10 Thoughts on the #FutureOfWork

1. What do you think is the larger, over-arching problem that every. productivity technology company is currently trying to solve?

People are not their best selves. We forget things, we spend time on mundane tasks, and we fail to accomplish our most meaningful goals. Productivity companies build technology to help people accomplish more — remember those tasks, automate that meta-work so you can do something more creative, and realize what matters so you accomplish your greatest goals.

2. Is work broken?
Yes. Of course, some parts of work are not broken. But if we say broken is something not working the way it should, then work is broken. The way we do work, employee happiness, and the accomplishments of various companies and professionals suggest that work needs to be fixed.

3. Is productivity a personal thing or is it a team thing?
It’s both. People get things done, teams get things done. But if we want to play semantics, productivity is personal and collaboration is team-oriented!

4. How are productivity problems most commonly manifested in today’s society?
It affects everything. If a construction team is not productive enough, you end with poor roads. If a software company is not productive, the software will be hard to use and not be updated often. If a government is not productive, you end up with poor laws or missing regulatory frameworks.

5. Why is the productivity space so overcrowded?
Overcrowding is a reflection of supply and demand. Cities are crowded because more people want to live there than the available space we have for them. Productivity is a category with lots of solutions because the demand from end users for solutions is significant since it makes their lives better. Furthermore, the demand from people to WORK in the productivity space is high because so many people want to make a difference in the world, and one of the best ways to do that, is to help maximize the output of humanity.

6. Why have you chosen to play in this place?
I want to spend my life meaningfully. Helping people live better lives through being more productive is one of the highest levers for impact.

7. Why meetings? What about this particular element of productivity did you feel needed addressing?
Meetings are universally bad. Everyone has them. Multiple times a day. Yet we have web conferencing, note-taking, task management, calendars, and other forms of technology used in meetings…yet we still have bad meetings. No one built anything specific for making meetings GOOD. But as a sociologist, I find the human problem fascinating: several like-minded people get in a room, spend an hour, and often, nothing useful happens. Millions of times every day. That’s insane! So, if one wants to make an impact in the world, and there’s a problem many people suffer, and it’s been neglected, that motivates me.

Furthermore, I used to work at a company with lots of useless meetings. One day, it drove me mad and I quit. That better mean something ☺

8. What is your definition of productivity?
Productivity is about accomplishing more.

9. Email seems to be a hot topic right now, do you care about it?
I care about email because a lot of people spend a lot of time engaging with it, and it’s suboptimal. But I think the problem with email is more about people than technology.

10. What is the next iteration of productivity tools that we will see emerging?
Automation and semi-automation. Do it for me if you can — I don’t need to create stuff, and tag stuff, and move stuff around. I care about outcomes, not UIs. And some outcomes require partial human input to be optimal, so get me to the finish line and I’ll run through it vigorously.