Building and scaling effective distributed teams

Transcript

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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