Building high-performing software teams

Transcript

1. Building a High-Performing Software Team James Samuel
2. I'm James ▪ 10+ years of experience writing software in teams. ▪ Previously Head of Engineering @TIER. ▪ Engineering Manager @Reddit. ▪ Linkedin: abiodunjames.
3. You're building a team when you: • Bring a small number of people with complementary skills together. • Have them committed to common goals. • Have them hold themselves mutually accountable to these goals.
4. A team is high-performing when: It delivers superior results And does that consistently
5. Key factors that impact team performance • Teams have to be situated in an organizational context that is supportive of high performance. • The culture within the team has to be supportive of high performance and effectiveness. Team Organisation
6. How do you build a high- performing team?
7. Create team clarity Confused teams have a hard time achieving their goals. 1
8. Clarity of purpose • Why does the team exist? • Why are they doing what they doing? Create team clarity
9. Clarity of plan • How are they getting to where they are going? Create team clarity
10. Clarity of responsibility What roles would individuals on the team play in enabling the team to get there? Create team clarity
11. Creating team clarity is not a one-off thing Create team clarity ▪ Over-communicate team's purpose, plans and individual roles. ▪ Let the team's purpose inform who you hire.
12. Compose a strong team A high-performing team starts with hiring the right talent. 2
13. Hire strong talents Hire strong folks in product, design, engineering, e.tc Compose a strong team
14. Maintain an optimum size • Team sizes ideally between 6 – 9. • Create teams that are no larger than can be fed by two Pizzas – Two-pizza teams Compose a strong team
15. Stability matters Compose a strong team Creating high performance in a team takes at least 4-6 months. Consider creating long-lived teams.
16. Create synergy Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success – Henry Ford 3
17. Synergy is the ability of a group to outperform even its best individual member. Create synergy There is synergy when: 1+1+1+1 > 4
18. Create well-defined shared goals • Connect individual's goals to team's goals. • Hold everyone accountable to the team's goals. Create synergy
19. Break down communication barriers • Implement good communication practices. • Create an open environment where information flow effortlessly. Create synergy
20. Facilitate trust building among members Affective trust: Emotional bound and interpersonal relatedness. Cognitive trust: Springs from reliability and competence Create synergy
21. Empower The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job – Jocko Willinks. 4
22. • Extrinsic motivation – Imposed by external factors like rewards, punishments, etc. • Intrinsic motivation – Motivation from the inside of us. The different types of motivation Empower
23. We do our best work when we are driven by intrinsic motivation Empower
24. Autonomy In control what we do and how we do it Components of intrinsic motivation Empower
25. Autonomy In control what we do and how we do it Mastery Desire to continue to learn, improve and be better Components of intrinsic motivation Empower
26. Autonomy In control what we do and how we do it Mastery Desire to continue to learn, improve and be better Purpose A NorthStar to aim for and a reason it's worth doing Components of intrinsic motivation Empower
27. How to empower your team Empower • Foster autonomy by providing context. • Treat them as curious problem solvers, not mindless resources. • Coach and grow everyone to become a leader. • Make room for the team and get out of the way.
28. Continuous improvement A bad system will beat a good person every time – W. Edwards Deming 5
29. Tuckman's team and group development model Continuous improvement
30. Key areas to continuously drive improvement Continuous improvement • Process • People • Tools/Dev Environment • Product
31. Creating a culture of continuous improvement Continuous improvement • Run effective retrospective meetings (Project retro, quarter retro and sprint retro). • Create phycological safety. • Re-assess processes and tweak them as needed to remove unnecessary frictions.
32. Summary • Create team clarity • Compose a strong team • Create synergy • Empower and get out of the way • Create a culture of continuous improvement
33. Thank you for listening Wrote a post about this topic