Insights from Atlassian's State of Teams 2024

A recent post on Atlassian blog caught our eye: State of Teams 2024 reports that 25 billion work hours are lost to ineffective collaboration each year within the Fortune 500, due to inefficiencies that many organisations struggle with: unclear priorities, limited cross-functional collaboration, and underutilization of advanced tools. 

This type of statement is undeniably concerning, but is it truly surprising? 

Honestly, not at all. 

Anyone who has worked in a large organization knows how quickly time and resources are consumed when teams are sizable, often leading to slower project execution. The reality is clear: you can be small, fast, and efficient, or large, impactful, and powerful—but you can’t be both.

Can’t you? 

At Echoes, we like to think that teams have never been this productive at writing code, however, performance lies somewhere else. 

In our opinion, performance lies in alignment with strategic goals, efficient delivery and continuous improvement. We built Echoes to help engineering leaders foster their teams and help them operate at peak performance and aim for excellence. 

1. Aligning Objectives with Outcomes

Atlassian emphasizes the importance of frameworks like OKRs to align teams around shared goals. Echoes enable engineering teams to define, track, and prioritize goals while staying connected to broader organizational objectives. By integrating OKR alignment into workflows (or strategic initiatives, North stars, or any chosen KPI), Echoes helps teams ensure every effort contributes to meaningful outcomes, and that they have impact on corporate business .

2. Enhancing Collaboration and Delivery 

The report underlines the role of seamless communication in fostering collaboration. Echoes help managers deal with dependencies between teams, understanding who works on what when, and anticipate any bottleneck in order to make collaboration as fluid as possible. Echoes also monitor project delivery, to detect any slow down or issues that might disturb teams’ progress. Reactivity is easier, no more bad late surprises on project delivery. Collaboration is fluid.

3. Real-Time Feedback and Iteration

The State of Teams 2024 stresses the need for adaptive systems that support ongoing iteration. Echoes provides instant feedback mechanisms, helping engineering leaders and managers identify and address inefficiencies promptly. With metric-based insights and dynamic dashboards, teams can monitor their performance, adjust strategies and work on their engineering practices in real time, ensuring continuous improvement.

4. Prioritizing Well-Being and Reducing Burnout

As teams juggle increasing demands, maintaining well-being is critical. Echoes integrates workload management features to balance team capacity and prevent burnout. By visualizing workload distribution and flagging over-allocation risks, Echoes promotes a sustainable working environment.

Atlassian’s findings made us realize that Echoes aligns closely with our industry issues, thanks to many interviews with CTOs, VP of Engineering or Engineering Directors. Echoes offer tailored solutions that amplify efficiency and collaboration. For engineering teams aiming to deliver impactful results while fostering a healthy work culture, Echoes bridges the gap between strategy and execution, driving transformative outcomes.

NB: If you want to read the State of Teams 2024 report, Atlassian’s blog post is here.

NB2: if you want to learn more about Echoes, book a demo here.