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AWS EMR ( ) is Amazon’s managed big data platform which allows clients who need to process gigabytes or petabytes of data to create EC2 instances running the . Elastic MapReduce Hadoop File System (HDFS) AWS generally bills storage and compute together inside instances, but AWS EMR allows you to scale them independently, so you can have huge amounts of data without necessarily requiring large amounts of compute. AWS EMR clusters integrate with a wide variety of . The most common and cost-effective are Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets and the HDFS. You can also integrate with dozens of other AWS services, including RDS, S3 Glacier, Redshift, and Data Pipeline. storage options AWS EMR is powerful, but understanding pricing can be a challenge. Because the service has several unique features and extensively utilizes other AWS services, it’s easy to lose track of all the elements factored into your monthly spending. In this article, I’ll share an overview of AWS EMR’s pricing model, some tips for controlling your AWS EMR costs, and resources for monitoring your EMR spend. While it’s hard to generalize advice for EMR because each data warehouse is different, this article should give you a starting point for understanding how your use case will be priced by Amazon. AWS EMR Cluster Pricing Most of the costs of running an AWS EMR cluster come from the utilization of other AWS resources, like EC2 instances and S3 storage. To run a job, an AWS EMR cluster must have at least one primary node and one core node. The EC2 instances in the cluster are based on instance size. Every instance in a cluster is created with an attached, ephemeral EBS volume with (instances without attached instance storage are ) to hold HDFS data and any temporary data like caching or buffers. These volumes are and prorated over the time the instance runs. charged by the minute 10 GiB of provisioned space given more charged per GiB provisioned The and are stored in S3 buckets, where you're charged [per Gibibyte (GiB) per month](TODO: Link to S3 Pricing Guide). A job is to the EMR cluster via or . You can also using a  service like , , or . To start the job, the retrieves data from S3 (adding GET request fees to the S3 bucket). Any buckets in a different region will also be charged per GiB for data transferred to the cluster. data to process data processing application submitted steps a Hadoop job automate cluster launch Step Functions Data Pipeline Lambda Functions EMR File System (EMRFS) You can set the minimum and maximum number of EC2 instances your EMR cluster uses to help control your costs vs. availability. For example, this cluster uses and has the maximum number of non-primary set to “3”: managed scaling nodes Once the job starts, EMR will monitor utilization and add nodes if needed. EMR managed scaling adds nodes in a specific order: core nodes, On-Demand task nodes, core nodes, and Spot instance task nodes. These additional instances also have costs and attached EBS volumes. On-Demand Spot instance Other data, like configurations for auto-scaling instances and log data can also be stored in S3 buckets. Once the job completes (or finishes a step), intermediate data can be stored in HDFS for more processing or written to an S3 bucket (with a PUT request fee, storage costs, and any cross regions data-transfer charges). At the end of the job, EMR will terminate idle instances (and attached EBS volumes) down to the minimum, while remaining instances wait for the next workload. In short, if your EMR cluster is sitting idly, waiting for data, it should scale down appropriately, but you'll still pay for storage costs during downtime. While putting a cap on the number of EC2 instances EMR uses helps you control your costs, your data warehouse might struggle if it's hit with a sudden spike. AWS EMR Cost Optimization Tips Now that we've laid the groundwork for how pricing in EMR works, let's look at some of the levers you can pull to decrease your EMR costs. Prepare Your Data When you’re working on the petabyte scale, disorganized data can dramatically increase costs by increasing the amount of time it takes to find the data you intend to process. Good ways to improve the efficiency of your EMR cluster are data partitioning, compression, and formatting. is vital to ensure you’re not wading through an entire data lake to find the few lines of data you want to process, racking up bandwidth and compute costs in the process. You can partition data by carefully planning to and . Or use a Hadoop tool like , , or in tandem with a metadata storage service like . Data partitioning use prefixes S3 Select Hive Presto Spark Glue Partitioning by date is common and suits many tasks, but you can partition by any key. A daily partition could prevent an EMR cluster from requesting and scanning a week’s worth of data. Much like database indexing, some partitioning is extremely useful, but over-partitioning can hurt performance by forcing the primary node to track additional metadata and distribute many small files. When reading data, aim to keep partitions larger than 128 MB (the default HDFS ) to avoid the performance hit associated with loading many small files. block size has the obvious benefit of reducing storage space. It also saves on bandwidth for data passed in and out of your cluster. Hadoop can handle reading gzip, bzip2, LZO, and snappy compressed files without any . Gzip is not splittable after compression, so it’s not as appealing as other compression formats. You can also configure EMR to of your job, saving bandwidth and storage in both directions. Data compression additional configuration compress the output is another place to make gains. When dealing with huge amounts of data, finding the data you need can take up a significant amount of your compute time. and are data formats optimized for analytics that pre-aggregate metadata about columns. If your EMR queries column intensive data like , , or , you can see significant speed improvements by reformatting data into one of these columnar formats. Data formatting Apache Parquet Apache ORC columnar sum max count like CSVs Use the Right Instance Type Once your data is stored efficiently, you can bring attention to optimizing how that data is processed. The EC2 instances EMR uses to process data and run the cluster are charged per second. The cost of EC2 instances scales with size, so doubling the size of an instance doubles the hourly cost, but the cost of managing the EMR overhead for a cluster sometimes remains fixed. For many instance families, the hourly EMR fee for an .8xlarge is the same as the hourly EMR fee for a .24xlarge machine. This means larger machines running many tasks are more cost efficient, they decrease the percentage of your budget spent supporting EMR overhead. Choose Your AWS EC2 Pricing There are four options for purchasing EC2 instances: can be started or shut down at any time with no commitment and are the most expensive. The upside is that they'll always be available and can't be taken away (like spot instances can). On-Demand instances One and three-year are On-Demand EC2 instances you reserve in exchange for discounts of 40% to 70%, but you're committing to a long-term commitment with a specific [instance family](Amazon EC2 Instance Types - Amazon Web Services) within a specific region. reserved instances are a slightly more flexible version of reserved instances. You still commit to purchase a certain amount of computer for a one or three year term, but you can choose to change instance family and region. This contract for compute can also be applied to AWS Fargate and AWS Lambda usage. Savings Plans allow clients to purchase unused EC2 capacity, with discounts that can reach 90% and are tied to demand over time. The downside is that spot instances could be claimed back at any time, so they aren't appropriate for most long-running jobs. Spot instances The best way to determine is by testing your application in EMR while monitoring your cluster through the , , and . You want to be fully utilizing as much of your EMR system as possible, making sure you don’t have large amounts of compute idling while ensuring you can reliably hit your SLAs. which instance type to use EMR management console log files CloudWatch metrics Use the Right Number of Primary, Core, and Task Nodes There are in an EMR cluster. It's important to understand what they do so you can devote the right number of instances to each of these types. three types of nodes The (there can only be one or running) manages the cluster and tracks the health of nodes by running the YARN Resource Manager and the HDFS Name Node Service. These machines don’t run tasks and can be smaller than other nodes (the exception is if your cluster runs ). Having three primary nodes gives you redundancy in case one goes down, but you will obviously pay three times as much for the peace of mind. primary node three multiple steps in parallel run tasks and speak to HDFS by running the HDFS DataNode Daemon and the YARN Node Manager service. These are the workhorses of any EMR cluster and can be scaled up or down as needed. Core nodes don’t know about HDFS and only run the YARN Node Manager service. They are best suited for parallel computation, like Hadoop MapReduce tasks and Spark executors. Because they can be reclaimed without risking losing data stored in HDFS, they are ideal candidates to become Spot instances. Task nodes While EMR handles the scaling up and down of core and task nodes, you have the ability to set minimums and maximums. If your maximum is too low, large jobs might back up and take a long time to run. If your minimum is too low, spikes in data take longer as more instances ramp up. On the flip side, if your maximum is too high, an error in your data pipeline could lead to huge cost increases. Instance Configuration Once you've tested and selected the appropriate instance types, sizes, and number of nodes, you have to make a configuration decision. You can deploy an or . instance fleet uniform instance groups Instance fleets are flexible and designed to utilize Spot instances effectively. When creating an instance fleet, you specify up to five instance types, a range of availability zones (avoid saving a few cents on instances only to spend them transferring data between zones), a target for Spot and On-Demand instances, and a maximum price you’d pay for a Spot instance. When the fleet launches, EMR provisions instances until your targets are met. You can set a provisioning timeout, which allows you to terminate the cluster or switch to On-Demand instances if no Spot instances are available. Instance fleets also support , allowing your cluster to confidently access a Spot instance for 1 to 6 hours. Spot instances for predefined durations Running all your EMR clusters as Spot Instances would be great for your budget but will leave you a system you can’t always use to process work promptly. Evaluate your requirements, plan to have more expensive and more reliable long-running instances to ensure you meet your SLAs while adding cheaper, less reliable Spot instances to handle spikes in demand. Uniform Instance Groups are more targeted, requiring you to specify a single instance size and decide between On Demand on Spot instances before launching. Instance Groups are perfect for . Instance Fleets are great for grabbing Spot instances where possible while allowing the cluster to fall back to On-Demand instances if needed. tasks that are well understood and need a concrete, consistent amount of resources Scaling AWS EMR Clusters AWS EMR clusters are big, powerful, and expensive. EMR utilization also often comes in peaks and valleys of utilization, making your cluster a good cost-saving option when handling usage spikes. Instance fleets and uniform instance clusters can both use . scaling EMR Managed Scaling This scaling service automatically adds nodes when utilization is high and removes them when it decreases. Unfortunately, it's only available for applications that use Yet Another Resource Manager (YARN) (sorry, ). If you're running an instance group, you can also using a CloudWatch metric and other parameters you specify. This can give you more fine-grained control over scaling, but it's obviously more complicated to set up. Presto specify your own scaling policy Terminate AWS EMR clusters Another fundamental decision you'll have to make about every EMR cluster you spin up is whether it should after running the job or ? terminate keep running Terminating clusters after running jobs is great for saving money - you no longer pay for an instance or its attached storage - but auto-terminating clusters also has drawbacks. Any data in the HDFS is , so you will have to write stateless jobs that rely on a metadata store in S3 or Glue. lost forever upon cluster termination Auto-termination is also inefficient when running many small jobs. It generally takes less than 15 minutes for a cluster to get provisioned and start processing data, but if a job takes 5 minutes to run and you’re running 10 in a row, auto-termination quickly takes a toll. To get the most out of long-running clusters, try to smooth out utilization over time. Scatter jobs throughout the day, and try to draw all the EMR users in your organization to the instance to fill gaps in long-running clusters. Long-running, large clusters can be quite cost-effective. Instance costs decrease relative to size, and the EMR fees on top often don’t increase when increasing instance size, increasing the relative value. Monitoring AWS EMR Costs Now that your AWS EMR cluster has instances scaling smoothly while reading beautifully compressed and formatted data, check to track your cost reduction progress. Cost Explorer Cost Explorer gives you a helpful map of what’s running in your organization but requires some attention to yield the greatest gains. , giving each cluster an owner and business unit to attribute your costs to. Tagging is especially important for EMR because it relies on so many other Amazon services. It can be really hard to differentiate between the many resources used by your EMR cluster when they're in the same AWS account as your production application. Tag your resources Other AWS EMR Resource If you're looking for more practical articles on this subject, another solid resource can be found on . This article was written by and he describes 3 measures that helped them significantly lower their data processing cost on EMR: Teads engineering blog Wassim Almaaoui Run our Workloads on Spot Instances Leverage the EMR pricing of bigger EC2 Instances. Automatically detect idle clusters (and terminate them ASAP). Check this article out when you get a chance to supplement this one: . Reducing AWS EMR data processing costs Knowing Your Requirements, Meeting Your Goals In this post, you've learned how EMR pricing works and what you can do to minimize and track your EMR costs. It's possible to grow your EMR infrastructure while controlling costs, but it will likely take a deep understanding of your data processing requirements and a little trial and error. EMR can eat up huge amounts of storage, so be sure you partition, compress, and format data to reduce your storage costs. Categorize jobs according to priority, schedule, and resource requirements, then nestle them into the right instance types. Consider cluster termination for jobs that run only occasionally and auto-scale long-running instances when appropriate. Also Published Here

A Complete Guide on Optimizing AWS EMR Costs 

I'm puzzled. Product development teams are frustrated by their ways of working. They have a dedicated time slot to discuss and improve things. Yet, it doesn't work. Most teams believe nothing will ever change. As part of product discovery for Codigy Retro, I interviewed 62 companies. I broke down my findings into categories, to see if it would be possible to to solve this. Systematically. Bad experience on the individual/team level: Broken trust. The team raises an issue. It gets lost or left unresolved. No one likes to work without results. If there is no feedback, people will rightly think that it is a pointless exercise.
Peer pressure. When feedback is shared in public, everyone pats each other on the shoulder. It's hard to be the grumpy one who points out something bad.
Poor memory. What did you have for breakfast 4 days ago? We ask people for feedback on the spot, after a hard working week. It's not that we don't have problems to discuss. It's just hard to recall them on the spot.
Lack of structure. Instead of fixing the trust, some facilitators replace problem-solving meeting flow with games and vague discussions. Everyone is engaged, but are there any outcomes? Interactions with Leadership level: Participants raise issues outside the team's scope. That's expected since their quality of life mostly depends on company policies and culture. Topic samples: "Shifting scope", "Lack of product vision", "HR Processes", "Access Policy", "Collaboration with other teams". If we don't address them, we return to the "Broken trust". Why is the high-level stuff usually left unresolved? Your suggestion is discarded as "individual opinion". The team champion gathers insights. Uses all the relationships within the company to share findings. Result? Frequently discarded as an "insignificant issue" or "your opinion”.
"Our tiny team can't change this". Individuals and teams avoid raising issues, thinking it only affects them and is not important enough to be escalated higher. The company is made up of tiny teams. Maybe this issue affects everyone - but we will never find out, because it's never discussed outside the team silo.
Fear of retaliation. Some relationships are not as rosy as we want them to be. Anonymity matters. Especially when rallying support for a controversial topic.
Dev talk vs Business talk. There is plenty of feedback going around in closed peer groups. Devs talk to devs. Leadership talks to leadership. Without a common language and effective communication channels, a meeting between two groups turns into a blaming session. Teams with high autonomy, seem to be happier and not affected by this as much. Maybe that's the long-term solution. How to get out of this situation? After discussing this with the Agile community on Reddit, it seems like teams in this situation have a few options: Continue the struggle. Leave things as they are. Not a happy choice.
Focus team attention on improving the 10% of experience in their control. Barely better. Like cleaning your desk when someone is chopping your arm off. Hard to focus on the small stuff, when your experience is harmed by something bigger.
Go and solve this individually. Build relationships in your organization. Back your argument with team data (anonymized). Try to convert your case into business language. This is by far the best choice. But unfortunately, this is frequently disregarded as "your opinion" because you came alone.
Wait for consultants or leadership to make structural improvements. This may improve things, but when? Take team experience into your own hands The key is to rally support and show that even a small issue can be significant. A different story if it bothers 15 teams or 50 developers. → Gather issues that bother the majority of the teams. Talk with other teams. Extract data summary from retrospectives with Ai, and use data analytics (E.g. Team Health Check trends). → Open a channel/inbox visible to leadership. Submit issues and get public upvotes from other teams. → Convert findings into business language. What are we losing? What could we get, and how? This kind of work would be done by consultants. The benefit of doing it internally, is you get incremental changes NOW. And feels good😎 I'm puzzled. Product development teams are frustrated by their ways of working. They have a dedicated time slot to discuss and improve things. Yet, it doesn't work. Most teams believe nothing will ever change. As part of product discovery for Codigy Retro, I interviewed 62 companies. I broke down my findings into categories, to see if it would be possible to to solve this. Systematically. Bad experience on the individual/team level: Bad experience on the individual/team level: Broken trust. The team raises an issue. It gets lost or left unresolved. No one likes to work without results. If there is no feedback, people will rightly think that it is a pointless exercise. Peer pressure. When feedback is shared in public, everyone pats each other on the shoulder. It's hard to be the grumpy one who points out something bad. Poor memory. What did you have for breakfast 4 days ago? We ask people for feedback on the spot, after a hard working week. It's not that we don't have problems to discuss. It's just hard to recall them on the spot. Lack of structure. Instead of fixing the trust, some facilitators replace problem-solving meeting flow with games and vague discussions. Everyone is engaged, but are there any outcomes? Broken trust. The team raises an issue. It gets lost or left unresolved. No one likes to work without results. If there is no feedback, people will rightly think that it is a pointless exercise. Broken trust. Peer pressure. When feedback is shared in public, everyone pats each other on the shoulder. It's hard to be the grumpy one who points out something bad. Peer pressure. Poor memory. What did you have for breakfast 4 days ago? We ask people for feedback on the spot, after a hard working week. It's not that we don't have problems to discuss. It's just hard to recall them on the spot. Poor memory. Lack of structure . Instead of fixing the trust, some facilitators replace problem-solving meeting flow with games and vague discussions. Everyone is engaged, but are there any outcomes? Lack of structure Interactions with Leadership level: Interactions with Leadership level: Participants raise issues outside the team's scope. That's expected since their quality of life mostly depends on company policies and culture. Topic samples: "Shifting scope", "Lack of product vision", "HR Processes", "Access Policy", "Collaboration with other teams". If we don't address them, we return to the "Broken trust". Why is the high-level stuff usually left unresolved? Your suggestion is discarded as "individual opinion". The team champion gathers insights. Uses all the relationships within the company to share findings. Result? Frequently discarded as an "insignificant issue" or "your opinion”. "Our tiny team can't change this". Individuals and teams avoid raising issues, thinking it only affects them and is not important enough to be escalated higher. The company is made up of tiny teams. Maybe this issue affects everyone - but we will never find out, because it's never discussed outside the team silo. Fear of retaliation. Some relationships are not as rosy as we want them to be. Anonymity matters. Especially when rallying support for a controversial topic. Dev talk vs Business talk. There is plenty of feedback going around in closed peer groups. Devs talk to devs. Leadership talks to leadership. Without a common language and effective communication channels, a meeting between two groups turns into a blaming session. Your suggestion is discarded as "individual opinion". The team champion gathers insights. Uses all the relationships within the company to share findings. Result? Frequently discarded as an "insignificant issue" or "your opinion”. Your suggestion is discarded as "individual opinion". "Our tiny team can't change this". Individuals and teams avoid raising issues, thinking it only affects them and is not important enough to be escalated higher. The company is made up of tiny teams. Maybe this issue affects everyone - but we will never find out, because it's never discussed outside the team silo. "Our tiny team can't change this". Fear of retaliation. Some relationships are not as rosy as we want them to be. Anonymity matters. Especially when rallying support for a controversial topic. Fear of retaliation. Dev talk vs Business talk. There is plenty of feedback going around in closed peer groups. Devs talk to devs. Leadership talks to leadership. Without a common language and effective communication channels, a meeting between two groups turns into a blaming session. Dev talk vs Business talk. Teams with high autonomy, seem to be happier and not affected by this as much. Maybe that's the long-term solution. How to get out of this situation? How to get out of this situation? After discussing this with the Agile community on Reddit , it seems like teams in this situation have a few options: Agile community on Reddit Reddit Continue the struggle. Leave things as they are. Not a happy choice. Focus team attention on improving the 10% of experience in their control. Barely better. Like cleaning your desk when someone is chopping your arm off. Hard to focus on the small stuff, when your experience is harmed by something bigger. Go and solve this individually. Build relationships in your organization. Back your argument with team data (anonymized). Try to convert your case into business language. This is by far the best choice. But unfortunately, this is frequently disregarded as "your opinion" because you came alone. Wait for consultants or leadership to make structural improvements. This may improve things, but when? Continue the struggle. Leave things as they are. Not a happy choice. Continue the struggle. Focus team attention on improving the 10% of experience in their control. Barely better. Like cleaning your desk when someone is chopping your arm off. Hard to focus on the small stuff, when your experience is harmed by something bigger. Focus team attention on improving the 10% of experience in their control. Go and solve this individually. Build relationships in your organization. Back your argument with team data (anonymized). Try to convert your case into business language. This is by far the best choice. But unfortunately, this is frequently disregarded as "your opinion" because you came alone. Go and solve this individually. Wait for consultants or leadership to make structural improvements. This may improve things, but when? Wait for consultants or leadership to make structural improvements. Take team experience into your own hands Take team experience into your own hands The key is to rally support and show that even a small issue can be significant. A different story if it bothers 15 teams or 50 developers. → Gather issues that bother the majority of the teams. Talk with other teams. Extract data summary from retrospectives with Ai, and use data analytics (E.g. Team Health Check trends). Gather issues that bother the majority of the teams. → Open a channel/inbox visible to leadership. Submit issues and get public upvotes from other teams. Open a channel/inbox visible to leadership. → Convert findings into business language. What are we losing? What could we get, and how? Convert findings into business language. This kind of work would be done by consultants. The benefit of doing it internally, is you get incremental changes NOW. And feels good😎

My Teams Hates Retros. What Should I Do?

Avoid These 7 Leadership Mistakes That Will Limit Your Team’s Growth

Let me share something I've seen time and time again in my work with sales teams across various industries. Salespeople often struggle not because they're lacking in skill or motivation, but because they're operating without clear guidance from their leadership. This isn't a sales issue—it's a systemic problem rooted in the very core of organizational management. I recall a particular company I worked with not too long ago. The sales team was composed of talented, driven individuals who were eager to make their mark. Yet, quarter after quarter, they failed to hit their targets. The executives were baffled. They had hired the best people, provided them with solid products, and yet the numbers just weren't adding up. So, I dug a little deeper. I sat down with the salespeople, and what I found was both revealing and, unfortunately, all too common. They were confused. The company's strategy seemed to change with the wind. One week, the focus was on pushing a new product line; the next, it was about upselling existing clients; and the week after, it shifted to breaking into new markets altogether. There was no consistent direction, no stable targets to aim for. This lack of clarity from leadership created a ripple effect throughout the sales team. Without a clear understanding of priorities, salespeople were left to make their own interpretations of what was important. Some focused on existing accounts, others chased new leads, and others still spent time on low-impact activities that did little to drive sales. The result? Diffused efforts and disappointing results. You see, salespeople thrive on direction. They need to know the "why" behind their actions—the overarching goals that their daily activities contribute to. When leadership fails to provide this, it's like asking someone to build a house without a blueprint. Sure, they might have the tools and materials, but without a plan, the end result is unlikely to be structurally sound. Leadership's role is crucial in setting this foundation. It's up to the executives and managers to define the company's strategic targets clearly. Who are our ideal customers? What markets are we focusing on? What products or services are our priorities? These are questions that should be answered definitively and communicated effectively to the sales team. Moreover, consistency is key. Changing strategies frequently not only confuses the sales team but also undermines their confidence in leadership. It's important to stay the course long enough to see results, making adjustments as necessary but avoiding knee-jerk reactions to every minor market fluctuation. But let's not stop at setting clear targets. Leadership must also equip salespeople with the necessary tools and resources—what I like to call "sales weapons." This includes everything from a compelling sales story and up-to-date marketing collateral to ongoing training and development opportunities. Without these, even the most clearly defined targets can seem out of reach. Finally, planning and executing the sales attack requires support from the top down. Salespeople need to know that their leaders have their backs, providing not just direction but also encouragement and recognition. When leadership is engaged and supportive, it fosters a culture where salespeople feel valued and motivated to perform at their best. So, if you're noticing that your sales team is underperforming, take a moment before pointing fingers. Ask yourself: Have we provided clear and consistent direction?
Do our salespeople understand our strategic priorities?
Are we equipping them with the tools they need to succeed?
Are we supporting them with effective leadership and a positive culture? Chances are, if there's a disconnect in any of these areas, the issue lies within the system, not the sales team. In conclusion, clarity and direction from leadership aren't just nice-to-haves—they're essential components of a successful sales operation. By addressing these systemic issues, you empower your salespeople to focus on what they do best: building relationships, solving problems, and closing deals. And when they succeed, everyone in the organization benefits. So let's commit to providing that clarity. Let's be the kind of leaders who set clear paths, equip our teams, and support them every step of the way. Because when leadership steps up, salespeople can truly shine. Let me share something I've seen time and time again in my work with sales teams across various industries. Salespeople often struggle not because they're lacking in skill or motivation, but because they're operating without clear guidance from their leadership . This isn't a sales issue— it's a systemic problem rooted in the very core of organizational management. they're operating without clear guidance from their leadership it's a systemic problem I recall a particular company I worked with not too long ago. The sales team was composed of talented, driven individuals who were eager to make their mark. Yet, quarter after quarter, they failed to hit their targets. The executives were baffled. They had hired the best people, provided them with solid products, and yet the numbers just weren't adding up. So, I dug a little deeper. I sat down with the salespeople, and what I found was both revealing and, unfortunately, all too common. They were confused. The company's strategy seemed to change with the wind. One week, the focus was on pushing a new product line; the next, it was about upselling existing clients; and the week after, it shifted to breaking into new markets altogether. There was no consistent direction , no stable targets to aim for. There was no consistent direction no stable targets to aim for. This lack of clarity from leadership created a ripple effect throughout the sales team. Without a clear understanding of priorities, salespeople were left to make their own interpretations of what was important . Some focused on existing accounts, others chased new leads, and others still spent time on low-impact activities that did little to drive sales. The result? Diffused efforts and disappointing results. Without a clear understanding of priorities, salespeople were left to make their own interpretations of what was important You see, salespeople thrive on direction . They need to know the "why" behind their actions—the overarching goals that their daily activities contribute to. When leadership fails to provide this, it's like asking someone to build a house without a blueprint. Sure, they might have the tools and materials, but without a plan, the end result is unlikely to be structurally sound. salespeople thrive on direction Leadership's role is crucial in setting this foundation. It's up to the executives and managers to define the company's strategic targets clearly. Who are our ideal customers? What markets are we focusing on? What products or services are our priorities? These are questions that should be answered definitively and communicated effectively to the sales team. Moreover, consistency is key . Changing strategies frequently not only confuses the sales team but also undermines their confidence in leadership. It's important to stay the course long enough to see results, making adjustments as necessary but avoiding knee-jerk reactions to every minor market fluctuation. consistency is key But let's not stop at setting clear targets. Leadership must also equip salespeople with the necessary tools and resources —what I like to call "sales weapons." This includes everything from a compelling sales story and up-to-date marketing collateral to ongoing training and development opportunities. Without these, even the most clearly defined targets can seem out of reach. Leadership must also equip salespeople with the necessary tools and resources Finally, planning and executing the sales attack requires support from the top down. Salespeople need to know that their leaders have their backs, providing not just direction but also encouragement and recognition. When leadership is engaged and supportive, it fosters a culture where salespeople feel valued and motivated to perform at their best. So, if you're noticing that your sales team is underperforming, take a moment before pointing fingers. Ask yourself: Have we provided clear and consistent direction? Do our salespeople understand our strategic priorities? Are we equipping them with the tools they need to succeed? Are we supporting them with effective leadership and a positive culture? Have we provided clear and consistent direction? Have we provided clear and consistent direction? Do our salespeople understand our strategic priorities? Do our salespeople understand our strategic priorities? Are we equipping them with the tools they need to succeed? Are we equipping them with the tools they need to succeed? Are we supporting them with effective leadership and a positive culture? Are we supporting them with effective leadership and a positive culture? Chances are, if there's a disconnect in any of these areas, the issue lies within the system, not the sales team. In conclusion, clarity and direction from leadership aren't just nice-to-haves—they're essential components of a successful sales operation . By addressing these systemic issues, you empower your salespeople to focus on what they do best: building relationships, solving problems, and closing deals. And when they succeed, everyone in the organization benefits. clarity and direction from leadership aren't just nice-to-haves—they're essential components of a successful sales operation So let's commit to providing that clarity. Let's be the kind of leaders who set clear paths, equip our teams, and support them every step of the way. Because when leadership steps up, salespeople can truly shine.

Why Sales Teams Falter Without Direction: Tackling the Systemic Leadership Problem

Hey Hackers, KROCK has been nominated in HackerNoon's annual Startups of The Year awards. Please vote for us here: https://hackernoon.com/startups/europe/europe-tallinn-estonia?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca Read more about us below to understand why we deserve your vote. Meet KROCK Krock.io is a media review and collaboration platform designed to streamline video production workflows, making it easier for creative teams to manage projects, collaborate, and deliver high-quality results efficiently. Our tool is a game-changer for agencies and studios managing complex design, video, and animation projects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RPUMfsRUmY&embedable=true How KROCK Achieved Product-Market Fit We have focused on a very specific market: creative agencies and video production companies that need to manage complex workflows. By closely engaging with these teams and understanding their pain points, we tailored KROCK to address the real challenges of video production, such as the need for streamlined feedback, clear task dependencies, and integration of multimedia assets. Our close partnerships with clients, ranging from agencies to large organizations, have confirmed the value KROCK provides in making their workflows smoother and more efficient. KROCK has achieved product-market fit by solving the key issues faced by creative production teams, such as the cumbersome review process and scattered communication. We’ve seen consistent growth in client adoption, high user retention rates, and have successfully partnered with top-tier agencies, including international ones. This traction shows that we are meeting a clear market need. Some key indicators: Growing user base in key markets across Europe, the U.S., and Asia.
Increasing demand from animation studios, creative agencies, educational products, and video production houses.
Strong engagement metrics: high daily active users and extended time spent on the platform.
Client feedback that emphasizes time savings and improved communication workflows. The Evolution of KROCK KROCK originally began as an internal project management system developed for our animation agency, Hound Studio. It was designed to streamline our own production processes and enhance collaboration within the team. However, as our clients interacted with the platform, they saw immense value in its functionality and started requesting access for their own use. Their positive feedback and demand for the tool inspired us to create a standalone company dedicated to further developing KROCK, turning it into a full-fledged product available to creative agencies and production teams worldwide. When we started, we aimed to simplify project management for animation studios. Over time, the platform evolved based on client feedback and industry trends. Initially, KROCK was focused on small animation agencies, but as larger organizations began using the platform, we adapted by adding more robust features such as audio review and Interactive storyboard features with AI. Building a startup often involves a lot of iteration. Tell us about your journey to this point. It’s been a journey of constant feedback and iteration. Early on, we realized that while KROCK was intuitive for small teams, larger organizations had different needs. We pivoted from focusing solely on video production studios to also targeting animation agencies, creative design teams, 3d architectural companies, and marketing departments. This shift has helped us tap into a wider market and build a more versatile platform. Have you pivoted at any point? If yes, what informed that decision? Yes, we pivoted when we realized that our initial target market was too niche. By expanding our focus to larger organizations and animation production studios, we found a broader audience that could benefit from KROCK’s capabilities. This pivot was largely informed by user feedback and market demand for features that could accommodate larger teams and more complex workflows. We also developed an online storyboard builder with the ability to generate animatics, providing creative teams with a powerful tool to visualize and plan their projects. This feature enables users to efficiently transition from storyboarding to animatic creation, ensuring a smoother process during the early stages of production. How has user feedback affected your startup’s priorities? User feedback has played a huge role in shaping KROCK. For example, our users requested better workflow customization options. This led us to prioritize the development of features like customizable stages, and smoother team collaboration features, ensuring KROCK met their evolving needs. We’ve built a platform that allows seamless collaboration on any media production project, all in one place. With KROCK, you can approve production stages, track changes, and manage versions effortlessly. To get a quick overview of the platform’s core benefits, you can watch this brief 3-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu199cKsevk&embedable=true Milestones and Achievements • Expanding our platform to serve clients in over 30 countries. • Successfully collaborating with major creative agencies and studios, including leading animation production companies, marketing agencies, game developers, 3d architects. Lessons Learned Prioritize feedback from deeply engaged users who have extensive experience with the platform, ensuring that improvements are aligned with real, meaningful use cases, rather than focusing solely on the initial feature requests from new users. One of the biggest challenges we faced was ensuring scalability without compromising the simplicity that our users loved. We learned that listening to customer feedback early on helped us avoid mistakes and iterate faster. Another lesson was understanding the importance of balancing functionality with ease of use. Too many features can overwhelm users, so we prioritized developing tools that genuinely improved their workflow. One of the key lessons we’ve learned is the importance of prioritizing feedback from users who are already deeply engaged with our platform, rather than focusing solely on the suggestions of new users. In the early stages, it can be tempting to accommodate every feature request, especially from new users who, after just a few hours of usage, often suggest adding an extensive range of functionalities—everything from time tracking to CRM systems. However, these requests can sometimes stray from the core purpose of the platform. By listening closely to our most active and experienced users, we gain valuable insights into improvements that enhance the core functionality, ensuring we stay focused on providing the most effective solution for creative collaboration and media review. What Startups of The Year Means to Us We’re excited to participate in HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year because it provides us with an opportunity to showcase our platform to a global audience. Being nominated in Tallinn, Estonia is a big recognition for us, and we’re eager to gain further visibility, expand our network, and potentially connect with investors and partners who share our vision. Conclusion KROCK is transforming the way creative agencies manage video production, offering a platform designed to make collaboration more seamless and efficient. We’re thrilled to be part of HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year and look forward to what’s next in our journey of innovation and growth. Vote for us today! 👉 https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca Hey Hackers, KROCK has been nominated in HackerNoon's annual Startups of The Year awards. Please vote for us here: Please vote for us here: https://hackernoon.com/startups/europe/europe-tallinn-estonia?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca https://hackernoon.com/startups/europe/europe-tallinn-estonia?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca Read more about us below to understand why we deserve your vote. Meet KROCK Krock.io is a media review and collaboration platform designed to streamline video production workflows, making it easier for creative teams to manage projects, collaborate, and deliver high-quality results efficiently. Our tool is a game-changer for agencies and studios managing complex design, video, and animation projects. Krock.io https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RPUMfsRUmY&embedable=true https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RPUMfsRUmY&embedable=true How KROCK Achieved Product-Market Fit We have focused on a very specific market: creative agencies and video production companies that need to manage complex workflows. By closely engaging with these teams and understanding their pain points, we tailored KROCK to address the real challenges of video production, such as the need for streamlined feedback, clear task dependencies, and integration of multimedia assets. Our close partnerships with clients, ranging from agencies to large organizations, have confirmed the value KROCK provides in making their workflows smoother and more efficient. KROCK has achieved product-market fit by solving the key issues faced by creative production teams, such as the cumbersome review process and scattered communication. We’ve seen consistent growth in client adoption, high user retention rates, and have successfully partnered with top-tier agencies, including international ones. This traction shows that we are meeting a clear market need. Some key indicators: Some key indicators: Growing user base in key markets across Europe, the U.S., and Asia. Increasing demand from animation studios, creative agencies, educational products, and video production houses. Strong engagement metrics: high daily active users and extended time spent on the platform. Client feedback that emphasizes time savings and improved communication workflows. Growing user base in key markets across Europe, the U.S., and Asia. Increasing demand from animation studios, creative agencies, educational products, and video production houses. Strong engagement metrics: high daily active users and extended time spent on the platform. Client feedback that emphasizes time savings and improved communication workflows. The Evolution of KROCK KROCK originally began as an internal project management system developed for our animation agency, Hound Studio . It was designed to streamline our own production processes and enhance collaboration within the team. However, as our clients interacted with the platform, they saw immense value in its functionality and started requesting access for their own use. Hound Studio Their positive feedback and demand for the tool inspired us to create a standalone company dedicated to further developing KROCK, turning it into a full-fledged product available to creative agencies and production teams worldwide. When we started, we aimed to simplify project management for animation studios. Over time, the platform evolved based on client feedback and industry trends. Initially, KROCK was focused on small animation agencies, but as larger organizations began using the platform, we adapted by adding more robust features such as audio review and Interactive storyboard features with AI. When we started, we aimed to simplify project management for animation studios. Over time, the platform evolved based on client feedback and industry trends. Initially, KROCK was focused on small animation agencies, but as larger organizations began using the platform, we adapted by adding more robust features such as audio review and Interactive storyboard features with AI . Interactive storyboard features with AI Building a startup often involves a lot of iteration. Tell us about your journey to this point. Building a startup often involves a lot of iteration. Tell us about your journey to this point. It’s been a journey of constant feedback and iteration. Early on, we realized that while KROCK was intuitive for small teams, larger organizations had different needs. We pivoted from focusing solely on video production studios to also targeting animation agencies, creative design teams, 3d architectural companies, and marketing departments. This shift has helped us tap into a wider market and build a more versatile platform. Have you pivoted at any point? If yes, what informed that decision? Have you pivoted at any point? If yes, what informed that decision? Yes, we pivoted when we realized that our initial target market was too niche. By expanding our focus to larger organizations and animation production studios, we found a broader audience that could benefit from KROCK’s capabilities. This pivot was largely informed by user feedback and market demand for features that could accommodate larger teams and more complex workflows. We also developed an online storyboard builder with the ability to generate animatics , providing creative teams with a powerful tool to visualize and plan their projects. This feature enables users to efficiently transition from storyboarding to animatic creation, ensuring a smoother process during the early stages of production. generate animatics How has user feedback affected your startup’s priorities? How has user feedback affected your startup’s priorities? User feedback has played a huge role in shaping KROCK. For example, our users requested better workflow customization options. This led us to prioritize the development of features like customizable stages, and smoother team collaboration features, ensuring KROCK met their evolving needs. We’ve built a platform that allows seamless collaboration on any media production project, all in one place. With KROCK, you can approve production stages, track changes, and manage versions effortlessly. To get a quick overview of the platform’s core benefits, you can watch this brief 3-minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu199cKsevk&embedable=true https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu199cKsevk&embedable=true Milestones and Achievements • Expanding our platform to serve clients in over 30 countries. • Successfully collaborating with major creative agencies and studios, including leading animation production companies, marketing agencies, game developers, 3d architects. Lessons Learned Prioritize feedback from deeply engaged users who have extensive experience with the platform, ensuring that improvements are aligned with real, meaningful use cases, rather than focusing solely on the initial feature requests from new users. Prioritize feedback from deeply engaged users who have extensive experience with the platform, ensuring that improvements are aligned with real, meaningful use cases, rather than focusing solely on the initial feature requests from new users. One of the biggest challenges we faced was ensuring scalability without compromising the simplicity that our users loved. We learned that listening to customer feedback early on helped us avoid mistakes and iterate faster. Another lesson was understanding the importance of balancing functionality with ease of use. Too many features can overwhelm users, so we prioritized developing tools that genuinely improved their workflow. One of the key lessons we’ve learned is the importance of prioritizing feedback from users who are already deeply engaged with our platform, rather than focusing solely on the suggestions of new users. In the early stages, it can be tempting to accommodate every feature request, especially from new users who, after just a few hours of usage, often suggest adding an extensive range of functionalities—everything from time tracking to CRM systems. However, these requests can sometimes stray from the core purpose of the platform. By listening closely to our most active and experienced users, we gain valuable insights into improvements that enhance the core functionality, ensuring we stay focused on providing the most effective solution for creative collaboration and media review. What Startups of The Year Means to Us We’re excited to participate in HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year because it provides us with an opportunity to showcase our platform to a global audience. Being nominated in Tallinn, Estonia is a big recognition for us, and we’re eager to gain further visibility, expand our network, and potentially connect with investors and partners who share our vision. Conclusion KROCK is transforming the way creative agencies manage video production, offering a platform designed to make collaboration more seamless and efficient. We’re thrilled to be part of HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year and look forward to what’s next in our journey of innovation and growth. Vote for us today! 👉 https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca Vote for us today! 👉 https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca https://hackernoon.com/startups/industry/it-services?stup=66f318d46ea4677e23d9a0ca

Krock - Media Review & Collaboration Platform for Teams 

5 Open-Source Software for Global Teams To Donate via Kivach

5 Open-Source software pro globální týmy k darování přes Kivach

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កម្មវិធីប្រភពបើកចំហចំនួន 5 សម្រាប់ក្រុមសកលដើម្បីបរិច្ចាគតាមរយៈ Kivach

글로벌 팀이 Kivach를 통해 기부할 수 있는 5가지 오픈소스 소프트웨어

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5 Phần mềm nguồn mở dành cho các nhóm toàn cầu quyên góp qua Kivach

TikTok continues to be a propaganda arm of the United Nations and the World Health Organization: perspective TikTok and the World Health Organization (WHO) enter a one-year partnership to train influencers and promote regime-approved content concerning public health on the social media platform. On the 26th of September, 2024, TikTok put out a press release on the partnership, saying that it was a way for the social media company “to create reliable content and combat misinformation.” “Today, we’re partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create reliable content and combat misinformation through the Fides network, a diverse community of trusted healthcare professionals and content creators”
Tiktok Press Release, September 2024 https://x.com/TikTokComms/status/1839279959061225657?embedable=true Working with the WHO’s Fides network, TikTok will provide training on how to best disseminate WHO propaganda. “Through our collaboration with WHO, we will be engaging Fides creators to translate complex scientific research into relatable and digestible video content, expanding across various health topics. “To further equip creators, we will be working closely with WHO to provide access to creator training programs and resources,” the TikTok press release reads. The WHO’s Fides network consists of some 800 creators and was launched in 2020 with the purpose of “mobilizing health content creators to counter misinformation and elevate evidence-based content.” Today, Fides boasts reaching 150 million users across various platforms. Another part of the WHO-TikTok partnership is to suppress any information that doesn’t align with the unelected globalist health body. “People are increasingly being targeted with misinformation and malinformation on these digital channels. The new collaboration between WHO and TikTok is to help addressing these challenges by promoting evidence-based content and encourage positive health dialogues”
World Health Organization (WHO) Press Release, September 2024 https://x.com/WHO/status/1839355594576409054?embedable=true “This is where WHO can step in to support influencers in delivering evidence-based information, ensuring that health conversations on platforms like TikTok are both impactful and informed”
Dr Alain Labrique, WHO Director of Digital Health and Innovation, September 2024 https://x.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1692214997647077817?embedable=true The WHO also put out a press release on the partnership, explaining how certain influencers would be chosen and targeted to be propagandists for the regime: “The collaboration will expand efforts around a number of relevant health topics, translating science-based information into relatable and digestible video content, with more support for influencers provided through TikTok’s creator training programs.” According to the WHO, the goal of the partnership is to leverage “multiple digital communication platforms to increase outreach to people globally, to promote health literacy, healthy behaviors and actions in an increasingly digitized world.” This isn’t the first time a UN organization has partnered with big tech to deliver its messaging. “We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do“
UN Comms Director Melissa Fleming, World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Meetings, September 2022 In September 2022, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming told a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on disinformation that the UN had partnered with TikTok on a project called “Team Halo” to boost COVID messaging coming from medical and scientific communities. “Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers,” she said, adding, “influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters.” “We had another trusted messenger project, which was called ‘Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us,” she added. In the same panel, Fleming declared, “We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do” while bragging about how the UN partnered with Google to manipulate search results, so that only UN-approved messaging would appear at the top. With this partnership, TikTok continues its role as a propaganda arm of the United Nations, of which the WHO is a part. Tim Hinchliffe, Editor, The Sociable TikTok continues to be a propaganda arm of the United Nations and the World Health Organization: perspective TikTok continues to be a propaganda arm of the United Nations and the World Health Organization: perspective TikTok and the World Health Organization (WHO) enter a one-year partnership to train influencers and promote regime-approved content concerning public health on the social media platform. TikTok On the 26th of September, 2024, TikTok put out a press release on the partnership, saying that it was a way for the social media company “ to create reliable content and combat misinformation .” press release to create reliable content and combat misinformation to create reliable content and combat misinformation “Today, we’re partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create reliable content and combat misinformation through the Fides network, a diverse community of trusted healthcare professionals and content creators” Tiktok Press Release, September 2024 “Today, we’re partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create reliable content and combat misinformation through the Fides network, a diverse community of trusted healthcare professionals and content creators” “Today, we’re partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create reliable content and combat misinformation through the Fides network, a diverse community of trusted healthcare professionals and content creators” “Today, we’re partnering with the World Health Organization (WHO) to create reliable content and combat misinformation through the Fides network, a diverse community of trusted healthcare professionals and content creators” Tiktok Press Release, September 2024 https://x.com/TikTokComms/status/1839279959061225657?embedable=true https://x.com/TikTokComms/status/1839279959061225657?embedable=true Working with the WHO’s Fides network , TikTok will provide training on how to best disseminate WHO propaganda. Fides network “ Through our collaboration with WHO, we will be engaging Fides creators to translate complex scientific research into relatable and digestible video content, expanding across various health topics. Through our collaboration with WHO, we will be engaging Fides creators to translate complex scientific research into relatable and digestible video content, expanding across various health topics. Through our collaboration with WHO, we will be engaging Fides creators to translate complex scientific research into relatable and digestible video content, expanding across various health topics. “ To further equip creators, we will be working closely with WHO to provide access to creator training programs and resources ,” the TikTok press release reads. To further equip creators, we will be working closely with WHO to provide access to creator training programs and resources To further equip creators, we will be working closely with WHO to provide access to creator training programs and resources The WHO’s Fides network consists of some 800 creators and was launched in 2020 with the purpose of “mobilizing health content creators to counter misinformation and elevate evidence-based content.” Today, Fides boasts reaching 150 million users across various platforms. Another part of the WHO-TikTok partnership is to suppress any information that doesn’t align with the unelected globalist health body. “People are increasingly being targeted with misinformation and malinformation on these digital channels. The new collaboration between WHO and TikTok is to help addressing these challenges by promoting evidence-based content and encourage positive health dialogues” World Health Organization (WHO) Press Release, September 2024 “People are increasingly being targeted with misinformation and malinformation on these digital channels. The new collaboration between WHO and TikTok is to help addressing these challenges by promoting evidence-based content and encourage positive health dialogues” “People are increasingly being targeted with misinformation and malinformation on these digital channels. The new collaboration between WHO and TikTok is to help addressing these challenges by promoting evidence-based content and encourage positive health dialogues” “People are increasingly being targeted with misinformation and malinformation on these digital channels. The new collaboration between WHO and TikTok is to help addressing these challenges by promoting evidence-based content and encourage positive health dialogues” World Health Organization (WHO) Press Release, September 2024 https://x.com/WHO/status/1839355594576409054?embedable=true https://x.com/WHO/status/1839355594576409054?embedable=true “This is where WHO can step in to support influencers in delivering evidence-based information, ensuring that health conversations on platforms like TikTok are both impactful and informed” Dr Alain Labrique, WHO Director of Digital Health and Innovation, September 2024 “This is where WHO can step in to support influencers in delivering evidence-based information, ensuring that health conversations on platforms like TikTok are both impactful and informed” “This is where WHO can step in to support influencers in delivering evidence-based information, ensuring that health conversations on platforms like TikTok are both impactful and informed” “This is where WHO can step in to support influencers in delivering evidence-based information, ensuring that health conversations on platforms like TikTok are both impactful and informed” Dr Alain Labrique, WHO Director of Digital Health and Innovation, September 2024 https://x.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1692214997647077817?embedable=true https://x.com/TimHinchliffe/status/1692214997647077817?embedable=true The WHO also put out a press release on the partnership, explaining how certain influencers would be chosen and targeted to be propagandists for the regime: press release “ The collaboration will expand efforts around a number of relevant health topics, translating science-based information into relatable and digestible video content, with more support for influencers provided through TikTok’s creator training programs .” The collaboration will expand efforts around a number of relevant health topics, translating science-based information into relatable and digestible video content, with more support for influencers provided through TikTok’s creator training programs The collaboration will expand efforts around a number of relevant health topics, translating science-based information into relatable and digestible video content, with more support for influencers provided through TikTok’s creator training programs According to the WHO, the goal of the partnership is to leverage “multiple digital communication platforms to increase outreach to people globally, to promote health literacy, healthy behaviors and actions in an increasingly digitized world .” “ multiple digital communication platforms to increase outreach to people globally, to promote health literacy, healthy behaviors and actions in an increasingly digitized world multiple digital communication platforms to increase outreach to people globally, to promote health literacy, healthy behaviors and actions in an increasingly digitized world This isn’t the first time a UN organization has partnered with big tech to deliver its messaging. “We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do“ UN Comms Director Melissa Fleming, World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Meetings, September 2022 “We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do“ “ We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do “ We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do UN Comms Director Melissa Fleming, World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Meetings, September 2022 In September 2022, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming told a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on disinformation that the UN had partnered with TikTok on a project called “ Team Halo ” to boost COVID messaging coming from medical and scientific communities. Team Halo “ Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers ,” she said, adding, “ influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters .” Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers Another really key strategy we had was to deploy influencers influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters influencers who were really keen, who have huge followings, but really keen to help carry messages that were going to serve their communities, and they were much more trusted than the United Nations telling them something from New York City headquarters “ We had another trusted messenger project, which was called ‘Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us ,” she added. We had another trusted messenger project, which was called ‘Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us We had another trusted messenger project, which was called ‘Team Halo’ where we trained scientists around the world and some doctors on TikTok, and we had TikTok working with us In the same panel, Fleming declared, “ We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do ” while bragging about how the UN partnered with Google to manipulate search results, so that only UN-approved messaging would appear at the top. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do With this partnership, TikTok continues its role as a propaganda arm of the United Nations, of which the WHO is a part. Tim Hinchliffe, Editor, The Sociable Tim Hinchliffe, Editor, The Sociable Tim Hinchliffe , Editor, The Sociable Tim Hinchliffe Tim Hinchliffe

TikTok Teams Up with WHO to Guide Influencers on Public Health Messaging

TikTok জনস্বাস্থ্য বার্তাপ্রেরণে প্রভাবশালীদের গাইড করার জন্য WHO-এর সাথে দল বেঁধেছে

TikTok går sammen med WHO for at vejlede influencers om folkesundhedsmeddelelser

TikTok se asocia con la OMS para orientar a los influencers sobre los mensajes de salud pública

TikTok únese á OMS para guiar aos influencers sobre a mensaxería de saúde pública

TikTokがWHOと提携し、公衆衛生メッセージでインフルエンサーを指導

TikTok sadarbojas ar PVO, lai virzītu ietekmētājus par sabiedrības veselības ziņojumapmaiņu

Miara-miasa amin'ny OMS ny TikTok hitari-dalana ireo mpikatroka amin'ny hafatra momba ny fahasalamam-bahoaka

TikTok e Dirišana le WHO go Hlahla Batho bao ba nago le Tšhušumetšo ka ga Melaetša ya Maphelo a Setšhaba

TikTok współpracuje ze Światową Organizacją Zdrowia, aby udzielać wskazówek influencerom w zakresie komunikatów dotyczących zdrowia publicznego

ټیک ټیک د WHO سره ټیم جوړ کړ ترڅو د عامې روغتیا پیغام رسولو باندې تاثیر کونکو ته لارښود کړي

ቲክቶክ ምስ ውድብ ጥዕና ዓለም ብምትሕብባር ንጸለውቲ ኣብ መልእኽቲ ህዝባዊ ጥዕና ንምምራሕ ይሰርሕ

TikTok JSST bilan birgalikda sog'liqni saqlash xabarlari bo'yicha ta'sir o'tkazuvchilarga rahbarlik qiladi

If you recently graduated from the University - there is a high probability that you have never seen a waterfall software development process. Most likely, all you have had experience with is some sort of Agile framework. However, even if you have been taught from a blank page and don’t have any legacy thoughts in your head - you are probably still influenced by common misconceptions that came from the era of early adoption.One of the most misunderstood topics in the community is how teams are structured and managed. We can’t trace where this comes from, but for sure, it originated somewhere from the way Agile was adopted—people jumping into implementation without getting it right. This is, in fact, the way we would like Agile to be embraced. However, they go off the road when the above-mentioned implementations are not being revised and adopted. Cross-Functional Teams. The common misunderstanding is that if the team is cross-functional - that means that everyone on the team should be able to juggle all the topics. Backend, frontend, DevOps, quality assurance, you name it. In general, this idea is not so bad, and if we fill the team with absolute superstars who are proficient in every topic - that would work, and you probably get the most productive team ever. However, you don’t need to be an expert in HR to understand that it is hard to find even a dozen people like this. The beauty of working in a team is the ability to emphasize the strengths of each team member and use the difference between experiences, skills, and intelligence to build truly great products. Cross-functional teams, when understood correctly, are a powerful tool. They are the state where the team is able to solve all the problems by having all the required knowledge in-house. They are able to go from the design stage to production, and even further - actually evaluate what has happened with the increment and whether customers are satisfied with the result. Instead of looking for people who are doing everything on their own, it is more realistic to look for someone who is T-shaped. These individuals are experts in a field, but when it comes to the required skills in other areas - they know enough to be able to communicate effectively and together create a powerful combination of skills that can help the team achieve its goals. When experts in different fields collaborate, they are able to contribute their best to the common goal, providing the best knowledge one could imagine and upskilling the side elements of their T-shaped colleagues. Self-Organized Self-Managed Teams Self-managed teams terminology was introduced into the Agile community in 2020 when it was simply been used instead of the self-organized team. When asked why they have done this, they responded that self-managing teams not only implement what has been defined by the Product Owner of the project sponsor but also contribute to defining what will be implemented next. While a minor change, this is a significant extension of the fact that teams can succeed with proper empowerment and the ability to influence the end state of the product. The key difference here is that self-management includes what work to do and when to do it, in addition to how it was already there. What’s Next? We should focus on something other than the difference between self-organized and self-managed terminology. What is more important is that all three should be united. Having all the necessary skills in the teams and providing them with enough authority and empowerment to deliver what matters to the customer is critical to achieving the actual state of agility and delivering outstanding results. Everyone involved in the process must focus on the way the work is done rather than the wording of terminology. However, as the industry is flooded by fake experts who have done a one-week training and achieved certification, everyone in the team should be able to distinguish what matters and what to embrace. What misconceptions about Agile methods and terminology have you encountered? Share your thoughts in the comments. If you recently graduated from the University - there is a high probability that you have never seen a waterfall software development process. Most likely, all you have had experience with is some sort of Agile framework. However, even if you have been taught from a blank page and don’t have any legacy thoughts in your head - you are probably still influenced by common misconceptions that came from the era of early adoption. One of the most misunderstood topics in the community is how teams are structured and managed. We can’t trace where this comes from, but for sure, it originated somewhere from the way Agile was adopted—people jumping into implementation without getting it right. This is, in fact, the way we would like Agile to be embraced. However, they go off the road when the above-mentioned implementations are not being revised and adopted. Cross-Functional Teams. The common misunderstanding is that if the team is cross-functional - that means that everyone on the team should be able to juggle all the topics. Backend, frontend, DevOps, quality assurance, you name it. In general, this idea is not so bad, and if we fill the team with absolute superstars who are proficient in every topic - that would work, and you probably get the most productive team ever. However, you don’t need to be an expert in HR to understand that it is hard to find even a dozen people like this. The beauty of working in a team is the ability to emphasize the strengths of each team member and use the difference between experiences, skills, and intelligence to build truly great products. Cross-functional teams, when understood correctly, are a powerful tool. They are the state where the team is able to solve all the problems by having all the required knowledge in-house. They are able to go from the design stage to production, and even further - actually evaluate what has happened with the increment and whether customers are satisfied with the result. Instead of looking for people who are doing everything on their own, it is more realistic to look for someone who is T-shaped. These individuals are experts in a field, but when it comes to the required skills in other areas - they know enough to be able to communicate effectively and together create a powerful combination of skills that can help the team achieve its goals. When experts in different fields collaborate, they are able to contribute their best to the common goal, providing the best knowledge one could imagine and upskilling the side elements of their T-shaped colleagues. Self-Organized Self-Managed Teams Self-managed teams terminology was introduced into the Agile community in 2020 when it was simply been used instead of the self-organized team. When asked why they have done this, they responded that self-managing teams not only implement what has been defined by the Product Owner of the project sponsor but also contribute to defining what will be implemented next. While a minor change, this is a significant extension of the fact that teams can succeed with proper empowerment and the ability to influence the end state of the product. The key difference here is that self-management includes what work to do and when to do it, in addition to how it was already there. What’s Next? We should focus on something other than the difference between self-organized and self-managed terminology. What is more important is that all three should be united. Having all the necessary skills in the teams and providing them with enough authority and empowerment to deliver what matters to the customer is critical to achieving the actual state of agility and delivering outstanding results. Everyone involved in the process must focus on the way the work is done rather than the wording of terminology. However, as the industry is flooded by fake experts who have done a one-week training and achieved certification, everyone in the team should be able to distinguish what matters and what to embrace. What misconceptions about Agile methods and terminology have you encountered? Share your thoughts in the comments. What misconceptions about Agile methods and terminology have you encountered? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Cross-Functional, Self-Organized, or Self-Managed Teams

Boost and Maintain Your Team's Morale

Have you ever joined the team and felt something needs to be corrected? Everyone in the team is doing great on paper and in performance management assessment, and their peers deliver quickly. Still, when it comes to personal effectiveness - it needs help. They follow meeting cadences, maintain a board with up-to-date tasks, and have prioritisation techniques, but they don’t work. Goals are not achieved, critical calls are not made, and there is this feeling in the meeting that you are spending time for nothing. Theory David McClelland's theory of acquired needs states that people's different needs in achievement, affiliation, and power affect their actions in a managerial context. While McClelland's concept is fundamental, the problem is more significant than this. Patrick Lensioni’s books are well known, including his flagship novel, “Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” In it, he explores vital factors that are usually missing in teams, and by fixing and emphasising their importance, the effectiveness of any team can be improved dramatically. So why, having this theory laid for us for almost half a century already, are there still companies and teams out there that are getting in the same loop and sometimes look like you are on a family trip? The Zoo Leadership teams are often similar to the groups you can spot in your local zoo. There are sharks in the aquarium, a small contact zoo for kids, and a bunch of tour guides who come up with all their stories just to make the day out for the family a bit more fun. Sharks are always out for prey. They seek ways to gain more power, achieve better individual performance, and ensure they get the most significant budget for their prominent ideas. There is nothing wrong with this; it can even be beneficial, but as soon as sharks start to eat each other, there is hardly any way to go out. The little contact zoo kids play in on a day out is cute. Everyone is smiling and happy and never talks about problems. They don’t solve problems or make them visible, and there is no way they will start a conflict. We can imagine some situations when this is good for the company, but if you are reading this article, it is probably not the case for you. Tour guides are excellent. They are loud. They share all the fantastic statistics, metrics, and dashboards and showcase their great work, but little impact exists. Most likely, most of the work has been done by their peers, and they will never admit it. Yes, the job is done, but only that bit that is the most visible. And if you work in tech - you know how painful the tech debt might be. It is still a zoo, and it actually does the trick—everyone is smiley and happy and bonding as a family. But in the real world, they are not closed in the Zoo—they are a powerful squad that has to lead the business,d help the CEO achieve goals, and follow the strategy. Why it happens? If you have followed my articles for some time already, you know where this is all going. Many academic theories, practice examples, and, in some cases, even novels have been written about structuring and managing teams, but are we still ending up in situations where the teams are just impossible to work within? We all start with fundamentals, and if the team follows the basic concepts of transparency, inspection, and adaptation, it is almost impossible to implement the bits that one can read in the book. It is complicated and tedious, and no one wants to do this - but it is necessary. While you can ask everyone on the team to read the book, if practices from the book are not followed and need to be revised, adapted, and tuned according to the specific team's needs, it will not work.How do we ensure that all the well-known material we have read is being led by? Of course, if the team leader is not going to enforce practices, there is not much that you can do. If you happen to be that person, there is only one way forward. It is a good idea to get everyone in the room and make a formal agreement that from now on, we are not only reading books but trying to implement actions derived from these books. For good reason, most leaders, especially those at the top of an organisation, do not discuss problems in their leadership teams. However, they should still pay attention to this matter within the team. Instead of working together to advance their company's interests, many teams procrastinate, engage in political infighting, get mired in unproductive debates, and allow themselves to be overtaken by complacency. As a result, the companies they're supposed to be leading suffer. If you are in the team, that is the collaboration we have looked at - you can try to influence from your position. Start with outlining the problem, the potential way of resolution, and why you believe this will help you achieve better results. Of course, be aware that if all the motivation concepts we have discussed earlier are confirmed, your boss might not be happy about you taking the lead, so it is up to you whether you would like to announce it to everyone at once or check with them first. What are your secrets to make sure that you follow what you know? Share in the comments. Have you ever joined the team and felt something needs to be corrected? Everyone in the team is doing great on paper and in performance management assessment, and their peers deliver quickly. Still, when it comes to personal effectiveness - it needs help. They follow meeting cadences, maintain a board with up-to-date tasks, and have prioritisation techniques, but they don’t work. Goals are not achieved, critical calls are not made, and there is this feeling in the meeting that you are spending time for nothing. Theory David McClelland's theory of acquired needs states that people's different needs in achievement, affiliation, and power affect their actions in a managerial context. While McClelland's concept is fundamental, the problem is more significant than this. Patrick Lensioni’s books are well known, including his flagship novel, “Five Dysfunctions of a Team.” In it, he explores vital factors that are usually missing in teams, and by fixing and emphasising their importance, the effectiveness of any team can be improved dramatically. So why, having this theory laid for us for almost half a century already, are there still companies and teams out there that are getting in the same loop and sometimes look like you are on a family trip? The Zoo Leadership teams are often similar to the groups you can spot in your local zoo. There are sharks in the aquarium, a small contact zoo for kids, and a bunch of tour guides who come up with all their stories just to make the day out for the family a bit more fun. Sharks are always out for prey. They seek ways to gain more power, achieve better individual performance, and ensure they get the most significant budget for their prominent ideas. There is nothing wrong with this; it can even be beneficial, but as soon as sharks start to eat each other, there is hardly any way to go out. The little contact zoo kids play in on a day out is cute. Everyone is smiling and happy and never talks about problems. They don’t solve problems or make them visible, and there is no way they will start a conflict. We can imagine some situations when this is good for the company, but if you are reading this article, it is probably not the case for you. Tour guides are excellent. They are loud. They share all the fantastic statistics, metrics, and dashboards and showcase their great work, but little impact exists. Most likely, most of the work has been done by their peers, and they will never admit it. Yes, the job is done, but only that bit that is the most visible. And if you work in tech - you know how painful the tech debt might be. It is still a zoo, and it actually does the trick—everyone is smiley and happy and bonding as a family. But in the real world, they are not closed in the Zoo—they are a powerful squad that has to lead the business,d help the CEO achieve goals, and follow the strategy. Why it happens? If you have followed my articles for some time already, you know where this is all going. Many academic theories, practice examples, and, in some cases, even novels have been written about structuring and managing teams, but are we still ending up in situations where the teams are just impossible to work within? We all start with fundamentals, and if the team follows the basic concepts of transparency, inspection, and adaptation, it is almost impossible to implement the bits that one can read in the book. It is complicated and tedious, and no one wants to do this - but it is necessary. While you can ask everyone on the team to read the book, if practices from the book are not followed and need to be revised, adapted, and tuned according to the specific team's needs, it will not work. How do we ensure that all the well-known material we have read is being led by? Of course, if the team leader is not going to enforce practices, there is not much that you can do. If you happen to be that person, there is only one way forward. It is a good idea to get everyone in the room and make a formal agreement that from now on, we are not only reading books but trying to implement actions derived from these books. For good reason, most leaders, especially those at the top of an organisation, do not discuss problems in their leadership teams. However, they should still pay attention to this matter within the team. Instead of working together to advance their company's interests, many teams procrastinate, engage in political infighting, get mired in unproductive debates, and allow themselves to be overtaken by complacency. As a result, the companies they're supposed to be leading suffer. If you are in the team, that is the collaboration we have looked at - you can try to influence from your position. Start with outlining the problem, the potential way of resolution, and why you believe this will help you achieve better results. Of course, be aware that if all the motivation concepts we have discussed earlier are confirmed, your boss might not be happy about you taking the lead, so it is up to you whether you would like to announce it to everyone at once or check with them first. What are your secrets to make sure that you follow what you know? Share in the comments. What are your secrets to make sure that you follow what you know? Share in the comments.

Why Are Some Leadership Teams Designed to Fail?

Zašto su neki liderski timovi dizajnirani da propadnu?

Per què alguns equips de lideratge estan dissenyats per fracassar?

¿Por qué algunos equipos de liderazgo están diseñados para fracasar?

Zergatik diseinatuta daude lidergo talde batzuk porrot egiteko?

מדוע יש צוותי מנהיגות שנועדו להיכשל?

なぜ一部のリーダーシップ チームは失敗するように設計されているのでしょうか?

Mpo na nini bituluku mosusu ya bakambi ebongisami mpo na kolonga te?

ເປັນຫຍັງທີມງານຜູ້ນໍາບາງຄົນຖືກອອກແບບໃຫ້ລົ້ມເຫລວ?

Зошто некои лидерски тимови се дизајнирани да пропаднат?

Kuki Amakipe Yubuyobozi Yateguwe Kunanirwa?

සමහර නායකත්ව කණ්ඩායම් අසාර්ථක වීමට සැලසුම් කර ඇත්තේ ඇයි?

Nima uchun ba'zi etakchilik guruhlari muvaffaqiyatsizlikka uchragan?

Stories, News & Mentions about TEADS

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