Part of this article was written in late 2021
I am sure you have almost erased the past two years by now. Recent times have been challenging for all of us for various different reasons. It has taken a lot from us … our loved ones … our mental peace, and made us two years older and made us better at surviving solitary confinements (if ever the need arises).
On the technological front, the situation is much less gloomy. Some believe that the pandemic only accelerated the technological shift. The biggest supporting argument for this hypothesis is remote work. Remote work was already lurking in the shadows pre-pandemics. Some progressive companies adopted it years before the lockdown. For example, GitLab was operating fully remote pre-pandemic. Therefore, COVID has merely accelerated the transition toward this no-pants-required work culture.
Remote work first becomes a necessity, then a habit. Now, we are all “turned” into WFH heroes or addicts (whichever way you like it).
Along came the need to collaborate and the need to meet virtually. Suddenly, sidekicks had a chance to be in the spotlight and lead the most important mission ever—the mission to save communication.
Who won the war of minions?
Needless to say, Zoom and many other virtual meeting tools took this Godly opportunity with both hands. Millions of people use these tools every day. For most of us, they are the difference between having a job or not. So credit where it’s due… thank you, Zoom.
Being a supporter, contributor, and advocate for virtual reality and augmentation. The pandemic was a perfect, almost alchemic storm to set the stage for VR / AR to take center stage. Time to fulfill years of promises and prophecies.
What better way to grab everyone’s attention than by improving the remote collaboration experience? Alas, it’s not to be. We saw some glimpses, but not a single consumer solution reached the masses. VR / AR is still immature, and no pandemic can accelerate that.
Going beyond Flukes
If Necessity is the mother of invention, then Time is the mother of contingencies – Brian Klaas.
Zoomies have won the round because they were at the right place at the right time, a mere fluke in the grand scheme of things. Now, it’s time to build on the chance and prosper. Pick up your pencil and notebook; here is the list of things that you (and I mean you Zoom) should consider:
Pressure
Every day brings dozens of meeting invites, and there is an innate pressure not to miss out. A meeting is not a gathering of equals. It is a forced arrangement for people with different agendas, priorities, and stakes to come together and interact with civil decorum. The tools must understand and cater to these different personas and provide value for them.
- Gallery viewers – Curious fellas who likes to experience without contributing
- Facilitator – That poor person getting panic attacks every time the meeting is going into a tangent.
- Latecomer Royals – Lords and rockstars who are too cool to be on time like mere mortals but demand all the attention.
- Many more!
Presence
Are you present? How much for how long? This is not a simple question to answer. Being present in a moment is a function of time and attention.
The real question is, “Do I have your attention?” It doesn’t make the answer any simple. Attention is a range field instead of a boolean. Your attention is very high when fully invested in an activity like a final exam or watching a cricket match. Alas, our brain doesn’t work like that; we are not built to be attentive all the time. We are selective by nature, and our communication channels should take that thing into account.
In the context of communication software, presence is approximated by interactions. However, interactions alone are not enough to answer the question of your presence. Presence must be evaluated as a function of interactions, visual cues, and accountability. Let’s break this down:
- Interactions: Talking, sharing, writing stuff, video on
- Visual cues: Show you presence with body language, appropriate video angles, ability to simulate eye-contact
- Accountability: Ratio of side hustles (writing code to eat) and boredom.
Modern tools must be able to assist and measure presence across these vectors.
Poking
Late 90s, I was in my teens. It was a fascinating time to be growing up, the tech revolution was in full swing. Yahoo was cool, and so was Nokia with their Java-based apps (shout out to all S40 and S60 fellow devs). The message apps of that era were quirky and amazing at the same time. One of the most annoying and seldomly useful quirks was “The Nug”. You can poke or nug someone and they will feel a seismic activity on their messenger app.
Weirdness aside, this is a useful feature in the virtual setting. Can you nug someone to get attention (force a presence)? I don’t support the jolted vibrations of the 2000s messenger apps, but the idea of engaging participants casually is interesting.
Productivity
This is a bottom line for any communication channel or tool. Does it impact the productivity of an individual, team and organization? If it does, can it be measured?
There must be evidence and measurements that can establish the correlation between productivity and usage.
Chaos to Opportunity
I would like to end this post with a recent revelation while reading Brian Klaas’s book about Flukes. The best way forward is to accept the complex nature of problems like human communication and interactions. Acceptance must lead to looking at contingencies where each and every small detail has the potential to make a huge difference.
Thank you for your presence. Please share your thoughts on and experiences using virtual meeting tools. Do you have any ideas for improving them?
Eleventh Lane 