{"id":763477,"date":"2021-07-29T08:55:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-29T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/?p=763477"},"modified":"2021-08-03T17:45:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T00:45:08","slug":"new-future-of-work-managing-it-and-security-in-remote-scenarios-with-jaime-teevan-and-matt-brodsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/podcast\/new-future-of-work-managing-it-and-security-in-remote-scenarios-with-jaime-teevan-and-matt-brodsky\/","title":{"rendered":"New Future of Work: Managing IT and security in remote scenarios with Jaime Teevan and Matt Brodsky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"Two people side by side, Matt Brodsky on the left and Jaime Teevan on the right,\u202fin black and white smile and look forward. Teevan\u202fis holding a cell phone.\" class=\"wp-image-763483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-2048x1153.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-1066x600.jpg 1066w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-655x368.jpg 655w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-343x193.jpg 343w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-240x135.jpg 240w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-960x540.jpg 960w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-1280x720.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"episode-130-july-29-2021\">Episode 130 | July 29, 2021<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For Microsoft researchers, COVID-19 was a call to action. The reimagining of work practices had long been an area of study, but existing and new questions that needed immediate answers surfaced as companies and their employees quickly adjusted to significantly different working conditions.\u202fTeams from\u202facross\u202fthe Microsoft organizational chart pooled their unique expertise together under <em>The New Future of Work<\/em> initiative.\u202fThe results have informed product features designed to better support remote work and are now being used to help companies, including Microsoft, usher their workforces into a future of hybrid work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode of\u202fthe podcast, Chief Scientist <a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/people\/teevan\/\">Jaime Teevan<\/a> and&nbsp;Senior User Research Manager&nbsp;<a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/mbrodsky-ph-d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Brodsky<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;examine how the level of&nbsp;IT support available&nbsp;during the shift, including the ability to provide hardware and software, made the difference between laying off staff and weathering the challenges brought on by the pandemic. They also explore why remote work came with a spike in phishing threats, what the&nbsp;biggest thorn in the sides of IT administrators has been this past year, and where opportunities exist to prepare to keep up with tech advances and tackle future disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Learn more:<\/strong>\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Project page and report: <a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/project\/the-new-future-of-work\/\">The New Future of Work<\/a><\/li><li>Future of Work\u202fdigital magazine: <a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/worklab\">WorkLab<\/a><\/li><li>Guide: <a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/resilience\/hybrid-work-solutions?rtc=1\">Hybrid Work: A Guide for Business Leaders<\/a><\/li><li>Guide: <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/clouddamcdnprodep.azureedge.net\/gdc\/gdcNr7VEG\/original\">Hybrid Workplace Flexibility Guide<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li>Group:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/group\/customer-insights-research\/\">Microsoft XC Research<\/a><\/li><li>Blog post:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/group\/customer-insights-research\/articles\/remote-work-it-admins-covid-19\/\">A global shift to remote work: How IT administrators are coping with COVID-19<\/a><\/li><li><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/note.microsoft.com\/ww-registration-microsoft-research-newsletter-s.html?wt.mc_id=S-webpage_podcast\">Microsoft Research Newsletter<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>: Sign up to receive the latest news from&nbsp;Microsoft\u202fResearch<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height: 20px;\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/podcast\"><strong>Microsoft Research Podcast<\/strong><\/a><strong>:<\/strong><br><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/microsoft-research-a-podcast\/id1318021537?mt=2\">iTunes<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/subscribebyemail.com\/www.blubrry.com\/feeds\/microsoftresearch.xml\">Email<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/subscribeonandroid.com\/www.blubrry.com\/feeds\/microsoftresearch.xml\">Android<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4ndjUXyL0hH1FXHgwIiTWU\">Spotify<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> | <a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blubrry.com\/feeds\/microsoftresearch.xml\">RSS feed<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator aligncenter\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: The privacy and protection of data is of the utmost importance to Microsoft. Research under The New Future of Work initiative, which includes qualitative and&nbsp;quantitative data, is conducted in accordance with the<\/em><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/privacy.microsoft.com\/en-us\"> <span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" href=\"https:\/\/privacy.microsoft.com\/en-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>rigorous privacy standards developed by the company<\/em><span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a><em>.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[MUSIC PLAYS UNDER DIALOGUE]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>MATT BRODSKY (TEASER):<\/em><\/strong><em>&nbsp;Some of the most important things that IT admins and security organizations are dealing with right now is really educating their end users on how to use new technology and how to be safe. And that&#8217;s something where organizations are&nbsp;employing&nbsp;their own tools and everybody has their own system of learning and their own system of training. And that&#8217;s something that I see as being a\u2014a difficulty in the future, is really how do we make sure that that learning and training happens quickly so that if, hopefully not, but if there&#8217;s another pandemic or event like this, how we can train people quickly, how people can adopt the software or the technology that they need in order to work and stay afloat, how we can do that quickly so we don&#8217;t face situations where organizations are laying off people or, you know, forced to perform poorly for a significant amount of time while everybody comes up to speed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>JAIME TEEVAN:&nbsp;<\/strong>Welcome to the Microsoft Research Podcast, where you get a front-row seat to conversations on cutting-edge technology. I\u2019m Jaime Teevan, and I\u2019ll be your host as we investigate how work practices have changed because of COVID-19 and what it means for creating a new and better future of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[MUSIC ENDS]<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode of the series, we\u2019re exploring the \u201cIT and Security\u201d chapter of&nbsp;<em>The New Future of Work<\/em>&nbsp;report published by Microsoft.&nbsp;Matt Brodsky is here to help us understand the role that IT and security professionals played in helping information workers remain as productive as possible as they moved to remote work. He co-authored that chapter with&nbsp;Adam Coleman. Matt&nbsp;is a senior user research manager here at&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;who focuses on the&nbsp;Microsoft 365&nbsp;administrative experience and understanding the best way for organizations to adopt and manage cloud solutions. He has a PhD in neuroscience and behavior from the&nbsp;University of Washington, where he studied neural circuitry, underlying drug reward, and addiction. Specifically,&nbsp;Matt&nbsp;identified novel roles of serotonin receptors in the mechanisms underlying the motivation to take cocaine. After finishing his PhD,&nbsp;Matt&nbsp;then took&nbsp;a postdoc at&nbsp;Seattle Children&#8217;s Research Institute&nbsp;to study brain circuitry underlying the motivation to exercise. Welcome,&nbsp;Matt.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MATT BRODSKY<\/strong><strong>:<\/strong>&nbsp;Thank you for having me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong> So, I&#8217;m curious,&nbsp;Matt.&nbsp;What was the path that brought you from studying addiction and motivation to, uh, IT and security?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Uh, well, it was a long and convoluted path, but&nbsp;to sum it up, when you go from a field where you study what motivates rats to take cocaine to studying how humans take&nbsp;Windows, a lot of the thinking around how we design our experiments and problems are similar.&nbsp;So, obviously&nbsp;<strong>[LAUGHS]<\/strong>&nbsp;not the same.&nbsp;I&#8217;m not&nbsp;equivalating,&nbsp;uh, or, um\u2014&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Windows&nbsp;isn&#8217;t cocaine?&nbsp;<strong>[LAUGHS]<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Windows&nbsp;is not cocaine,&nbsp;<strong>[LAUGHTER]<\/strong>&nbsp;but, um, surprisingly, you know, some of the ways that we structure&nbsp;studies at&nbsp;Microsoft, uh, mimic some of the ways that we did academic research at the&nbsp;University of Washington.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;You know&nbsp;one of the things that surprised me before I came to&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;was how important IT and security are to&nbsp;Microsoft. As an end user, I sort of thought of&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;as, like,&nbsp;Word&nbsp;or&nbsp;PowerPoint&nbsp;or the tools that I used, and I didn&#8217;t really think about how, uh,&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;is really essential in ensuring that companies can provide their workers with a safe, reliable technology.&nbsp;Can you tell me a little bit more about why IT and security are so important to&nbsp;Microsoft?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yeah, absolutely.&nbsp;You know, um, IT and security organizations at large corporations, at, uh, schools, at, um, nonprofits, at small businesses, you know, they exist and they&#8217;re really important for the efficient functioning of the organization as a whole, right?&nbsp;So, one of the ways that I like to think about it is, if we were to\u2014again,&nbsp;this is me bringing up my biologist background\u2014if&nbsp;we&#8217;re to think of an organization as an&nbsp;<em>organism<\/em>, the IT professionals and IT org&nbsp;are&nbsp;almost like the neurons that are, you know, stemming out throughout the system that help&nbsp;make sure that HR is functioning efficiently, make sure that the information workers are able to do their core work,&nbsp;and make sure that the businesses is\u2014is successful and functioning.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;the IT organization is really crucial in making sure that that works.&nbsp;One of the things that brought&nbsp;<em>me<\/em>&nbsp;to IT is that the population that we study, the actual IT professionals themselves, are a really highly technical population, and they&#8217;re really invested in making sure that&nbsp;the user experience for their end users is appropriate.&nbsp;So, as a user researcher, we actually have a lot of the same goals, right?&nbsp;My goals are for IT admins to have a good experience, and their goals are for their end users to have a good experience.&nbsp;So, we have&nbsp;a lot of things in common, and it, uh, can really lead to fruitful collaboration on&nbsp;the future experiences that we create for them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And some of the most exciting things about studying IT experiences at&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;is how many people they affect. When you really break it down, there may be millions of IT admins who are using our tools, and, from that, hundreds of millions of end users who are affected by them. So, making sure that&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;administrative experiences work is crucial in making sure that those hundreds of millions of people are efficient at work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;So, what makes a great IT organization?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Oh, so, a great IT organization is one that&nbsp;is really a silent IT organization.&nbsp;Um, we hear this a lot from IT admins across the board.&nbsp;If you hear a lot from your IT organization, that means something&#8217;s not going well.&nbsp;Another analogy that I\u2014I like to make, and&nbsp;maybe this is a little clich\u00e9 to go to a sports analogy, but a good IT organization is kind of like the goalie in a soccer game.&nbsp;You know, they can&#8217;t necessarily win the game for you, but they can certainly lose the game for you.&nbsp;So, an IT organization, if it&#8217;s functioning well, if it&#8217;s a\u2014an efficient organization, you really don&#8217;t see or hear much of what they&#8217;re doing, but they certainly are doing a ton.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;So, has the criteria for a good IT organization changed over the course of the past year?&nbsp;Um, you know, there are clearly new challenges that they&#8217;re dealing with.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;There&#8217;s certainly new challenges.&nbsp;You know, a lot of them have to do with how they&#8217;re able to support their end users, and it really depends on the type of organization.&nbsp;One of the benefits of the team that I work on at&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;is we really care about&nbsp;IT experiences across the board, so we don&#8217;t just focus on our larger enterprise customers or on schools or on, um, small businesses.&nbsp;We want to make sure that the tools work for everybody.&nbsp;So, really, depending on the business, the criteria have changed, right?&nbsp;And one of the major ones is how IT organizations are able to support their end users.&nbsp;So, some things still work well, right?&nbsp;Um, if the organization&nbsp;was able to deploy most of their solutions in the cloud, support has gone surprisingly well&nbsp;over the last year, right?&nbsp;They&#8217;re still able to support remotely.&nbsp;When it comes to things like hardware and on-premise servers and things like that, it becomes significantly more difficult.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;IT organizations and some IT admins&nbsp;were the essential workers who were, you know, back in the workplace, um, firsthand.&nbsp;And when it came to supporting some workers who were, you know, significantly further away remote from the office, that was certainly a challenge that has come up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Uh, you know, in many ways,&nbsp;IT&nbsp;admins have been real heroes this past year.&nbsp;You know, they&#8217;ve really\u2014they are who have enabled us all to work even though we can&#8217;t go into the workplace.&nbsp;I can&#8217;t imagine that this would have even been possible 10 years ago, and all of the information workers, you know, would have had to have been furloughed or laid off.&nbsp;I know the sorts of changes that we&#8217;ve seen tend to be very&nbsp;<em>planful<\/em>, like, these big shifts.&nbsp;How have people enabled us to do it so quickly?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;You know, lots of hard work and long hours.&nbsp;Uh, you know, when we&#8217;ve spoken to some organizations&nbsp;that really had to sacrifice a lot&nbsp;in this switch\u2014you&nbsp;know, to give kind of a\u2014&nbsp;I&#8217;ll give kind of a tough example that we&#8217;ve heard. You&nbsp;know, right at the beginning&nbsp;of the COVID pandemic, we spoke with a few smaller organizations that did choose to lay&nbsp;off a majority of their organization because they didn&#8217;t have the technology to enable them to work from home, right?&nbsp;Um, particularly, uh, what jumps out to mind was a call center we spoke with on the East Coast.&nbsp;I think they were New Jersey-based.&nbsp;They had to lay off over 200 people because they were not able to provide them with voice over IP software at home&nbsp;in order to make those calls and to provide them with laptops that would work.&nbsp;So, uh, you know, that&#8217;s a really hard thing to hear.&nbsp;You know, on the other hand, we&#8217;ve spoken with organizations&nbsp;that really didn&#8217;t have much trouble.&nbsp;And, you know, the timing, as you mentioned, 10 to 15 years ago, probably wouldn&#8217;t have worked.&nbsp;Um, you know, a ton of organizations were mid-rollout of&nbsp;Teams, right?&nbsp;And, um, this switch forced them to roll out&nbsp;Teams&nbsp;much more rapidly.&nbsp;And that rollout&nbsp;for most larger organizations went pretty successfully from what we understand.&nbsp;We spoke with an IT director&nbsp;at&nbsp;Comcast, actually, who&nbsp;made it clear to us that, yes, they had to&nbsp;buckle down and roll out&nbsp;Teams&nbsp;to a much wider population than they expected, but that it worked well and that they were happy with it and that it was,&nbsp;you know, actually ended up being beneficial to their business because a rollout typically would have taken, um, you know, years, and they were done within in months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;So, have we learned anything enduring from having to make these changes overnight that will help us with them in the future, even when they&#8217;re not so emergency-based?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;In terms of what would lead to a successful organization, I think always having business continuity plans and making sure that you are able&nbsp;to make drastic changes and provide a more inclusive workplace where people&nbsp;<em>can<\/em>&nbsp;work from home or&nbsp;<em>can<\/em>&nbsp;work in different geolocations, I think, is really important, you know.&nbsp;So, having that ability\u2014so, the organizations that had that at a very low level were more successful than organizations that didn&#8217;t have that at all, right?&nbsp;And so&nbsp;being able to plan ahead of time,&nbsp;I think, um, that&#8217;s really helpful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;So, some of that is being proactive about the digital transformation, too, and having the functionality already there made it easier.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Certainly.&nbsp;Certainly.&nbsp;And some of that functionality, you know,&nbsp;it&#8217;s still\u2014well, let me take a step back here.&nbsp;Maybe, uh, so even certain schools that we spoke with, you know, struggled to really move into this fully remote environment because they&nbsp;lost a lot of their student workers who would have been kind of help desk or would have been, uh, work-study students who provided certain support, right?&nbsp;And so, those IT organizations, you know, specifically at the schools, were able to cope and had these plans in place and had, you know, the ability for remote learning, but maybe not quite for the remote support.&nbsp;So, I think that there are elements that have changed there, you know, maybe, uh, making sure that you really cover all the&nbsp;bases&nbsp;of what a remote workplace would look like.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yeah,&nbsp;I&#8217;m interested in diving into remote support a little, too.&nbsp;I have four kids, and with the four kids online and me, uh, my husband&#8217;s been our tech support, and it&#8217;s been awesome.&nbsp;Um, he&nbsp;actually did this huge&nbsp;internet upgrade at home right before the pandemic, and I was very angry at him for\u2014for doing this&nbsp;<strong>[LAUGHS]<\/strong>, and I ended up very grateful.&nbsp;Um, do you have a sense for how people are dealing with the problems as they arise working from home?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;That&#8217;s not an uncommon experience.&nbsp;We are hearing parents are now, you know, functionally the IT admins for classrooms, for schools.&nbsp;And that&#8217;s something that we are, you know, rapidly trying to fix and work on, make sure that these IT experiences that&nbsp;<em>we<\/em>&nbsp;provide, that&nbsp;<em>we<\/em>&nbsp;build,&nbsp;are accessible to people who may not have an IT education or may not have a technical background but are still able to make sure that students are,&nbsp;you know, have&nbsp;email addresses working, that students are able to access their lesson plans, things like that.&nbsp;So, really almost democratizing the IT space is something that we&#8217;ve been&nbsp;focusing on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[MUSIC BREAK]<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;I know, uh, security threats have increased a lot this past year, as well.&nbsp;What can you tell us about that?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Oh, certainly.&nbsp;Uh, so,&nbsp;one of my partner teams is the security research organization, and they&#8217;ve been&nbsp;publishing research&nbsp;on information coming from security&nbsp;admins&nbsp;and security operators at these organizations, and phishing threats have increased significantly.&nbsp;It may be the fact that people are just so much more attached to checking email and being on their computer that, you know, this is an opportunity for those threats to come in, but particularly phishing has been a huge concern.&nbsp;And so,&nbsp;security teams have&nbsp;had to&nbsp;adopt and enable new functionality to really combat that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yeah, I thought that phishing data was super interesting&nbsp;\u2019cause&nbsp;at first blush, it actually wasn&#8217;t obvious to me why we&#8217;d see an increase in phishing campaigns tied to working from home.&nbsp;Uh, what are some of the things that make working from home, you know, more vulnerable to various security threats?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Well, when all your communication is digital, there&#8217;s certainly just more opportunity for the threats to break through, right?&nbsp;That&#8217;s one.&nbsp;The other thing is, people are using home networks, which may not be as secure as using the corporate network at their organization.&nbsp;So, these are certainly things that come up.&nbsp;So, home network, the&nbsp;increased communication,&nbsp;and also some folks who may not have had quite the level of\u2014or experience with digital communication now having to quickly learn on the job and have to\u2014take a phishing threat, for example\u2014um, having to sort through a ton of emails in the morning and make sure that that one threat that looks like it&#8217;s coming from your HR organization is actually coming from your HR org and not from somebody who&#8217;s phishing.&nbsp;Some of the most important things that IT admins and security organizations are dealing with right now is really educating their end users on how to use new technology and how to be safe. And that&#8217;s something where organizations are&nbsp;employing their own tools and everybody has their own system of learning and their own system of training. And that&#8217;s something that I see as being a\u2014a difficulty in the future, is really how do we make sure that that learning and training happens quickly so that if, hopefully not, but if there&#8217;s another pandemic or event like this, how we can train people quickly, how people can adopt the software or the technology that they need in order to work and stay afloat, how we can do that quickly so we don&#8217;t face situations where organizations are laying off people or, you know, forced to perform poorly for a significant amount of time while everybody comes up to speed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Yeah.&nbsp;So, you mentioned home networks and I alluded to the challenges we had with our home network, as well.&nbsp;Like, it doesn&#8217;t really seem like our infrastructure is necessarily set up even to be connecting everyone to be working from home.&nbsp;Like, all the big pipes are going into the\u2014&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Mm-hmm.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014big businesses.&nbsp;What have you seen, uh, happening with connectivity over the past year?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp; Oh, connectivity is the&nbsp;No. 1&nbsp;issue that IT admins are dealing with on a regular basis.&nbsp;And in many cases, there&#8217;s nothing they can do about it, right?&nbsp;If they have&nbsp;their, um, end users, um, their information workers,&nbsp;who are in maybe more rural or, um, areas that don&#8217;t quite have the same infrastructure, you know, that&#8217;s something that they really can&#8217;t deal with.&nbsp;Um, there are certain people who can only be online for a few hours a day, right?&nbsp;So, network connectivity and speed is the&nbsp;No. 1&nbsp;issue that&#8217;s been coming out&nbsp;from IT admins during this.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Have you, um, seen either IT or security challenges evolve over the course of the past year?&nbsp;I mean, I know that connectivity was a huge problem right at the beginning.&nbsp;Has that&nbsp;gotten better, or is it still as big a challenge?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;I think connectivity is still one of those things that&#8217;s a huge challenge.&nbsp;The other things that have changed is kind of hardware, office setups.&nbsp;Those types of things were a major challenge.&nbsp;And, really, you know, when we first sent out surveys, I think we turned around some research within the first few weeks of the pandemic, and hardware and office setup was one of the top issues then, and I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s quite as much of an issue, talking to admins now.&nbsp;You know, at a higher level, things that have changed over time is how IT budgets and the business have been affected.&nbsp;You know, we at first were made aware that&nbsp;close to&nbsp;two-thirds&nbsp;of IT budgets were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and most of those would be decreasing budgets.&nbsp;I think over time,&nbsp;we&#8217;ve heard that now that&#8217;s not the case. Um, especially at maybe some of the more&nbsp;cloud-enabled organizations, we&#8217;re hearing that budgets are staying the same if not IT budgets increasing while other budgets may be cut back.&nbsp;IT is, you know, clearly a\u2014a much more important piece of the infrastructure that needs to stay up.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Uh, so, as we start moving back to the workplace, do you think there&#8217;s&nbsp;gonna&nbsp;be some new challenges that are&nbsp;gonna&nbsp;come up?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;For IT admins, certainly.&nbsp;I think that they&#8217;re&nbsp;gonna&nbsp;have to, you know, deal with, um,&nbsp;kind of that in-person,&nbsp;help-desk element again, um, which they may have not had to deal with for a while.&nbsp;I know that personally I\u2014I went into&nbsp;the help desk at&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;and spoke with a seemingly very frustrated, uh, IT admin, and I let him know, you know, &#8220;This is what I do.&nbsp;I study your frustrations.&#8221;&nbsp;So, you know, he was a little nicer after that.&nbsp;But I certainly think that there&#8217;s&nbsp;gonna&nbsp;be a huge volume of issues that are right now not being reported that will be reported as soon as folks are&nbsp;back in the office.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Are there things companies should be doing to get ahead of things so they sort of don&#8217;t get caught behind the transition?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Uh, they could be investing in making sure that devices are working, that infrastructure&#8217;s working in the offices, things like, you know, we mentioned network connectivity, all of those things, because there is\u2014there is a worry that, you know, whenever there&#8217;s a major change, there will be problems.&nbsp;And making sure that that volume of problem is something that&#8217;s manageable for the IT admin,&nbsp;that&#8217;s really important.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;What are you most worried about looking forward?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;I don&#8217;t know if&nbsp;I\u2014I&#8217;m necessarily worried about them, but the things that I&#8217;m paying attention to is how much of IT is being outsourced from organizations.&nbsp;We hear a lot from kind of the higher-level, um, IT directors and people like that about&nbsp;outsourcing IT, outsourcing major pieces of IT, and just how that&#8217;s&nbsp;gonna&nbsp;end up affecting organizations.&nbsp;Obviously, that&nbsp;might come with a bit of job loss at the organization itself.&nbsp;But, you know, what technologies will be needed and what that will look like, um, on a large scale as how much, um, IT will be outsourced.&nbsp;Along with that, you know, we&#8217;ve seen the IT organizations\u2014both titles and skills needed\u2014are changing rapidly, right?&nbsp;And so IT organizations are dealing with, &#8220;How do we make sure that the people that we&#8217;re hiring have the right skills and have the right skills that we&#8217;ll need in five years and not just right now?&#8221;&nbsp;Right?&nbsp;And so lots of IT organizations are dealing with&nbsp;education and learning, you know, on the job.&nbsp;What can we do to make sure that our more senior IT admins are staying current?&nbsp;Since the technology is evolving much more rapidly than people, we need to make sure that folks are still, you know, getting the appropriate training and retaining the right skills.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Has, um,&nbsp;what you&#8217;ve learned through your research and the research that you&#8217;ve read changed your own work practices?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BRODSKY:<\/strong>&nbsp;Um, oh, yeah.&nbsp;I mean, maybe, uh,&nbsp;just mentioned the way that I spoke with the help desk person on campus, on&nbsp;Microsoft&nbsp;campus.&nbsp;But, you know, I&#8217;ve certainly been more conscious of how much time I&#8217;m spending&nbsp;in front of my machine and talking to the folks on my team, you know, really trying to build in&nbsp;healthy habits around&nbsp;meetings and\u2014and,&nbsp;you know,&nbsp;Zoom&nbsp;and&nbsp;Teams&nbsp;usage, things like that, because I know that there&#8217;s a lot of fatigue that can come from that.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;I\u2019ve&nbsp;been changing my practice personally around that.&nbsp;I&#8217;m also a bit more cautious about bringing new&nbsp;things&nbsp;onto, for example, the laptop that I&#8217;m using at home.&nbsp;I&#8217;m not adopting new software that may put me at risk, right?&nbsp;I am incredibly dependent on a very singular piece of technology here, right?&nbsp;In the past, if it had failed, I could still go to meetings.&nbsp;I could still collaborate and work on the things that I would need to.&nbsp;Here, uh, working from home, I don&#8217;t have that&nbsp;luxury.&nbsp;I\u2014I really am dependent on my\u2014my&nbsp;technology.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>TEEVAN:<\/strong>&nbsp;Well, great.&nbsp;Thank you very much,&nbsp;Matt.&nbsp;And&nbsp;thank&nbsp;you&nbsp;to our listeners for tuning in.\u202fWe hope you\u2019ll continue to join us as we explore the new future of work. You can learn a lot more about the research that we discussed today at&nbsp;<a class=\"msr-external-link glyph-append glyph-append-open-in-new-tab glyph-append-xsmall\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/aka.ms\/newfutureofwork\">aka.ms\/newfutureofwork<span class=\"sr-only\"> (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>.\u202fAlso, be sure to subscribe for new episodes wherever you listen to your favorite shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of\u202fthe podcast, Chief Scientist Jaime Teevan and Senior User Research Manager Matt Brodsky examine how the level of IT support available during the shift, including the ability to provide hardware and software, made the difference between laying off staff and weathering the challenges brought on by the pandemic. They also explore why remote work came with a spike in phishing threats, what the biggest thorn in the sides of IT administrators has been this past year, and where opportunities exist to prepare to keep up with tech advances and tackle future disruptions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39507,"featured_media":763483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"msr-url-field":"https:\/\/player.blubrry.com\/id\/79593871\/","msr-podcast-episode":"130","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Jaime Teevan","user_id":"33975"}],"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[240054],"tags":[],"research-area":[13556,13554,13555,13559],"msr-region":[],"msr-event-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[243990],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-promo-type":[243996],"msr-podcast-series":[],"class_list":["post-763477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-msr-podcast","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-human-computer-interaction","msr-research-area-search-information-retrieval","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-locale-en_us","msr-post-option-podcast-featured","msr-promo-type-podcast"],"msr_event_details":{"start":"","end":"","location":""},"podcast_url":"https:\/\/player.blubrry.com\/id\/79593871\/","podcast_episode":"130","msr_research_lab":[199565],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-academic-programs":[],"related-groups":[],"related-projects":[717493,686763],"related-events":[],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Jaime Teevan","user_id":33975,"display_name":"Jaime Teevan","author_link":"<a href=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/people\/teevan\/\" aria-label=\"Visit the profile page for Jaime Teevan\">Jaime Teevan<\/a>","is_active":false,"last_first":"Teevan, Jaime","people_section":0,"alias":"teevan"}],"msr_type":"Post","featured_image_thumbnail":"<img width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Matthew_Jaime_1400x788_No-logos-960x540.jpg\" class=\"img-object-cover\" alt=\"Two people side by side, Matt Brodsky on the left and Jaime Teevan on the right,\u202fin black and white smile and look forward. 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