How we can take advantage of human nature to become better individual contributors.

Understanding Human Behavior

The principle of least effort stipulates that animals and people will naturally choose the path of least resistance when we have to act.

Our brain is wired to prefer actions with low friction, leading us to adopt both good and bad habits.

If you’re watching videos on <insert your preferred platform>, notice how easy it is to binge-watch videos. This behavior is enabled by the amount of content available and by features like auto-play and suggestions. They reduce the friction to play another video, making you more likely to watch another video even if that wasn’t your intention at first. And that’s how you fall into the “Just one more…” trap.

So how do we stop these negative and unwanted behaviors then? We add friction.

If you were to disable the features mentioned previously, you’ll likely reduce your watch time. That’s because you added friction to the process. Now your brain associates the difficulty related to that process, thus increasing the ratio of effort vs reward (more effort for the same reward), and making you less prone to repeat this behavior in the future.

Turning This Principle to Our Advantage

Knowing that the amount of friction found in a process can make us repeat it or not, we can extract actions from that principle to turn us into better individual contributors.

One of the most impactful habits I developed to take advantage of that principle is to shift my perspective when working and think about others.

Shift Your Perspective

For example, when building a feature I adopt my customer’s point of view. To do so, make sure you use the feature like how your customer would use it.

  • Do you experience pain points when using it? If yes, then this should trigger a red flag in your mind, a pain point means there’s friction. Take the time to stop and think about how you can improve that.

  • Do you think there are too many steps to use the feature? If you were to use it daily, would it drive you crazy at some point? If yes, that’s another red flag, it’s friction hidden in repetition over the long term, and an opportunity for you to improve the workflow.

Think About Others

Another way you can shift your perspective, notice the friction you’re experiencing when completing a task, and consider if someone else is likely to complete that same task in the future. It works particularly well if it’s the first you have to do it (e.g. following a guide to set up a dev environment, or setting up new integration tests…).

  • Did you have to research information to complete the task? If yes, that’s a red flag again. It’s friction that would have been resolved if the information was made available to you in the first place. Take a moment to write that information, and store it in a place where it will be easily found (e.g. write in a GDoc or a Wiki, and then pin/bookmark the link for that new resource in a Slack channel where appropriate). You’ll save time for your teammates when they’ll have to complete that same task and face the same issues you had.

Rinse, Repeat and Unleash Productivity for Everyone

This mindset works well with existing workflows but shouldn’t be forgotten when implementing new ones. Keep thinking about how you can make people go through them with the least effort possible.

Note that it is an iterative process. It’s okay to not have the smoothest experiences from the start, keep this mindset in mind, and iterate them over time. Enabling a culture of feedback at your workplace will greatly improve the chance to review workflows.

By adopting this mindset you’ll reduce the friction experienced in many workflows, making you highly impact productivity at a workplace level. Because it won’t only affect you, but all your teammates!