Step 5: Make a Collaboratory Conclusion

[#1]

Hello Collaboratory Scientists!

Welcome back to Collaboratory Month 🧬

The final step in the Collaboratory method is to make a Collaboratory conclusion. (If you haven't already, formulate a question on the Step 1 post, form a hypothesis on the Step 2 post, make a Collaboratory prediction on the step 3 post, and Design and perform an experiment on the step 4 post).

To make a Collaboratory Conclusion, you need to determine whether what you believed would happen actually happened. If it did not happen, you can create a new hypothesis conduct a new experiment to prove your new theory. If what you hypothesized happened during the experimentation phase, the final step is putting together your findings and "presenting" them in the comments below.

Example: Perhaps, you want to test an experiment about whether having more meetings results in more efficient collaboration.

A good question to begin with might be: ”Does having more meetings result in a project being finished more quickly?"

A good hypothesis might be: If we decrease time spent meeting by 25%, the project will still be finished in the same time.

A good prediction might be: If my team reduces meetings by 25% (and uses that time instead for async work), then the project will be finished on the same timeline. 

A good experiment might be: Reduce the total amount of time your team spends talking on zoom about a project by 25%. 

A good conclusion might be: By reducing meeting times by 25%, the team's ability to hit deadlines was not impacted. 

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We'll award the Collaboratory badge to all Community members who ask a Collaboratory question :) Keep an eye on the main Collaboratory post to discover next steps!  

Thanks for playing along in Collaboratory month! 

[Kishan Sharma]

Question - How do we create single source of truth for better collaboration with cross functional teams ?

Hypothesis - Considering the complexity of the project, select the right collaboration tool and create a dashboard in a shared space where cross-functional teams can visualize the work in progress, check status, set goals - deadlines and assign them to appropriate teams for actions. 

Prediction - If we create a central dashboard which is accessible to all cross functional teams then there will be improved collaboration where teams can visualize the priorities, build consensus on objectives, remove bottlenecks and execute tasks in order to make progress towards project goal.

Experiment - Create a dashboard on confluence and grant required access to cross functional teams to check the progress and status of tasks assigned to them. The dashboard should also be able to fetch individual projects status (eg: via page properties report macro ) so that it is available to all teams at a single location.

Conclusion - Creating a central dashboard, served as single source of truth for cross functional teams resulting in effective collaboration and better planning. 

[Marjorie]

Question: Does using a collaboration tool (Confluence) for requirements will reduce our meetings?

Hypothesis:  If we use Confluence to elicit our initial requirements we can reduce our meetings by 25%

Prediction: If my team reduces our meetings by 25%, then we can focus on delivering the product faster.

Experiment: Build collaboration pages for the product requirements so that stakeholders can look up the agenda, questions and be prepared so that meetings are reduced by 25. Test pages for a specific bot throughout the requirements gathering phase.

Conclusion - The collaboration pages for the product requirements did reduce the requirement for meetings and reduced the time required to be in meetings closer to 20% but that gives each member more time to focus on work.  Our meetings are more productive as the pages become a guide to help us stay on topic.

[Suvradip Paul]

Question: Is it a good practice to take and circulate meeting notes during the meeting(as part of meeting) or is it a better approach to circulate after the meeting is over ? 

Hypothesis: We can use Confluence and create a place holder before the meeting with the date and relevant agenda. Followed by, we can draft the meeting notes and action items in that template and assign action items tagging relevant people. Now if the agenda, meeting notes and action items are limited can be easily managed with in meeting duration then the confluence placeholder ca be published during the meeting else it should be done with in a short interval and preferably the same day. 

Prediction: We can buildup a good habit of capturing agenda, meeting notes and sharing action items using confluence and circulating the meeting notes depending on the meeting duration and utilising the meeting slot most effectively.

Experiment: Creating pages for capturing agenda and drafting meeting notes and action items tagging people and sharing that within meeting or outside meeting depending on meeting duration which significantly improves team collaboration by 15-20 % and effective time management by 10% on overall team capacity.

Conclusion: Team is now more collaborative and confident and effective in drafting and sharing meeting notes. Overall team performance increased by around 20%. 

[Sedera Randria]

Recent experience...

question: ”After 1.5 years of WFH, how can we have more participation (>70%) during our daily team meetings ?"

hypothesis: The 30-minute format was cool at the start of the pandemic but today it probably does not meet expectations anymore (busy agendas, too messy meeting...)

prediction: If we reduce daily meetings to 15 minutes and ask manager+people what they really want to talk about, that should be a good start

experiment: We split meetings into 2 parts. The first part is for coffee machine discussions (presentation, appreciation, social chat, celebration, etc). The last 15 minutes are focused on weekly priorities, with a Kanban board. 

conclusion: By splitting the 30-minute meetings into 2 parts + a better use of Jira and Confluence, we keep an optional space where teammates can develop social connections. And, in less than 15 minutes, we have a more effective talk focused on the weekly priority. With more than 90% participation!