In this episode, we explore a challenge that plagues every engineering team: the constant stream of interruptions that disrupt our workflows. Drawing from our combined experiences working with dozens of engineering teams, we introduce the concept of the "firefighter" role - a structured approach to managing unplanned work that's transformed how teams handle interruptions.
We dive into the science behind context switching, examine why solutions often fail, and explore a practical framework that turns interruptions from productivity killers into opportunities for systematic improvement.
Key topics we cover:
- The true cost of context switching in engineering teams
- Why common interrupt-handling approaches break down
- How to implement and rotate the firefighter role
- Turning interruptions into systematic improvements
- Measuring success and avoiding common pitfalls
Show Notes:
How engineering teams handle unplanned work - this article captured my thoughts exactly and includes some really good visualisations of the different approaches.
The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress - UC Irvine study
And a FastCompany article about the study.
Timeline and topics covered
00:00 Welcome and Today's Topic
01:04 Unplanned Work and Interrupts in Engineering Teams
02:40 The Science of Interruptions
04:06 When it comes to concentration - We are our own worst enemy
05:12 Moar "Science" of interruptions
06:29 We are working faster to cope
07:21 The Danger of a Team that is Constantly Interrupted
09:02 The "Ad-hoc" or early-stage approach
12:03 The "Cooldown" or dedicated sprint approach
15:19 The Firefighter or the dedicated role approach
16:43 Quiet Time = Learning and Prevention Time
17:50 Implementation Strategies
20:06 Handling Requests
23:37 Common Pitfalls to the Dedicated Firefighter Approach
26:58 Handovers between firefighters
28:25 Firefighters for small teams?
29:47 Wrapping Up
30:52 Outro