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TBM 292: Friction, Documentation, and Product Tools
- Bullet journaling, a lofi analog personal organization, can be used as a model for migration because of its benefits in better prioritization and separation of signals from noise. Low-tech documents and manual repetition can help many teams, instead of specialized goal-setting products and tracking tools. Simple to-do-lists and state history and a mechanism to reflect can help improve the Say-Try-Do-Understood ratio of an organization, which is often meaningless without state history. The friction of manual migration is a feature and not a bug, creating a forcing function to inspire thoughtfulness and integrate new information. Teams should use simple/static documents and keep a "running snapshot" of the state rather than complex tools for better management.
- The benefits of migration include surfacing what is worth the effort, becoming aware of actions and separation of signals from noise.
- Manual copying of tasks from a backlog to a new piece of paper allows time to pause and consider each item, which isn't possible with digital productivity systems.
- Structured digital systems generally show the current state not the state history unlike bullet journaling that creates state history through logging, regular reviews, and migrations.
- The Say-Try-Do-Understood ratio, which organizations often obsess about, is meaningless without state history and a mechanism to reflect or migrate what has been done.
- Fancy products that offer syncing, automatic reporting, and easy updating sound good on paper, but simple/static documents and keeping a running snapshot of the state are more useful for better management.
- A simple to-do list and migration can help teams understand information asymmetries, which hinder communication and performance.
- The friction is a feature not a bug, creating a forcing function to inspire thoughtfulness and integrate new information.
- Simple/static documents and manual repetition are likely to be better than fancy products that promise syncing, auto-magic updates, etc.
- Teams should always ask whether using Google Docs, Google Slides or a wall is more feasible before spinning up complex tools, and always learn from migration to improve productivity.
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