HEAT Framework

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HEAT FrameworkWorkplace Foraging Intelligence

Dive beneath surface tasks to discover effort patterns. See burnout signals before they cascade.

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Pain Streak Detection

Forage for consecutive high-effort signals. Detect when team members grind on the same difficult task for days — before burnout hits.

🗺️

Effort Heatmaps

Visualize where cognitive load concentrates. See who's overloaded, who's siloed, and where knowledge lives.

👁️

Visibility Gap Closure

Traditional tools track time. HEAT tracks intensity. Discover the 65% of capacity consumed by shadow work.

🎯

Bus Factor Mapping

Identify single points of failure before they become crises. Know who touches what, where knowledge concentrates.

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Context Switching Score

Measure cognitive fragmentation. A single interruption costs 15× in lost flow state — now you can see it.

🌊

6D Cascade Integration

Employee friction doesn't stay contained. Map how invisible effort cascades into quality, customer, and revenue impacts.

What is HEAT? ​

HEAT (Heatmap for Effort and Agile Tracking) is a workplace foraging framework that makes invisible effort visible. Like cormorants diving beneath the surface to forage for what others miss, HEAT reveals the cognitive load patterns hiding beneath time logs.

Traditional View:  Developer logged 8 hours
                  ↓
HEAT Foraging:    3 hours routine (x1 intensity)
                  2 hours context switching (x3 intensity)
                  3 hours grinding on blocker (x8 intensity)
                  ↓
Actual Load:      27 intensity units (burnout risk)

The Foraging Advantage ​

HEAT discovers what traditional tracking misses:

  • Effort ≠ Time — 1 hour of debugging ≠ 1 hour of meetings
  • Invisible patterns — Silent grinders, knowledge silos, overload concentrations
  • Early warning signals — 🔥 Streak badges flag burnout before resignation
  • Proactive intervention — Redistribute load before crisis, cross-train before knowledge loss

The HEAT Acronym ​

LetterMeaningPurpose
HHeatmapVisual representation of effort concentration
EEffortWhat's measured (intensity, not hours)
AAgileLightweight tagging (30 sec/day overhead)
TTrackingTag-driven work categorization

The Business Problem: The Visibility Gap ​

The Pattern: Management assumes capacity. Reality consumes it invisibly. HEAT makes the gap visible.

What HEAT Reveals ​

Hidden PatternBusiness ImpactHEAT Solution
Single point of failureOne person touches module for 6 monthsBus factor mapping
Silent burnoutDeveloper grinding on same task for days🔥 Pain Streak alerts
Knowledge silosCritical logic understood by one personOwnership pattern visualization
Context switching taxSingle interruption costs 15× actual timeContext switching score
Shadow workSupport/config consuming innovation capacityTag analysis (Dev vs Support ratio)

Real-World Impact ​

Research validates the scale:

  • 77% of employees globally are disengaged (Gallup 2024)
  • 65%+ of engineering capacity consumed by "Keep the Lights On" work
  • 3-8% of payroll lost to invisible workplace friction
  • $8.9 trillion lost globally to disengagement (9% of world GDP)

Example: Mid-size engineering team (50 people)

Friction TypeAnnual Hidden Cost
Invisible overload$150K - $400K
Knowledge concentration risk(Unmeasured until loss)
Context switching tax(Accepted as "normal")
Total with HEAT visibilityPreventable through early intervention

→ See full impact by team size

How HEAT Works ​

1. Tag (30 seconds daily) ​

Developer tags work by type and intensity:

Task: Fix SQL performance issue
Tags:
  - Type: Blocker
  - Area: SQL
  - Intensity: x7 (high cognitive load)

2. Visualize (Weekly heatmap) ​

Manager sees effort concentration:

DeveloperSQLAPIUISupportBurnout Risk
Alicex42x3-x8🔥 Streak (4 days)
Bobx5x18x12x2Low
Carolx1x4x38x15Medium

Insight: Alice stuck on SQL blocker for 4 days — needs help now.

3. Act (Proactive intervention) ​

  • Redistribute load before burnout
  • Cross-train before knowledge loss
  • Refactor modules consuming disproportionate effort
  • Batch interruptions to reduce context switching

The 6D Cascade Connection ​

HEAT primarily addresses Employee (D2) and Operational (D6) dimensions of the 6D Foraging Methodology:

The cascade is real: What looks like a $100K HR problem is often a $600K+ business problem.

→ Explore the 6D Cascade Effect

Industry Alignment ​

HEAT follows proven patterns from industry-leading frameworks:

FrameworkWhat It DoesHEAT Parallel
Google SRE Toil TrackingCategorizes Toil vs Engineering; <50% targetTags categorize Dev vs Support
Spotify Squad Health CheckLightweight assessment; traffic-light visualizationHeatmap intensity thresholds
DORA MetricsDeployment frequency, lead time, MTTRDerived from metadata, not timesheets
Enterprise KTLO Tools (Jellyfish, Uplevel)$50K+/yearHEAT achieves same insight — productized solution

"All these frameworks exist as parallel lightweight layers because timesheets don't provide effort visibility. HEAT follows the same proven pattern."

Get Started ​

📚 Getting Started Guide — Learn the tagging system in 5 minutes

🎯 Framework Overview — Understand Pain Streaks, heatmaps, and views

📊 Workplace Intelligence — See the business case and research

🔍 Interactive Demo — Try the tagging interface and explore sample heatmaps

🔧 Implementation Guide — Deploy HEAT in your organization

💼 Turnkey Implementation — Full solution with strategic discovery

"Effort that isn't visible creates friction. Friction that isn't measured compounds silently. HEAT makes it visible early." 🔥

Part of the Cormorant Foraging Toolkit ​

FrameworkPurposeIntegration
6D ForagingDiscover cost multipliers across six business dimensionsHEAT provides observables for Employee (D2) + Operational (D6)
HEATWorkplace foraging intelligence — make effort visibleFeeds cascade analysis with burnout/overload signals
EASEEngagement-Anchored Solution EnablementSolutions powered by HEAT insights

HEAT + EASE: Effort visible. Solutions enabled. 🪶