Getting Started with HEAT

"Forage for effort patterns. Discover burnout signals before they cascade."

Quick Start

The HEAT Framework makes invisible effort visible through a lightweight tagging system that captures intensity, not just time. In 30 seconds a day, you can surface burnout risks, knowledge silos, and capacity bottlenecks.

The Core Question

When you review your team's workload, ask:

"Where is the cognitive load actually concentrated?"

Traditional time logs can't answer this. HEAT can.

Your First Week with HEAT

Day 1: Install the Mindset Shift

Effort ≠ Time

Traditional Tracking:
├── 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM: Meeting (1 hour)
├── 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Development (3 hours)
├── 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Development (4 hours)
└── Total: 8 hours logged

HEAT Foraging:
├── 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM: Meeting (x1 intensity = routine)
├── 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Feature work (x2 intensity = moderate)
├── 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM: Blocker debugging (x8 intensity = high load)
└── Total: 35 intensity units (visual: warm → red on heatmap)

Key Insight: Both show "8 hours worked" — only HEAT reveals the cognitive load.

Day 2-3: Learn the Tag Categories

HEAT uses two tag types:

1. Work Type Tags

Tag	When to Use	Examples
Feature	Building new functionality	New API endpoint, UI component
Bug	Fixing defects	Production error, test failure
Blocker	Stuck, needs investigation	SQL performance issue, vendor API down
Support	Helping others, answering questions	PR review, onboarding new dev
Config	Environment setup, tooling	Deploy script fix, CI/CD adjustment
Research	Exploring unknowns	Prototype spike, architecture decision

2. Intensity Scale (x1 to x10)

Intensity	Meaning	When to Use
x1	Routine	Task you've done many times, low cognitive load
x2-x3	Moderate	Normal feature work, familiar territory
x5-x7	Heavy	Complex problem, deep focus required
x8-x10	High Load	Grinding, stuck, mentally exhausting

Rule of Thumb: If you finish the day feeling drained, your intensity was likely x7+.

Day 4-7: Practice Tagging

Example Workflow:

Monday 10:00 AM:
Task: Implement user authentication flow
Tags: Feature, API, x3 (moderate complexity)

Tuesday 2:00 PM:
Task: Debug race condition in payment processing
Tags: Blocker, SQL, x8 (stuck on this for 6 hours)
🔥 Streak: 2 days (auto-detected — worked on same blocker yesterday)

Wednesday 9:00 AM:
Task: Help junior dev with environment setup
Tags: Support, Config, x1 (routine, quick)

Time Investment: 30 seconds per entry.

Insight Generated: By Friday, you see a heatmap showing you spent 65% intensity on that payment blocker.

Understanding the Three Views

HEAT provides three lenses on your team's effort:

1. Developer View (Personal Board)

What you see:

• Your own effort distribution (Am I balanced or overloaded?)
• Your streak patterns (Am I grinding too long on one thing?)
• Your tag history (What did I actually work on this week?)

Use case: Self-awareness and planning.

→ Learn more: Developer View

2. Manager View (Team Heatmap)

What you see:

• Effort concentration across team members
• 🔥 Burnout risk indicators (streak alerts)
• Bus factor warnings (single person touching critical area)
• Project filtering (isolate by billing code)

Use case: Proactive intervention before crisis.

→ Learn more: Manager View

3. Tag Analysis View (Strategic Trends)

What you see:

• Global aggregation (What is the team actually doing?)
• Daily vs Weekly toggle (operational vs strategic view)
• Drill-down (click "SQL" → see every task contributing)

Use case: Identify systemic issues.

Example Insight:

"Config intensity spiked x500 this week across the team → environment is broken → priority fix."

→ Learn more: Tag Analysis View

Key Concepts to Master

1. The Pain Streak Algorithm

What it detects: When someone works on the same difficult task for consecutive days.

How it works:

IF (User logs Tag 'T' on Task 'X' today)
  AND (User logged Tag 'T' on Task 'X' yesterday)
THEN
  Streak_Count = Previous_Day_Streak_Count + 1
  Visual: 🔥 Streak badge

Business value: Flags "stuck" developers grinding silently — prevents burnout.

→ Learn more: Pain Streak Algorithm

2. Intensity Aggregation (Heatmap Colors)

How effort becomes color:

Daily Intensity	Heatmap Color	Meaning
< 5	🟦 Blue (Cool)	Routine maintenance
5-15	🟩 Green (Normal)	Standard workload
15-30	🟨 Amber (Warm)	Heavy load
30+	🟥 Red (Critical)	Burnout risk

Calculation:

Daily Intensity = Sum of all intensity multipliers for that day

Example:
├── Task A: SQL (x1)
├── Task B: SQL (x1)
├── Task C: Blocker (x8)
└── Total: 10 (Green/Normal)

3. Context Switching Score

What it measures: Cognitive fragmentation from jumping between different work types.

How it's calculated:

• Variance of unique tags in a single day
• Cardinality (how many different areas touched)

Example:

Low Switching (Score: 15):
├── Feature, API, x3
├── Feature, API, x2
└── Feature, API, x3
(Consistent area, low fragmentation)

High Switching (Score: 87):
├── Feature, API, x3
├── Support, UI, x1
├── Blocker, SQL, x7
├── Config, DevOps, x2
└── Research, Architecture, x4
(Constant context shifts, high cognitive tax)

Business value: High switching = lower effective capacity even at same hours.

4. Bus Factor Mapping

What it reveals: Knowledge concentration risk.

How to read it:

Pattern	Risk Level	Action
One person, 90%+ intensity in critical module	🔴 Critical	Cross-train immediately
Two people, 80%+ intensity in area	🟡 Moderate	Document and pair
Three+ people, distributed effort	🟢 Low	Healthy distribution

Example from heatmap:

"Alice has 42 intensity units on 'Payment Processing' module this month. No one else touched it. Bus Factor = 1."

Action: Pair Alice with Bob next sprint to transfer knowledge.

Quick Reference

Print this for your desk:

HEAT Tagging Cheat Sheet

Work Type	Intensity Guide	Streak Alert
Feature	x2-x4 typical	Rare
Bug	x3-x6 typical	Possible if complex
Blocker	x5-x10 typical	Common (watch for 🔥)
Support	x1-x2 typical	Rare
Config	x1-x3 typical	Possible if broken env
Research	x3-x7 typical	Possible if stuck

Daily Workflow

1. Morning: What am I working on today? (Pre-tag planned tasks)
2. End of day: Update intensity based on actual experience (30 sec)
3. Friday: Review your personal heatmap (5 min)

Manager Workflow

1. Monday: Review team heatmap from last week (15 min)
2. Mid-week check: Any 🔥 streaks? Intervene. (5 min)
3. Sprint planning: Use heatmap to inform capacity estimates

What HEAT Is NOT

HEAT Is	HEAT Is NOT
Effort visibility tool	Time tracking system
Early warning system	Performance review mechanism
Architectural integrity tool	Micromanagement tool
Lightweight (30 sec/day)	Burdensome process
Complementary to PM tools	Replacement for Jira/ADO

Important: HEAT exists as a sidecar to your existing project management system. It reads task IDs but doesn't modify them.

→ Learn more: Integration Architecture

Next Steps

🎯 Explore the Framework — Deep dive into Pain Streaks, views, and signals

📊 See the Business Case — Understand the 3-8% payroll cost

🔧 Implementation Guide — Deploy HEAT in your organization

🎮 Try the Interactive Demo — Explore sample heatmaps and tag interface

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Ready to start foraging? Begin with the Framework Overview or jump straight to the Interactive Demo. 🔥