Decoding Yubi's formula for supercharged productivity

Graham Bell would be gobsmacked at how far communication technology has come since he invented the telephone. Landlines, fax machines, snail mail? Tales from the past! Humans and machines are increasingly becoming inseparable partners, working together seamlessly to create a new era of collaboration. Sample this - the fictional Lumon Industries in the series Severance offers a procedure that allows employees to have their work and personal memories separated. Sounds futuristic? It’s not. Neural implants are a reality!

The transformation sweeping the workplace is a perfect example of how technological evolution is imparting new meaning to collaboration. Technology has changed the way we communicate, making it more informal and playful. We use abbreviations, emojis, and other informal language online, thanks to social media. State-of-the-art productivity platforms like Slack are making lives easier in the workplace for teams to communicate more effectively, collaborate more efficiently, and stay organised. Whether it's Tony Stark controlling his digital world with Jarvis in the MCU or the inter-galaxy calls in The Mandalorian, the pace of innovation in the Slack ecosystem is rapidly turning fiction into reality.

The standout story of Yubi

At the recent Slack City Tour event in Bengaluru, Slack brought together customers to talk about their experiences of adopting the platform, unlearning and relearning, cultural change, productivity gains, and the future.

The story of Yubi stood out. It is a fully integrated, unified digital debt lending platform connecting enterprises to banks. At the event, Yubi's Chief Data Officer (CDO), Mathangi Sri Ramachandran, recounted her organisation's journey with Slack and the cultural changes it has brought to Yubi. Initially, there was some internal resistance , with concerns about the reliability of the technology, how effective collaboration would be, and the expected outcomes. As Yoda famously said in The Empire Strikes Back, "You must unlearn what you have learned"; the process of discarding old beliefs and habits in order to make room for new ones is difficult. When this maxim is applied to an organisation, the task becomes gargantuan. It is a cultural shift.

Underlining this cultural shift, Mathangi said, “Async work is not a new concept, but for an organisation to switch en-masse to Async work on a productivity platform like Slack was a fundamental change.” The statement is profound because it captures the power of change. For Yubi, getting everyone on board, familiarising them with the tech and its add-ons, and making it a part of work-life were critical to performance.

The productivity paradigm and the Yubi way

Productivity is a nuanced construct. The ‘State of Work 2023’ survey, commissioned by Slack, has shed new light on the evolving understanding of productivity. While 27% of executives surveyed said they rely on visibility and activity metrics to measure productivity, Yubi took a bold step in a different direction by focusing on value metrics that reveal a more accurate picture. At Yubi, Slack integrations have led to gains in time management, decision-making, and improved growth metrics. It has made collaboration seamless.

Slack supported Yubi in fostering a consensus-driven culture that granted employees flexibility in their work hours while maintaining efficiency. An internal survey found that 52% of respondents believed flexible schedules were key to enhancing productivity.

How Yubi used Slack to grow

Yubi, headquartered in Chennai, commenced operations in 2020 and expanded from eight employees to over 1,200 in less than a year. In 2022, it attained unicorn status and expanded operations in the Middle East. Yubi was able to expand operations in such a short time partly due to its openness to technology adoption and its people-centred approach. Yubi gained access to an extensive ecosystem of over 2,600+ app integrations with Slack. Notably, the inclusion of Jira has proved instrumental for software development teams, as it empowers them with features for seamless issue tracking, efficient project management, and real-time updates on development tasks.

The State of Work 2023’ report projects efficiency gains for organisations that are receptive to integrating generative AI into their workflows. With the launch of Slack AI, the platform is poised to deliver even more efficiency gains and productivity benefits to all its end users. An estimated 3.6 hours are saved each week by those using AI and automations at work. Yubi seamlessly incorporates task management applications like Trello and Asana into its Slack environment. This integration empowers team members to receive real-time task notifications, stay informed about deadlines, and access project updates directly through Slack.

Future: More fluid and global workplace

The Yubi story is a beacon of hope for businesses of all stripes. Yubi has embraced change with open arms, and they've mastered the art of unlearning and relearning. They realise the importance of investing in transformative technology like Slack and building capabilities that are shock-proof. The future is here and now. It would not be prudent for any corporation to tiptoe around this transformation. The best course of action would be to embrace the change and learn to "unlearn and relearn."

The pages slugged ‘Brand Connect’ are equivalent to advertisements and are not written and produced by Forbes India journalists.