Hybrid Productivity
This is the latest issue of my newsletter. Each week I cover research, opinion, or practice in the field of developer productivity
This week I read Hybrid Productivity, the second installation of a new series called Developer Productivity for Humans by Google researchers
Ciera Jaspan
and
Collin Green
. Here, the authors distill findings about developer productivity from studies during the pandemic and provide recommendations for improving productivity in remote teams
My summary of the paper?
When the pandemic started and there was an abrupt shift to working from home, people became concerned about productivity. Google was fortunate in that it had already invested in instrumenting productivity measures, so it had a baseline from which it could study changes.?
The authors‘ motivation for writing this paper comes from a recognition that we are in a now in an era of hybrid work. The authors sought to distill lessons learned from the pandemic in order to help hybrid or fully remote workplaces improve productivity moving forward.?
The authors share the methods used for measuring the impacts of the pandemic on developer productivity. Data was captured using three sources:
How the pandemic affected developers?
Here’s what researchers learned about how the pandemic affected Google engineers:?
1. Productivity was negatively impacted by the abrupt shift to remote work, but not as much as anticipated. While individuals were impacted differently, engineers at Google generally saw a decline in productivity. This happened even despite work days becoming longer.?
Junior engineers were more significantly impacted, as they struggled to get unblocked on technical problems, find colleagues with specific expertise, and effectively prioritize and manage their work. The authors note that “workload management and prioritization
As engineers across the board gained more experience with remote work, productivity began to recover, however work days remained lengthened.
2. Communication, collaboration, and connection were difficult for engineers during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, Google engineers as a group were less likely to work from home. The shift to being fully remote impacted their ability to have many of the informal, just-in-time interactions that keep work moving. Instead, these interactions became formalized, planned meetings.?
3. Well-being was a significant challenge due to both work circumstances and global circumstances. Engineers want connection, balance between work and personal obligations, and flexibility and choice in terms of location and schedule.?
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How to improve productivity in hybrid teams
To improve productivity in hybrid teams moving forward, the researchers recommend specific actions for individual engineers, managers, and company leaders.?
Actions that individuals can take
Individuals should allocate time for focused work and collaboration
Editor’s note: this reminds me of another paper that recommends individuals have agency over the structure of their workdays. This is critical in making “good workdays” more common.
Actions that managers and teams can take
Managers and senior team members play a large part in increasing productivity
Junior engineers struggled more during the pandemic than their more senior peers, however their challenges were not related to task execution — they were related to knowing which tasks they should be working on. Junior engineers also reported being more reluctant to reach out to colleagues to get unblocked.
Additionally, engineers that were hired during Covid were found to ramp up 3-6 weeks slower than those who ramped up before the pandemic. To help new hires ramp up more quickly
Actions that company leaders can take
Company leaders also play a role in developer productivity. Specifically, they can adopt tools, processes, and cultural norms that allow developers to work asynchronously. In addition, they can increase communication across channels to keep teams aware of a clear set of priorities.?
Final thoughts
While “work from pandemic” is certainly not the same as “work from home,” this paper nonetheless provides a unique viewpoint on how we can improve remote work moving forward. I found the insights regarding ramp-up time and the difficulty junior engineers encounter in prioritizing their tasks particularly interesting. Overall, this paper may serve as a reminder to focus on increasing communication and connectedness while working remotely.
Director of R&D, Sisense.
1 年Insightful Companies must know and educate their employees how to work remotely. It changes so many aspects of work that are usually not listed anywhere. Communication Kitchen talks and ideation Time management Dependency on others and plan for mitigation Communication Communication :)
Staff Software Engineer @Rivian & VW Technologies | Ex-Nokia, Intel, HP Anywhere | Opinions are my own
1 年Collaboration doesn't come with colocation, rather it comes with goal alignment, kindness, communication and interaction.
How much of the negative impact was due to the sudden shift to remote work and being unprepared vs an artifact of remote work in general? The slow ramp up, struggling junior devs, workload management and prioritization can all be overcome with the right leaders, managers, process, and feedback loops. And all these issues can occur in office and are not specific to remote. I am not saying remote work is 100% the same as in person, just looking for an apples to apples comparison. Let's say an org like Google over the next 12 months vs pre pandemic.