Quotes About Productivity

No es suficiente con pedir a los traabajadores que se esfuercen más. Nuestros problemas actuales están provocados por esforzarnos demasiado en las cosas equivocadas

Most important, teams working in this system begin to measure their productivity according to validated learning, not in terms of the production of new features.

It is also the right way to think about productivity in a startup: not in terms of how much stuff we are building but in terms of how much validated learning we're getting for our efforts.

Why does stuffing one envelope at a time get the job done faster even though it seems like it would be slower? Because our intuition doesn't take into account the extra time required to sort, stack, and move around the large piles of half-complete envelopes when it's done the other way.

When people are used to evaluating their productivity locally, they feel that a good day is one in which they did their job well all day.

which of our efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful?

Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth. In

Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth.

The Principles of Scientific Management,

This is true startup productivity: systematically figuring out the right things to build.

From the point of view of individual efficiency, working in large batches makes sense. It also has other benefits: it promotes skill building, makes it easier to hold individual contributors accountable, and, most important, allows experts to work without interruption. At least that's the theory. Unfortunately, reality seldom works out that way.

When I work with product managers and designers in companies that use large batches, I often discover that they have to redo their work five or six times for every release.

Functional specialists, especially those steeped in waterfall or stage-gate development, have been trained to work in extremely large batches. This causes even good ideas to get bogged down by waste. By making the batch size small, the sandbox method allows teams to make cheap mistakes quickly and start learning.

In effect, the huge productivity increases made possible by modern management and technology have created more productive capacity than firms know what to do with.

As Peter Drucker said, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all."2

As Peter Drucker said, "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.

The way out of this dilemma is to manage the four kinds of work differently, allowing strong cross-functional teams to develop around each area. When products move from phase to phase, they are handed off between teams. Employees can choose to move with the product as part of the handoff or stay behind and begin work on something new. Neither choice is necessarily right or wrong; it depends on the temperament and skills of the person in question.

focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to set up milestones, and how to prioritize work.

When I worked as a programmer, that meant eight straight hours of programming without interruption. That was a good day. In contrast, if I was interrupted with questions, process, or—heaven forbid—meetings, I felt bad.

which of our efforts are value-creating and which are wasteful? This question is at the heart of the lean manufacturing revolution; it is the first question any lean manufacturing adherent is trained to ask. Learning to see waste and then systematically eliminate it has allowed lean companies such as Toyota to dominate entire industries.

Startup productivity is not about cranking out more widgets or features. It is about aligning our efforts with a business and product that are working to create value and drive growth. In other words, successful pivots put us on a path toward growing a sustainable business.

That was a good day. In contrast, if I was interrupted with questions, process, or—heaven forbid—meetings, I felt bad. What did I really accomplish that day? Code and product features were tangible to me; I could see them, understand them, and show them off. Learning, by contrast, is frustratingly intangible.

book Lean Thinking, James Womack and Daniel Jones recount

Anyway, in a world of cheap PCs and fast Internet links, we find pretty consistently that the only really limiting resource is skilled attention.