You’re reading The Steady Beat, a weekly round-up of hand-picked articles for people who coordinate teams and work, like engineering managers, design directors, product managers, project leaders, team facilitators, and department heads. Brought to you by the team at Steady.
By the Numbers - Work vs. Toil
- 50+ — Percentage of tech workers in a recent survey of 994 that reported spending 25-50% (or more) of their weekly hours on “work about work” – activities like aligning stakeholders, attending status meetings, managing tools, and chasing approvals.
- 37.9 — Percentage of respondents who identified excessive meetings as the primary contributor to workplace inefficiencies, making it the top coordination pain point.
- 36.9 — Percentage who cited slow decision-making and approvals as a major factor slowing down their productivity, ranking it as the second biggest coordination challenge.
- 28.3 — Percentage of survey participants who reported that coordination inefficiencies are directly felt by customers in the form of missed deadlines, price increases, or reduced experiences–a double coordination tax.
- 30.5 — Percentage who indicated that coordination breakdowns lead to rework and errors, highlighting how “work about work” doesn’t just waste time – it actively creates more work.
— Engineering Leadership, 13m, #engineering-leadership, #productivity, #coordination-crisis
People-first AI
As the tech landscape becomes increasingly crowded and AI tools democratize product creation, engineering leader Michael Lopp reminds us that human judgment remains the differentiating factor. Drawing from his extensive experience at Apple, Slack, and Palantir, Lopp advocates for engineering structures that balance productivity with creativity—specifically a “71/29” time split, where 29% is dedicated to unstructured “wolf time” for exploration and innovation. Rather than formalizing these creative periods, he recommends casual conversations and encouragement that signal permission to pursue inspirational work. While debate swirls about whether coding skills will remain relevant in an AI-dominated future, Lopp’s people-centric approach cuts through the noise: even as technology evolves, it’s still the humans making decisions and building relationships who ultimately determine an engineering organization’s success.
— First Round, 7m, #engineering, #leadership, #product-development
Steady Goes Native
Steady has just released a desktop app for Mac and Windows, transforming their team coordination tool from a browser tab into a full-fledged desktop experience. The native app brings several power-user perks: system notifications that don’t require Slack or email forwarding, app icon badge counts so you’ll never forget your action items, and expanded keyboard shortcuts for speedier navigation. They’ve also beefed up their Bitbucket integration to include Pull Requests and review activity, making all your dev work visible in Echoes reports. And for the detail-oriented, we’ve added multi-select bulk controls, improved privacy warnings between team spaces, enhanced their AI infrastructure, and polished up the Echoes interface.
— Steady, 3m, #teamwork, #desktop-app, #product-updates, #integrations
Vibe Officing
As companies double down on return-to-office mandates, a new trend is surfacing that might just save us all: “vibe officing.” This concept reflects how work is increasingly becoming mood-based rather than location-focused, with professionals seeking spaces that match their energy and task requirements. The writer, who has a knack for coining workplace terminology (see: “coworkinate”), notes the proliferation of “vibe” culture across various domains from coding to marketing. It’s a linguistic shift that signals a deeper transformation—where AI-powered mobility and meaning-seeking will ultimately trump corporate mandates about where your butt needs to be parked on Tuesday mornings.
— The Workline, 6m, #workplace, #remote-work, #future-of-work, #culture
AI ROI?
AI adoption is booming—78% of companies use it in some form—but financial gains remain underwhelming, often yielding less than 10% cost savings or 5% revenue bumps. This “productivity paradox” stems from shallow deployment: most companies are stuck in pilot purgatory, far from enterprise-wide orchestration. Experts stress that the path to ROI lies in breaking work into AI-enabled tasks tied to KPIs, scaling thoughtfully, and harmonizing data across systems. Success stories like 1-800Accountant show that targeted AI can dramatically improve customer experience and cut costs, hinting that the AI J-curve may soon bend upward as companies mature their strategies.
— WSJ (gift), 7m, #ai, #enterprise, #productivity
Teamwork for the AI Era
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