Growing and Managing Distributed Teams

Transcript

1. GROWING &
   MANAGING
   DISTRIBUTED
   TEAMS
   Dave Copeland
   Director of Engineering @ STITCH FIX
   @davetron5000
   

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2. STITCH FIX
   Wants to
   Look Good
   Style Profile
   Stylist
   Warehouse
   •Customer Experience
   •WMS
   •Buying/Planning
   •Customer Service
   •Styling
   •Payments
   •etc.
   

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3. GROWTH &
   DISTRIBUTED TEAM
   2013
   $secret
   (but not much :)
   Revenue
   Engineering
   Team
   Me IC
   HQ 50%
   Remote 50%
   4 Engineers
   

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4. GROWTH &
   DISTRIBUTED TEAM
   2013
   $secret
   (but not much :)
   Revenue
   Engineering
   Team
   Me
   2018
   $1.2B
   IC
   Tech Lead
   UK Expansion
   2014
   $73M
   Manager
   2016
   $730M
   Director
   HQ 33%
   Remote 66%
   HQ 50%
   Remote 50%
   4 Engineers 180 Engineers
   IPO!
   

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5. WHY?
   Larger & More
   Diverse Hiring
   Pool
   Practices
   for
   Scale
   

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6. HIRING IS A FUNNEL
   Your Metro Area
   

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7. HIRING IS A FUNNEL
   Your Metro Area
   The Whole Country !
   or World
   

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8. DIVERSE TEAMS
   PERFORM BETTER
   Harvard Business Review

   https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter
   Forbes

   https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriklarson/2017/09/21/new-
   research-diversity-inclusion-better-decision-making-at-work
   Inc

   https://www.inc.com/greg-satell/science-says-diversity-can-make-
   your-team-more-productive-but-not-without-effort.html
   

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9. HIRING IS A FUNNEL
   Your Metro Area
   The Whole Country !
   or World
   

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10. HIRING IS A FUNNEL
    Your Metro Area
    The Whole Country !
    or World
    

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11. HIRING IS A FUNNEL
    Your Metro Area
    The Whole Country !
    or World
    

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12. Co-Located
    PRACTICES THAT SCALE
    Works Ad-Hoc
    

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13. Co-Located
    Breaks Down Fast ☹
    PRACTICES THAT SCALE
    

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14. Co-Located
    Structure & Organization
    Required
    PRACTICES THAT SCALE
    

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15. Distributed
    Structure & Organization
    Required
    PRACTICES THAT SCALE
    

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16. Distributed
    These Structures Scale
    PRACTICES THAT SCALE
    

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17. THINGS TO BE
    AWARE OF
    Benefits laws • Contractor laws • Tax nexus
    Please work with an HR professional
    

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18. EMPATHY
    CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
    FEEDBACK
    

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19. …the capacity to
    understand or feel what
    another person is
    experiencing from within
    their frame of reference…
    —Wikipedia
    EMPATHY
    

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20. WHAT IS A DISTRIBUTED
    TEAM LIKE?
    •No instant communication
    •Not awake/working at the same
    time
    •No illusion of productivity
    •No automatic humanization

    
    Not Physically Present
    

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21. AND HOW TO USE
    THEM
    ESTABLISH
    CHANNELS OF
    COMMUNICATION
    

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22. ASYNCHRONOUS
    CHANNELS
    Your Team
    Outside World
    Pacific Mountain Central Eastern
    Aleutian Atlantic
    

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23. ASYNCHRONOUS
    Email
    Shared/Collaborative Documents
    (e.g. Google Docs)
    Text Chat
    Code
    

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24. Your Team
    Outside World
    Pacific Mountain Central Eastern
    Aleutian Atlantic
    
    
    SYNCHRONOUS
    CHANNELS
    

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25. SYNCHRONOUS
    Text Chat
    Video Chat
    In Person
    

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26. HOW TO USE THE
    CHANNELS
    Aware Respond Escalate
    How aware are you
    of information
    coming into the
    channel?
    How quickly do
    you respond to
    requests?
    When do you
    escalate to a higher-
    bandwidth channel?
    

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27. PAVE “COW PATHS”
    AT FIRST
    ITERATE VIA EMPATHY,
    OBSERVATION, AND
    FEEDBACK
    

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28. EMPATHY
    CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
    FEEDBACK
    

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29. Hiring Onboarding Day to Day
    SCALING
    

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30. HIRING
    Hiring is assessment—assess
    for ability to work remote
    Ensure they understand the
    ways of working
    

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31. ONBOARDING
    Empathize - they will never be more alone
    than their first day
    Also: never more open to feedback
    Clear goals • Constant Contact • Lifeline
    

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32. DAILY LIFE
    
    
    
    
    What do I do?
    How do I do it?
    Did I do it right?
    What happens next?
    

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33. FEEDBACK IS HARD
    •Programming is a not a profession of
    critique or review
    •Text & Asynchronous Feedback is hard
    Cultivate a Culture of Trust,
    Empathy, and Authenticity
    

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34. TRUST
    Capability
    Can you do it?
    Consistency
    Can you do it reliably?
    Motivation
    Are you doing it for the right reasons?
    

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35. CAPABILITY
    Objective and clear assessment of work
    product, level, etc.
    

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36. CONSISTENCY
    Create a stable environment for execution
    —a level playing field
    Beware “HQ bias” and
    “Timezone bias”
    

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37. MOTIVATION
    Be transparent about yours
    Never guess at someone else’s
    Always assume good intentions
    

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38. OBSERVE &
    COACH
    

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39. HUMANIZE BY
    MODELING & ENCOURAGING
    AUTHENTICITY &
    EMPATHY
    

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40. What We Are
    Discussing
    What’s going on with me?
    (Authenticity)
    What’s going on with you?
    (Empathy)
    HUMANIZE ANY
    CONVERSATION
    

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41. THIS STRUCTURE
    SCALES WHEN
    DEMOGRAPHICS
    HOLD
    

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42. People in New Situations
    That Stretch You
    

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43. Ways of Communicating
    Assess
    Candidates Onboard Feedback
    SUMMARY
    

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44. WAIT…
    ISN’T THIS JUST
    “RUNNING AN
    ENGINEERING
    TEAM”?
    

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45. YES…BUT MORE
    EXPLICIT MORE
    OFTEN SOONER
    THAN YOU THINK
    

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46. EMPATHY
    CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
    FEEDBACK
    

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