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Building and scaling effective distributed teams

Building and scaling effective distributed teams

Lindsay Holmwood

November 27, 2017
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  1. Building and scaling
    effective distributed
    teams
    Lindsay Holmwood

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  2. About me
    Worked in and lead
    distributed software
    engineering teams
    for 7 years

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  3. About me
    Lead teams with
    follow-the-sun
    coverage

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  4. About me
    Currently at Envato
    leading distributed
    team of 15

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  5. The journey

    0. Fundamentals
    1. Starting out
    2. Growing the team
    3. Scaling to the whole org

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  6. Inclusion
    Practices

    Technology
    Sponsorship

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  7. No management
    buy in?
    Don’t even bother.

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  8. Starting out

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  9. Inclusion
    Practices

    Technology
    Sponsorship

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  10. Regular face to face
    catchups.
    Ideal: once a quarter

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  11. Regular face to face
    catchups.
    Likely: once a year

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  12. Establish rituals

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  13. Multiple internet
    connections
    Dongle with lots of data

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  14. Multiple internet
    connections
    Don’t skimp on quality
    (fast upload a must)

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  15. Multiple internet
    connections
    Move to areas with NBN

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  16. Multiple internet
    connections
    Have backup equipment

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  17. Instant messaging
    Non-negotiable,
    primary comms method

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  18. Instant messaging
    Your lifeline to
    your team.

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  19. Instant messaging
    Scheduled do not
    disturb time

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  20. Instant messaging
    Announce
    start/stop

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  21. Ceremonies:
    Daily standup
    Rotate the facilitation
    responsibility

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  22. Ceremonies:
    Retrospectives
    Discuss and refactor
    practices

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  23. Leadership
    participation
    Show endorsement.
    Build empathy.

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  24. Growing
    the team

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  25. Inclusion
    Practices

    Technology
    Sponsorship

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  26. The basics
    Even more important!

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  27. The basics
    Bring in coaches to
    observe and facilitate.

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  28. Hack:
    Greet everyone to check

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  29. Hack:
    Ask questions in the negative
    “Does anyone disagree?”
    not
    “Do we all agree?”

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  30. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    How many time zones?
    How much time zone overlap?

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  31. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    Add people in new time
    zones in pairs.

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  32. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    Beginning &
    end of day standups.

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  33. Team design:
    Time zone coverage
    Record crucial meetings.

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  34. Team design:
    Antipattern:
    Forcing everyone to work
    at exactly the same time

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  35. Team design:
    Antipattern:
    Communication in physical
    spaces that excludes
    remoters

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  36. Team design:
    Antipattern:
    Activities that exclude remoters
    (use of whiteboards)
    (in-person icebreakers)

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  37. Google Quick Draw

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  38. Team design:
    Defining question
    How would this decision
    make me feel if I was
    working from home?

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  39. Leadership
    participation
    Show endorsement.
    Build empathy.

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  40. Scaling to the
    whole org

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  41. Inclusion
    Practices

    Technology
    Sponsorship

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  42. What does it take to
    make distributed
    teams a first class
    citizen in the
    organisation?

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  43. The executive and
    management working
    remotely at least 2
    days a week.

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  44. Guilds
    Share lessons learnt
    with other teams

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  45. Feedback loops
    Keep refactoring your
    ways of working.

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  46. Feedback loops
    “What got us here
    won’t get us there."

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  47. Thank you!

    (and questions?)

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