The Silver Bullet for Productivity
I’m subscribed to a newsletter from Buffer, a startup softdev company which develops an app to manage multiple social accounts. It’s quite an unusual thing for a social media company to share sensible advice in their newsletter *ironic*, and that’s the reason I wanted to learn more. So, I googled all things Buffer. The more I researched, the more I admired them. They are a startup, and they do well, generating over $3 mln in annual revenue, with only 23 people¹. What is the reason for such an amazing performance? How have they been able to grow from zero to a revenue-generating company, in 3 years, with a lean squad of people, and still bootstrapped? How do they keep up their productivity?
The answer came with a little bit of more research. Buffer don’t wrap their rules of operation in the toga of productivity, or agile, or development process lingo, which is very uncommon, and which might explain why this company performs way better compared to the others that do. What’s more, Buffer keeps their people happy and emotionally fulfilled. They don’t think of their company as a racing car that has to be ramped up on speed. They, actually, are not concerned with productivity, or speed, for that matter, at all. The point is: Buffer spotted this one bottomline thing that powers productivity. They refer to their rules of operation not as to a policy, but as to culture. And, the way I see it, the ultimate key to their performance is one simple thing called clarity. Check this snip from Buffer’s culture statement.
It might be hard to believe at first, but with a little bit of thinking, we will see that clarity is the key to productivity for any team’s work. Thinking logically, a team’s performance is a sum of smooth individual flows and actions. Developers write code, QA engineers do testing, someone is in charge of automated tests, designers do all things UX and UI. Now, when productivity suffers? As with cars and highways, stops occur when there’s a roadblock or a speed bump of something not being clear. What happens if the bumps accumulate for weeks, even for years? Production team lose track of priorities and incentives, if their work is filled with unclarity every step along the way. What should I do in this case? Who do I contact? Who has a clue to this problem that I have? If people in the team fill most of their days with these questions, it’s time to put up a huge red flag and “beware bumps” sign. In this sad case, the team is deprived of the very chance to perform, even if they want, because, individually, they lack clarity. They need to have a clear knowing of those “who, what, why, when, how”-s related to their work, or, at least, they need a fast and smooth way to get the answers. If finding an answer for a repeated daily task becomes an ad hoc improvised quest, R.I.P. productivity. The things covered under the umbrella term of “efficient development process”, are rooted in crystal clarity.
Clarity is also crucial when it goes about motives for the actions of others. Second guessing, or a misunderstanding about someone doing things the way they do them, would be another severe case of unclarity. Generally, we are supposed to assume that everyone is doing their job as best as they can, but, with the lack of clarity, the thing that I call “assuming dumbness” rears its ugly head. When it happens, instead of having it clear why someone in the team has done a code, or a test, or a copy, or a design in exactly that way, others make a default assumption that this person is “dumb”, not competent, and not knowledgeable. This isn’t a productivity killer, per se, but it is a dangerous team spirit killer, and I hope you haven’t spotted this in your team.
As we can see, there’s no need to go any further and re-invent the wheel. If you’re concerned about bad productivity, or if you see that people look exhausted, unhappy or loose, seemingly giving up on their work, they crave for someone to champion clarity. That’s what Buffer calls “Default to transparency”, which is a sibling of clarity.
So, ask yourself, do you always have this clarity? In your team? Is your day made up of roadblocks, or is it filled with gratifying work which goes in a seamless flow? If no, take action. Go for clarity. Demand it from your managers/higher-ups. Clarity is this so much wanted silver bullet for productivity in any software development team. If you find ways to instill the culture of clarity in your team, every step along the way, the Holy Grail is yours.
[1]: As of March 2014.
This story is based on an earlier article.
