An interesting thread about the perception of performance by managers and developers.

165 managers and developers were asked about how they define productivity and how do they think their managers or their teams define that.

In nutshell:
- 50% of developers associate productivity with activity i.e. number of PRs, closed tickets, etc.
- At the same time developers think that efficiency doesn’t matters to the management as well as their well-being.

At the same time, 67% of managers define productivity by performance and quality of delivered products and 45% by efficiency.

The study also explores the trade offs between quality and productivity. If you’re interested in the original paper, it’s available here.

The key takeaway here for me is that unless you agree on the common ground on how to define productivity, you won’t be able to move as fast and smooth as you could. Moreover, the absence of understanding of this matter may jeopardize decisions, when it comes to sacrificing quality a bit in sake of delivery deadlines.

#culture