Prevent Heroism: How to Work Today Reduce Work Tomorrow
summary
Argues that shifting from reactive firefighting to upstream work (preventative fixes) reduces overtime, burnout and turnover; shows a practical process: brainstorm tasks, categorize by upstream/downstream, prioritize by pain and capacity, then build pipelines and targeted fixes (short/long, permanent/temporary). Recommends tracking results with concrete metrics — change failure rate, unplanned work rate, SLAs, question volume and keyword trends — and iterating goals from baselines so improvements are measurable and credible.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Introduction and inspiration
- 3:17The cost of reactive work
- 8:12Shifting to upstream work
- 13:24Planning and iterating changes
- 14:48Measuring upstream impact
- 20:22Key metrics for success
- 25:16Summary and resources
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