On this episode we have Peter Buck, VP, Product Strategy at NetDocuments. The core of the conversation focuses on tackling multi-teaming - the effects of having multiple people working on multiple projects simultaneously. We pivot then to focus on productivity, discussing how it can be measured and the impact of constant context switching, discussing against the background that it takes one around 25 minutes to reach full productivity, but people are interrupted every 3 minutes!

• Art (culture and perception) and science (data and engineering supporting the argument) of product design
• Multi-teaming: people working on multiple projects simultaneously, which has many benefits as well as many risks. How does this affects knowledge professionals
• Who’s feeling the pain from constant context switching
  • Multi-teaming is more prominent with seniority
• How to structure teams to minimize destructive conflict
• Measuring productivity = output as a function of input 
  • Jamie Teevan’s research looking into micro-productivity as a way to leverage micro-moments throughout one’s day
• It takes almost 25 mins to reach full productivity, but you’re interrupted every 3 minutes
• Twitter: @backofthenapkin 
• LinkedIn: Peter Buck 

Reading list 

Article: https://hbr.org/2017/09/the-overcommitted-organization

Resource: Dr. Jamie Teevan information and publication

Resource: Marc Weiser vision for ubiquitous computing

Book: Smart Collaboration: How Professionals and Their Firms Succeed by Breaking Down Silos