Notes from my travels_Euan Finlay_Codemotion Berlin 2019

More companies are embracing flexible working and distributed teams - whether that's individuals working remotely, or fully distributed companies with no central hub. This can have great benefits, but the path to success isn't always smooth. At the FT, we collaborate daily across time zones, from New York to Manila. How do we help our teams remain effective, avoid "us-and-them", and feel part of a greater whole? Having fixed production issues while up a mountain, I'll cover: - effective communication across locations - what we learnt from other companies - advice on leading distributed teams

About: Euan Finlay, Senior Engineer - Financial Times

Euan is part of the Operations & Reliability team at the FT, managing incidents across the globe. Before that, he lead a distributed team responsible for Go microservices, Docker containers in Kubernetes, and the backend APIs powering the website. On the Ops-ier side of DevOps, he has occasionally admitted to being a sysadmin in public.

Transcript

1. Notes From My Travels Building Effective Teams When You're in Different Places Euan Finlay @efinlay24 | #CodemotionBerlin19
3. photo of up a mountain
8. The people fixing the incident were scattered across 4 countries. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
9. Our culture of remote collaboration enabled us to fix it. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
11. /usr/bin/whoami @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
12. /usr/bin/whodoiworkfor No such file or directory. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
13. https://www.ft.com/
14. 1211 Production Systems
15. 245 Platinum Systems
16. ~150 Daily Releases
17. ~150 ...including Fridays :)
18. 60+ Third-Party Providers
19. London pin
21. Lots of pins
22. Ensuring the services supporting the FT are operational and available.
25. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19 It's hard leading a team split across locations...
26. Harder across an 7 hour time difference... @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
27. And even harder with a 24 / 7 shift rota.
28. How do we include the team in decision-making? @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
29. Obligatory audience interaction. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
30. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019
31. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019 51.8% work remote at least a few days a month or more
32. 42% prefer working from home or non-office location https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019
33. https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019
34. These challenges affect more of us than we might expect. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
35. How do we enable and encourage remote collaboration? @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
36. > What even is "remoteness"?
37. What even is "remoteness"? > Communication challenges
38. What even is "remoteness"? Communication challenges > Culture challenges
39. What even is "remoteness"? Communication challenges Culture challenges > Why enable remote work?
40. > What even is "remoteness"? Communication challenges Culture challenges Why enable remote work?
41. Martin Fowler groups teams into four categories. https://martinfowler.com/articles/remote-or-co-located.html
42. Single-site https://martinfowler.com/articles/remote-or-co-located.html
43. Multi-site https://martinfowler.com/articles/remote-or-co-located.html
44. Satellite workers https://martinfowler.com/articles/remote-or-co-located.html
45. Fully distributed https://martinfowler.com/articles/remote-or-co-located.html
47. It's rarely black and white.
49. What even is remoteness? > Communication challenges Culture challenges Why enable remote work?
50. Communication is an important factor for effective teams. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
51. https://www.telerik.com/devreach/sessions/technical-leadership-lessons-learned-at-nasa
52. http://agilemodeling.com/essays/communication.htm
53. @efinlay24
55. Screenshot of CE collaborating
56. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digital-service
57. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digital-service
59. Take the time to find the right tools for your team. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
60. Reduce the friction of communication. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
61. It's difficult to read intent from text. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
62. Cultural and language differences can make it harder. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
63. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
64. Private team channels are important for bonding. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
65. Desk moves within an office can have an unexpected impact. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
66. I found it hard to get my team's agreement on changes. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
68. Type 1 decisions are difficult to reverse.
69. Type 2 decisions are easy to change.
70. Make incremental changes, then iterate.
71. Type 1 changes are reviewed by the Technical Governance Group. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
72. This allows more scrutiny from more experts. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
73. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
74. Run effective meetings. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
75. https://medium.com/ft-product-technology/a-guide-for-accessible-meetings-2c1e54145187
76. https://medium.com/ft-product-technology/a-guide-for-accessible-meetings-2c1e54145187
77. https://medium.com/ft-product-technology/a-guide-for-accessible-meetings-2c1e54145187
78. If one person is remote, make everyone remote. https://medium.com/ft-product-technology/a-guide-for-accessible-meetings-2c1e54145187
80. A 2 hour time difference is 3 hours of availability.
81. We need to be better at asynchronous communication. @efinlay24
82. https://events.codemotion.com/conferences/milan/2019/speaker/5500/
83. What even is "remoteness"? Communication challenges > Culture challenges Why enable remote work?
84. https://events.codemotion.com/conferences/berlin/2019/speaker/5902/
85. Psychological safety is paramount. https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/introduction/
86. Psychological safety is paramount. https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/introduction/ What makes an effective team at Google?
87. https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/introduction/
88. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8
89. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8 1) Opportunities, not failures.
90. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8 1) Opportunities, not failures. 2) Acknowledge our own fallibility.
91. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8 1) Opportunities, not failures. 2) Acknowledge our own fallibility. 3) Model curiosity, ask questions.
92. Discuss and agree on the team's values. https://www.ft.com/tech-principles
93. https://www.ft.com/tech-principles
94. https://www.ft.com/tech-principles
95. Schedule regular collaboration opportunities.
96. Set up coffee roulette. https://www.donut.com/
97. https://www.donut.com/
99. tech talks - livestream get a photo @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
100. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
101. photo of sofia hackathon team
102. Meeting in person is still really valuable. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
103. https://www.giantswarm.io/
104. https://www.giantswarm.io/
105. https://www.giantswarm.io/
107. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
108. Flexible working encourages everyone to support remote work. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
109. We don't always get it right, though. There's a lot more we need to improve. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
110. What even is "remoteness"? Communication challenges Culture challenges > Why enable remote work?
111. Flexible staff are happier staff. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
112. Recruit from a wider talent pool. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
113. Improve team diversity. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
114. Take advantage of timezones. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
115. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19 Nearly the end. Don't clap yet.
116. There is no magic solution. If there is, we haven't found it yet. @efinlay24 #CodemotionBerlin19
117. Ensure our teams have the tools they need.
118. Think remote-first for communication.
119. Try things, and find what works for you.
120. The end. "Please clap." Jeb Bush, 2016
121. We're hiring! https://ft.com/dev/null/ @efinlay24 euan.finlay@ft.com