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Growing and Managing Distributed Teams

Growing and Managing Distributed Teams

David Copeland

October 26, 2018
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  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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