Friction as a Feature, Not a Bug

I’m coining a new term – FaaF. It sounds like the word my dad would use to describe something unimportant, but now: FaaF means Friction as a Feature. 

As we all know, automating mundane, repetitive tasks, frees up valuable time and mental bandwidth for more strategic work. ML / AI has taken automation to new, impressive levels with ever-increasing accuracy, but leaders must now try to determine the merits of it’s efficiency gains.

While there is an ever-growing list of things that we CAN automate, it is important to consider what we SHOULD automate. This is where Friction as a Function comes into play. 

Let’s use the example of a leader at a large tech company. Oftentimes, they will rely on a PMO who spends hours a week chasing updates from initiative teams to build out a progress report that is shared with leadership. 

This PMO is often well-paid former management consultants. These updates are critical in helping teams and leaders stay aligned, but chasing them is a manual and tactical process, taking time that the PMO could instead use on removing roadblocks, driving efficiencies, helping initiative teams prepare for presentations, etc. 

Chasing and compiling these updates is a great example of friction that should be automated. 

However, creating the content of these updates is a good example of FaaF (Friction as a Feature). Ensuring initiative teams sit down weekly (or biweekly, monthly, etc.) and manually type out a short account of their progress, roadblocks, and next steps causes them to reflect, to think critically, and to hold themselves accountable regularly. This is good friction, or Friction as a Feature.

Of course the friction should be proportional – you don’t want initiative teams to spend hours providing intricate details each week in a beautifully manicured presentation if they can give a useful, pragmatic update in 5 minutes. 

It is the job of a leader to determine when to remove and when to allow friction, and how much friction is enough. Automation should be embraced where it truly adds value (like chasing progress updates), freeing up teams to focus on more strategic tasks (like executing on an initiative, and thinking critically about its health and trajectory).

As you review and redesign your workflows, ask yourself not just what you should automate, but where Friction is a Function, not a bug.