Productivity starts with the process, before another tool

Improving productivity starts with understanding how work gets delivered. Follow a request through decisions, waiting periods and rework until completion. Then choose one specific problem to address. A tool may support the change, but the team first needs to know who decides, what to do and what counts as finished work.

The working-week debate raises a useful question

On July 27, 2024, CNN Brasil reported participants' experiences in Brazil's four-day working-week pilot. A February 20, 2025 analysis published by Exame's Bússola discussed preliminary program results. Both address productivity, although their coverage uses different participant bases and perspectives.

We do not treat these pieces as two independent experiments or as a guarantee that every business will achieve similar results. The question informing our analysis is simpler: which parts of a routine consume time without contributing to delivery? A business can investigate that before changing working hours, hiring staff or purchasing software.

Choose a process with a clear beginning and end

Avoid starting with a vague ambition such as making the business more agile. Choose a recurring delivery: answering a quotation request, approving a campaign or publishing a page. Identify the event that starts the work and the result that closes it. People can then observe the same process and discuss specific problems using shared reference points.

Follow a few real cases from beginning to end. Record when each stage started, how much active work it required and how long it remained on hold. Speak with the people doing the work as well as those receiving reports. An apparently simple form may depend on information nobody knows how to locate.

Give obstacles concrete names

• Waiting for a decision without an assigned owner.
• Rework caused by incomplete instructions.
• Searching for files across several locations.
• Interruptions that prevent an existing task from being completed.
• Urgent requests accepted without reviewing other priorities.

These categories are starting points, not judgments about employee effort. The aim is to find where the organization of work could improve. When someone faces two urgent requests, a responsible person should make the priority decision and communicate the consequences for deadlines. Otherwise, the conflict remains with the person least able to resolve it.

Agree on what finished means

A delivery can circulate through several departments because each has a different definition of quality. Write criteria people can check. A proposal is ready when it includes scope, timing, terms and an approval owner. A page is ready when its content has been reviewed, contact paths work and the experience has been checked on the intended devices.

These criteria do not need to become a long manual. A short shared checklist may be enough. Update it when the team encounters meaningful exceptions. If almost every delivery requires an exception, the rule may be describing an imagined process rather than how the work actually happens.

Run a small test and measure quality

Hypothetical example: a consultancy is slow to send proposals because it requests the same information in separate messages. The team tests an initial question list and assigns one person to consolidate the answers. During the trial, it records the time to send each proposal and the number returned for correction.

The purpose is not to prove that forms are always better. Some customers may need a conversation. The test should reveal where a structured request helps and where the service needs adapting. Record these differences before making the approach a requirement across the entire business.

Compare similar deliveries and note the workload during each period. A shorter turnaround in a quiet week does not, by itself, demonstrate a process improvement. Also consider clarity of responsibility, customer-perceived quality and any additional effort required from the team. A faster handoff that moves confusion to another department is not a complete improvement.

Select the tool after defining the need

Once the problem is clear, assess whether a shared calendar, checklist or management system would address it. Decide who maintains the information and how people find the correct version. A tool becomes part of everyday work when using it is included in the team's agreement about how delivery happens.

At Vero 4, this review connects the commercial promise with Visibility, Engagement, Revenue and Optimization. A business needs to understand the demand it attracts, respond clearly and support delivery after the sale. Start with one process this week, select an observable change and agree on a review date with the people carrying out the work. Use what they learn to guide the next improvement.

Sources consulted

Reporting and documents used for context. The practical analysis is by Vero 4.

• CNN Brasil, 2024-07-27.
• Exame, Bússola, 2025-02-20.