Remote work: an engineering leader’s perspective

Team productivity is difficult to estimate for knowledge workers, especially in an agile environment where objectives are loosely defined both in quantity and in quality.

However, it is possible to:
Use proxy metrics to compare test teams (within the area of impact) to the rest of the product team;
Use proxy metrics to compare productivity in the overall team before and during the experiment;
Complete a qualitative assessment survey at the end of the experiment.
All three come with caveats and are very noisy measurements. Fortunately, because we’re number freaks, we’d been tracking several metrics all along.

Take back your time

Anyone can reach you any time in a seemingly endless number of ways. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Until you see pictures of teens and adults alike ignoring people in the same room because everyone is staring at their handheld devices.

To Be Authentic, Look Beyond Yourself – Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins – Harvard Business Review

Authenticity — what is it, who has it, and how do you get it? Most people associate authenticity with being true to oneself — or “walking the talk.” But there’s a problem with that association; it focuses on how you feel about yourself. Authenticity is actually a relational behavior, not a self-centered one. Meaning that to be truly authentic, you must not only be comfortable with yourself, but must also comfortably connect with others.