"When I tell fellow tech executives that every employee at sunday, from our engineers to our finance team, must complete a restaurant shift before they can fully onboard, I usually get confused looks. "You mean like, shadow someone?" they ask. No. I mean they tie on an apron, take orders, run food, and yes, deal with the 15-minute wait for the check that our product was literally built to eliminate."
"Using our industry as an example, the restaurant space can't be disrupted from a distance. It's intensely human. A server manages six tables, remembers who wanted dressing on the side, tracks which kitchen orders are running late, and still needs to radiate warmth when checking on the anniversary couple at table twelve. When we ask them to adopt new technology, we're not just changing their workflow, we're asking them to trust us with their tips, their table turn times, and their relationship with guests."
Every employee at sunday must complete a restaurant shift, including engineers and finance, tying on an apron, taking orders, running food, and managing waits. The practice forces direct exposure to the human realities and pressures of restaurant work, closing an empathy gap that can arise when technologists design without lived experience. Servers juggle multiple tables, remember preferences, track kitchen timing, and maintain guest relationships, creating stakes that affect tips and table turns. Direct immersion reveals workflow nuances and trust issues, prompting designs that perform under the chaos of real service environments like Friday night dinner rushes.
Read at Fast Company
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