on solving problems.
Please schedule the appropriate amount of meetings and invite only contributors.
Write before you talk.
If you want to communicate something or learn your coworkers’ opinions, write your query and your thoughts first.
Be brief, but not too brief. Think about x-Twitter. Write as little text as possible, but do not assume that your audience has all the background.
Do not use one-liners, avoid bullet points, and always try to use Confluence. Emails can get lost in the shuffle in as little as half a day. We want new hires to be able to read this note six months from now.
Write clearly, be easy to understand
The art of successful writing is to convince your readers about your idea and have them act on it.
If your writing assumes that the reader knows as much as you do and you lose them, you fail.
If your writing is (laborious) difficult to read, you failed.
If your (elaborations) writing (utilize) uses (supererogatory) difficult (verbiage) language, you probably only annoy your audience.
Have empathy. Write for action and effect.
Summarize the meeting
Prepare Confluence notes before the meeting, and make sure your position is clear. Once you finish the meeting, update your position and make it ready for a new hire in a couple of months.
Inform your supervisor
Make a daily practice to send your boss a short but informative note about what is happening.
Focus on the “Why?” and not on Tasks.
We use Jira for task management. It is important.
However, we often lose focus in the meetings and do task bureaucracy.
When talking to your boss, always focus on “What I am doing currently benefits the company because…”
We build LiDAR products, and we succeed only if they buy them.