Hi friend and happy Friday!
Regardless of your feelings on the matter, the $GME/Reddit/Robinhood story is everywhere. And most likely, it’s disruptive to your team’s work to some degree.
Why? FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s hard to sit down and think through some code if all the media reports there’s easy money to be had, if only you pay continuous attention to a subreddit.
There is no silver bullet to dealing with this. But if you can, help your team members create a quiet space for themselves to get real work done. Encourage notification-free, uninterrupted work periods. Hold off on pinging them in Slack with a quick question. And consider some documented guidelines for handling communications from both inside and outside of the team.
Here’s what I’ve been reading this week:
Sh* t’s broken: why we need Mindful Notifications & how to Design them
First, the author walks us through an in-depth assessment of how poorly designed notifications create meaninglessness and cognitive overload. Yes, things are certainly broken. Then the author suggests a solution: mindful notifications.
Is Remote Work Making Us Paranoid?
Even though millions more Americans are communicating completely virtually with their co-workers, that does not mean our emotional office dynamics have caught up yet to our new videoconference world. Many are feeling a spectrum of new anxieties about their interactions with colleagues. I also found the comments to this story quite interesting.
Enterprise UX is amazing. Change my mind.
If you’ve ever worked at a big company, you’ve probably found yourself frustrated by navigating through some sort of “enterprise” tool. HR systems, travel, expenses reports, etc. In this piece, Yichen He turns that frown upside down and describes the opportunities in the enterprise application space for designers and product people.
Have a great weekend!
Henry