How do you create a thriving team culture when colleagues are spread across time zones and may never share a room? At the X4 Summit in Salt Lake City, I caught up with Molly Sands, Head of the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian, and Emma Crockett, Head of People Insights, to explore how one of the world’s most data-driven companies approaches this challenge head-on.

In this episode, we examine the intersection of behavioral science, workplace design, and people analytics. Molly and Emma explain how Atlassian builds distributed work environments that prioritize both performance and connection. They share real-world strategies for setting clear goals, improving asynchronous communication, and designing physical workspaces that actually support modern team dynamics.

We also dig into Atlassian’s scrappy approach to experimentation, including how they test workplace ideas using behavioral data, and why a rotating role called "Chief Vibes Officer" helps drive psychological safety in distributed teams. Their approach blends evidence and empathy, challenging the idea that employee experience is either gut instinct or just another survey score.

From the role of transparency in reducing friction, to why AI struggles without structured information systems, this conversation touches on the deeper layers of modern collaboration. We also unpack the common mistakes teams make—such as clinging to Zoom fatigue rituals—and how Atlassian avoids them by focusing on better information flow.

If your organization is navigating hybrid or remote work and looking for practical, human-centered strategies, this episode offers lessons rooted in real research and tested at scale.

Recorded live at the X4 Summit in Salt Lake City, this episode features a compelling conversation with Isabelle Zdatny, Head of Thought Leadership at the Qualtrics XM Institute.

With a deep background in experience management and a passion for helping organizations translate strategy into results, Isabelle shares new insights from recent research in partnership with McKinsey, revealing how AI could unlock as much as $860 billion in customer experience (CX) impact—possibly more.

We unpack why just 12 percent of organizations have a company-wide AI strategy and explore the very real gap between potential and implementation. Isabelle describes the common trap of "pilot purgatory," where teams experiment with AI in isolated silos but fail to scale efforts across the business. Her message is clear: companies must shift from scattered tests to strategic, outcome-driven action.

Throughout the conversation, we explore how AI can drive measurable business improvements in three key areas: workforce productivity, revenue generation, and operational efficiency. Isabelle also introduces the concept of Agentic AI, a new phase of automation where AI takes on full workflows instead of just assisting humans. She offers real-world examples of companies like Fiserv that are already applying AI to reduce churn, personalize experiences, and generate new revenue streams.

From debunking myths about needing perfect data to outlining how AI success depends on leadership support, governance, and imagination, this episode provides both strategic direction and practical takeaways. As regulatory pressure grows and competition accelerates, organizations that move decisively will gain the most ground.

What will it take to stop running pilots and start delivering impact? Tune in to find out.

What does the future of observability, AI, and security look like in an increasingly complex digital world? In this special episode of Conversations from the Show Floor, we are live from Dynatrace Perform in Las Vegas with Steve Tack, Chief Product Officer at Dynatrace. A familiar voice to longtime listeners, Steve joins us in person for the first time to explore how Dynatrace is helping enterprises move from reactive IT operations to a proactive, autonomous future.

Steve shares insights into the company's major announcements from the event, including advancements in AIOps, predictive AI capabilities, and the evolution of cloud security posture management. As AI continues to reshape enterprise strategies, we unpack how businesses are adapting their IT operations to embrace AI-powered automation while maintaining scalability, security, and resilience.

We also explore how observability and AI are converging, not only to detect anomalies faster but to predict and prevent issues before they impact the business. Steve discusses the growing importance of runtime context in cloud security and the critical role Dynatrace plays in unifying data streams across metrics, logs, traces, and business metadata to deliver real-time answers.

Beyond the keynotes and product announcements, Steve shares trends directly from the show floor conversations—how businesses are restructuring for greater agility, why platform engineering is becoming a central theme, and what the rise of AI-native architectures means for development teams.

If you’re wondering whether fully autonomous IT operations are within reach or how enterprises are turning AI observability from concept into practice, this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Steve’s passion for customer-driven innovation shines throughout, offering a glimpse into where enterprise IT is heading—and what leaders need to consider as they navigate this next wave of transformation.

How are you preparing for an era of predictive, autonomous, and secure digital operations? Join the conversation and let us know your thoughts.