2019 changes ahead

2018 was a great year for G Suite - you would barely recognize the service if you went back. Everybody was recovering from the recent introduction of Meet and the new Calendar layout (or complaining about them on Classic Hangouts and Old Gmail before those changed, too). Integrations into Workday and Salesforce didn't exist, as did many of the features we now rely on (Team Drives, Drive File Stream). Without accounting for the work in the backend.

2019 promises to be a year of increasing maturity, but similar levels of change. Is it necessary to become involved? Can't you just let it wash over you?

Edit: 2019 was indeed awesome :-)

Why even small changes matter

You may be thinking "what is this guy getting all worked up about. He's not sending rockets into space - it's email. It's a ruler for Slides, for crying out loud." In my previous life, I wouldn't have imagined becoming ecstatic about a ruler either. But besides from the point that I'd rather sink a $ 90m rocket into the Atlantic than tell a partner he won't be reading email over the weekend (or much worse) - even those little changes matter.

1. Adoption: Every feature, no matter how small, is just what somebody was waiting for to start using the service. And that means using the other services more and telling people about their conversion.

2. Resistance: Every feature is also infinitely irritating to somebody. It adds complexity, duplicates a cherished legacy feature, is implemented in a different way than expected. You can't just pile on - there's a cost to everything that needs to be handled.

That said: my outlook for 2019

• There will be change. A lot. And it will make us even more of a nimble collective when we need to be.

• There will be new tools. There will be new functionalities (though we got the ruler already) to get more out of what we have. Your participation in the Underground Change Movement will be essential.

• Old tools will go and not everybody will like it. Some housekeeping is due.

Thank you for reading! I wish you the best 2019 possible - with a clear focus on your priorities, while having fun at it. See you next Thursday!