‘Show don’t tell’ when using data to drive better employee experiences, says Atlassian

Distributed work is the name of the game for Australian-American software giant Atlassian.

In fact, the $4.4 billion tech giant has a whole team that experiments with ways of working to see how to switch things up and help Atlassian’s 12,000 employees “meet their full potential at work and live their best lives”.

That team is the Teamwork Lab; it’s a group of behavioral scientists, which is headed by Molly Sands.

UNLEASH had the pleasure of sitting down with Sands, and her colleague Emma Crockett, Head of People Insights at Atlassian, at Qualtrics X4 in Salt Lake City.

In this exclusive interview, we explored how Atlassian uses data to improve employee experience (EX), as well as discussed the topic of the moment – agentic AI – which Atlassian is ahead of the game on.

Data is essential to great EX at Atlassian

Atlassian uses Qualtrics as its survey provider to gather data about the way its people are working.

According to Crockett, some of this is “moment in time data” – like an onboarding survey or following up on a new strategy that’s been rolled out – while others sources include employee sentiment data and also outcomes data (like retention or performance).

This data then feeds into the Teamwork Lab, which uses the data to experiment with new work practices, and then measures the outcomes.

One example that Sands shared with UNLEASH was intentional team gatherings. These are essential for building connections between distributed employees who often work with others based all across the world.

“We’ve used our data from our employee listening surveys to really understand how that impacts teams” – the data shows “it makes them more connected, and that those increased feelings of connection last a few months after they attend those events”.

Plus, the gatherings drive better productivity and performance.

“You need to come together a lot less than most people think,” notes Sands.

Data has also informed Atlassian’s approach to office spaces, and the related EX. While the company is distributed, offices still play an important role.

“We experiment a lot with the spaces we offer in offices, and collect continuous feedback on how those experience are working, as well as how people are using those different types of spaces.”

Molly Sands, Head of Teamwork Lab, Atlassian.

The fact that Atlassian has its own Teamwork Lab to drive these experiments makes it advanced and mature on employee listening, data and EX.

However, that doesn’t mean that other employers and HR leaders can’t replicate this approach in their own organizations.

Sands’ advice is to start small and to get “really clear on what problem you’re trying to solve”.

“You do not need to gut every office and rebuild the entire thing” – “you might just know from your data that you actually need better spaces for people to have private digital conversations”, and then keep that top of mind when making decisions about your office space.

The next thing is “figure out how you’re going to measure how that goes”, so “you have a story to tell”, which you can take to teams and executives to “really help them understand what’s working well for people and helping them be as a effective as possible at work”.

Crockett adds: “We’re a big fan of show don’t tell” with data.

AI agents won’t replace humans, they will improve their experiences

The conversation then turned to AI, a big theme of Qualtrics X4 2025.

Sands shares that “we have an amazing customer zero story on AI adoption”.

Atlassian creates and builds a lot of AI tools, notably through its Rovo products, but “we also work in a way that lends itself really well to AI”.

Emma Crockett, Head of People Insights, Atlassian.

“Atlassian is a very transparent organization – one of our values is open company, no bullshit, which is perfectly Australian and perfectly Atlassian,” Sands continues.

The tech giant is already experimenting with AI agents, and how to embed them into teams so they can act as coworkers.

“Where can our teams leverage their expertise, but also find points for automation or for improved, higher quality work?” Asks Sands.

For Crockett, when it comes to AI agents, “it’s not about removing the human element, it is beautiful merging of technology and the human experience”.

UNLEASH was keen to find out the specific agentic AI use cases within Atlassian.

Sands shares a new Rovo agent in the onboarding space that the tech giant calls Nora.

“In the first month that we launched Nora, she got asked over 2,000 questions by new hires.”

Sands continues: “Anytime someone starts a new job, there’s so much [information], but if you can ask a target question and find exactly what you need” without feeling the embarrassment of having to ask your new member, that’s a real differentiator.

For Sands, it really is the “perfect use case” and a great place for HR teams to start with AI agents.

At its recent Team ’25 conference in the US, Atlassian actually rolled out new Rovo updates, including Agents and Studio so that customers can build their own agents.

Speaking about the news, Atlassian CEO and Co-Founder Mike Cannon-Brookes: “AI isn’t a nice-to-have anymore – it’s a must-have for teams that want to win.

“AI has the power to unlock potential for every team, in every industry, everywhere. And we’re just getting started.”

HR teams, it’s time to get ready for a  future of work powered by AI agents.

Want to hear more from Atlassian on HR topics? You’re in luck! Atlassian’s Chief People Officer Avani Prabhakar is speaking at UNLEASH America 2025, 6 to 8 May.

It’s not too late to grab a pass.