You just became a team lead. What now?

Maybe you built the first version of your product many years back on your own, and your endeavor is growing.
Maybe you've been with the company for a couple of years, and people trust you a lot.
Maybe nontechnical coworkers always approached you first because you've been able to explain things clearly to them.

Whatever happened:
YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF A TEAM OF PEOPLE NOW.

Moving away from primarily dealing with code to dealing with people can be scary. But don't panic! You are already working on effectively communicating with your coworkers a lot through your code, in planning, and on many other occasions. Like all the other skills you have picked up along the way Leadership is something you can learn and iteratively improve.

This talk aims to walk you through most of the challenges I have faced or helped others work through when taking this journey in companies that work with web technologies.
We'll discuss topics including process management, team motivation, recruiting, growing people and how to actually get something useful out of these dreaded 'performance reviews' you might be asked to do.

Transcript

1. YOU JUST BECAME YOU JUST BECAME A TEAM LEAD. A TEAM LEAD. WHAT NOW? WHAT NOW? FrOSCon 2017 @_ _edorian
2. ABOUT ME ABOUT ME So ware Engineer Team Lead PHP for more than 15 years Continuous, sustained delivery SRE, Testing, Shipping Data analysis Bullet points
3. WORKING FOR WORKING FOR ResearchGate, the professional network for scientists. Connect the world of science. Make research open to all.
4. GET IN TOUCH GET IN TOUCH Twitter: @_ _edorian Mail: tech@wallbash.com
5. I AM HERE BECAUSE I AM HERE BECAUSE I... I... want to share my journey getting into management in a couple if environments give you an overview of potential topics that might come your way hopefully help you decide if this is something you might want to do
6. AGENDA AGENDA Disclaimers You Your team Your team within the larger organization Growing as a manager
7. DISCLAIMERS DISCLAIMERS Your mileage will vary.
8. DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT, DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT, DIFFERENT PEOPLE DIFFERENT PEOPLE Everyone is different, every person, every team, every social dynamic. Treating everyone fairly doesn't mean treating them the same but everyone according to their needs.
9. DIFFERENT PERSONAL HISTORY DIFFERENT PERSONAL HISTORY I can't and won't speak for others. Listen to their stories, read their content. I come to you from the perspective of a "Straight white male in tech that fluently speaks the language of the country they are working in."
10. YOU YOU
11. HOW DID WE GET HERE? HOW DID WE GET HERE? There are many journies towards management. Some very deliberate, some rather accidental.
12. IT'S YOUR COMPANY IT'S YOUR COMPANY You helped build something successful, and it's growing With growth comes the need for more structure You are the authority by default
13. YOU'RE THERE THE LONGEST YOU'RE THERE THE LONGEST Management by seniority You find yourself helping people more than doing things yourself, and you enjoy that. At some point, you also solve more and more technical problems with business choices or suggestions
14. YOU MADE A DELIBERATE CHOICE YOU MADE A DELIBERATE CHOICE Chances are people are not assuming you want this type of responsibilities so you took the step of talking to people about this. You started taking more ownership, making your voice heard and brought suggestions to show you're thinking of these ways as well.
15. NOBODY ELSE WAS AROUND NOBODY ELSE WAS AROUND More senior members of your team are not willing to take on the role or are needed for their technical expertise Getting someone new wasn't an option You are trusted to learn
16. ALL OF THE ABOVE ALL OF THE ABOVE "It kinda just happened." "At some point, I was leading the team and doing less and less coding." "Well someone had to do all of that stuff."
17. IS THIS REALLY WHAT YOU WANT IS THIS REALLY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO? TO DO? Are you fine coding only an hour a day? Are you fine with not coding for a month? Are you fine letting go of details and the codebase? Do you want to mediate between people? Or is this just the only way to get a promotion?
18. MOVING "UP" THE LADDER MOVING "UP" THE LADDER Do you WANT to do the management work or do you feel obligated because it's the way "up"? Can you establish a technical career path? * Is there an "Architecture" route leaving the line management to others? https://labs.spotify.com/2016/02/08/technical-career-path/
19. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF Know why you are jumping into this role Just because you're the most senior tech person, you're not the best manager.
20. KNOW YOUR SELF KNOW YOUR SELF How well do you tolerate risk and criticism? As a developer people let you get away with a lot. Transitioning into a new role Higher expectations You are going to be wrong a lot more The self-worth you derive from a job well done will be gone for a while A good team and clear goals help a lot with this
21. IF YOU DO IT IF YOU DO IT Strife to do it well You are taking on a role that is about caring for a group of people Don't half-ass that. The people now come before the code. Always, even if they don't ask for it Very rarely is it "just a bit of management" in the end
22. TECHNICAL SKILLS TECHNICAL SKILLS You got this. Basic understanding of how computers work The technical perspective on how the internet works Understanding behaviors and technical terms Just like the other skills, it's tough to lead a team without this
23. NO NEED TO BE THE BEST NO NEED TO BE THE BEST What you don't have to be is the best or most senior engineer. You want better people than you in your team. It would be a waste to have the best engineer not do engineering. You have to be able to understand and to explain to other people what is happening and why it matters.
24. NEW SKILLS TO ACQUIRE NEW SKILLS TO ACQUIRE While you won't have time to dig into every cool new technology you will learn other related technical skills along the way.
25. EXCEL EXCEL It doesn't feel nearly as "cool" to do some data cleaning with excel instead of writing a one-liner with tr, cut, awk and 10+ pipes. But it works very well. I can generate SQL INSERTS with excel quicker than you can write the column mappings for a CSV import. "There is no data pipeline, just other people's excel sheets."
26. DATA VISUALIZATION DATA VISUALIZATION Speaking of diagrams and reporting: Label your Axis and try to avoid pie charts. https://medium.com/the-mission/to-pie-charts-3b1f57bcb34a http://www.richardhollins.com/blog/why-pie-charts-suck/ http://extremepresentation.typepad.com/blog/2006/09/choosing_a_good.html
28. LYING DATA LYING DATA Trustworthy insights into how things are going help you make better choices. However, the data might be lying to you: Truncated Y-Axis Multiple Y-Axis Use multiple pie charts https://blog.heapanalytics.com/how-to-lie-with-data-visualization/
29. UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS Grow an in-depth understanding of what the endeavor as a whole is trying to accomplish. Figure out what your team is contributing. You'll have a way easier time motivating people.
30. UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS You need to be able to explain the positive impact your team has and why what you're doing matters. Find a way to visualize the impact you are having. If you have a system in place that collects metrics on your companies goals, this is considerably easier.
31. BECOME INTERRUPTIBLE BECOME INTERRUPTIBLE It's now your Job to respond to questions people have that block them from working or that make them more effective or that reassure them or if they need someone to talk for a few minutes because things are or because someone asked your manager for some answers/data they need NOW or whatever.
32. BECOME INTERRUPTIBLE BECOME INTERRUPTIBLE Things you don't get to do anymore: * Async communication is still great. Also, if people o en need 15 minutes of focus to understand what a piece of code is doing consider throwing it away. Especially in Web-development. "Every interruption costs me 15 minutes just to get my focus back." http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt-a-programmer/
33. BECOME INTERRUPTIBLE BECOME INTERRUPTIBLE It's draining It's annoying You might feel like you're not getting anything done for a while How to cope with this?
34. COPING WITH BEING COPING WITH BEING INTERRUPTIBLE INTERRUPTIBLE For me showing up to work later than the team and staying later worked Being earlier might also work. If you have children, you have an advantage here. Shi your lunch back an hour Block an hour per day to sit in a meeting room Actively manage your focus time
35. OWNING THE PROCESS OWNING THE PROCESS You now own the processes of your team. You set the tone for your daily stand-ups how ideas are shared what is discussed in team meetings how tasks are executed which behaviors are rewarded
36. OWNING THE PROCESS OWNING THE PROCESS This is one of the things that don't really feel like you own it because there are established communication patterns. People are already following some system for everything of this, and you might think "But the whole company does $yourAgileMethodologyHere".
37. OWNING THE PROCESS OWNING THE PROCESS What you own is: are people are going to take these processes seriously. will they evolve to fit your needs are they just something everyone pretends to care about because the rest of the company does it This is not a talk about Agile.
38. AGILE AGILE Talking about modern Agile is something that we could easily spend a couple of days on. What I want to make clear to you is that you are now (one of) the authority figures in the room. If people notice, and they will notice, that you think some part of the process is pointless they will de- empathize or ignore.
39. TICKET SYSTEMS TICKET SYSTEMS Folks love to hate JIRA. It's your Job to make the system work for you and the team.
40. TICKET SYSTEMS TICKET SYSTEMS You've switched roles now. The Ticket system isn't where your work is coming from anymore. It's where your progress reports about finished work are persisted in a browsable fashion.
41. TICKET SYSTEMS TICKET SYSTEMS If you can remember what everyone has been doing the last four weeks and can follow up on these tasks or if you some other fantastic way of structuring work, please go ahead and do that. Also, tell me about it. For the rest of us, I don't really see a way around having some way of "Write what should happen someone and note down when it happened" system.
42. TICKET SYSTEMS TICKET SYSTEMS So let's have that talk. Whatever Ticket system you are using: Everything sucks, you can make it better, and you can make it worse. Out of all the systems out there, I feel JIRA has the biggest range of making it better and making it so, so, so much worse.
43. TICKET SYSTEMS TICKET SYSTEMS I have this thing that I love defining workflows and setting up processes, and JIRA is incredibly powerful and flexible. It's a workflow engine that can also hold tickets. The thing I enjoy about making these workflows is eliminating things that are not needed or helping anyone. If you give the same tool to someone and tell them "plan for all eventualities" you are going to have a bad time.
44. YOUR TEAM YOUR TEAM
45. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR TEAM FOR YOUR TEAM What can you do to help the people in your team grow and to what extent is it your responsibility? The answers to how much of this is their/yours/the organization's job differ quite a lot depending on whom you speak too.
46. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR TEAM FOR YOUR TEAM I feel the most important thing here is that you communicate what you are willing and able to do and what each person in your team expects you to do.
47. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR TEAM FOR YOUR TEAM Do you want to move more into frontend/backend? Dig deeper into the framework? Improve your cra regarding efficiency? Are you happy with the kind of tasks you are getting? Is leading a team interesting to you? Is there another team in the org. that you'd like to work in at some point?
48. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR TEAM FOR YOUR TEAM Having people work on things they are already good and very productive at is easy. They need less input because they know how to do things and what you're trying to achieve.
49. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR TEAM FOR YOUR TEAM If people derive motivation/fulfillment from doing this job better and better that's great. If they want to branch out into other things that are more work for you but also great.
50. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR YOUR TEAM FOR YOUR TEAM With people, you value it's way better they branch out into different subjects than into a different company when they are too bored with their current duties.
51. MOTIVATION MOTIVATION
52. TEAM MEETINGS TEAM MEETINGS If there is one thing gathering more complaints than Ticket systems and attached processes, then it's Meetings.
53. TEAM MEETINGS TEAM MEETINGS Usually when people say "Meetings are stupid" it's a shorthand for: "The meetings I've experienced here or in the past have been a waste of my time and either aggravated or bored me."
54. THE COST OF TEAM MEETINGS THE COST OF TEAM MEETINGS As a conservative estimate: Every hour a developer spends actually being present at their job runs the company 50€* Assembling your team of 8 people, that's 400€ per hour. Is what you have to say and the increased impact it will have by saying it in a room/on a call worth the 400€ it costs over sending an email? * Rough Dutch/German numbers including average sick days, vacations, social security, insurance plus the cost of office space, food, and hardware
55. MEETINGS WORTH EVERYONE'S MEETINGS WORTH EVERYONE'S TIME TIME No meeting without an agenda. Pre-written and shared before the event. If you can't be bothered to explain why I should be there, I don't want to show up.
56. WHY AN AGENDA MATTERS WHY AN AGENDA MATTERS Loss of efficiency because instead of looking up numbers and facts before you're inviting me to make shit up on the spot or have a follow-up now that we know why we are in the room.
57. WHY DO WE MEET? WHY DO WE MEET? Communicate the type of meeting and the main goals Make a decision? Come up with ideas? Reporting/Status update? Feedback? Communicating Ideas/Plans? Making plans? "Once we are done here I want everyone to,"
58. GIVING AND RECEIVING GIVING AND RECEIVING FEEDBACK FEEDBACK Have one-on-ones with everyone in your team While we talk a lot during the day and sync every day in stand up, I found it very valuable to have a regular, more formal and deliberate, opportunity for the team members to give and receive feedback.
59. WHAT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT TO TALK ABOUT We talk about current events, reflect on the last month, upcoming and handled challenges, address concerns and future development.
60. PREPARING 1:1 MEETINGS PREPARING 1:1 MEETINGS Know what they've worked on in the last month. For some colleagues of mine, this comes very natural and even in yearly feedback meetings they can just rattle of concrete examples of what this person did. I can't. I need to look through their task history, look at my notes and in general take the 30 minutes to get ready.
61. ASK CONCRETE QUESTIONS ASK CONCRETE QUESTIONS "How are you doing?" can be a conversation starter and invites people to share things they already are eager to talk about but won't get you to any more profound insights apart from that.
62. TWO-WAY FEEDBACK TWO-WAY FEEDBACK What should I continue doing that is working for you? Not working as well? What’s one thing I could do differently to better support you? Did you get the chance to do what you enjoy the most or do the best most of the days?
63. GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT What have you achieved in the past month that you are proud of? How can I help you? What are you hoping to accomplish in the coming month? How will you know if you are successful? What does success look like for the goals you've set for yourself?
64. IMPEDIMENTS IMPEDIMENTS Do you have everything you need to do your work? Hardware, So ware, calm and productive environment, working infrastructure Is it easy for you to get to clarifications about your current task when needed?
65. MOTIVATION MOTIVATION Do you understand the team's goals/mission? Do you have a good overview of why you are doing your tasks and how it helps us achieve our goals? Do you feel you are contributing to the teams and companies goals with your work? Do you feel your contribution is recognized? Are there things you notice that are working not so well in the team? Do you understand your values and are you clear on how they help everyone here shape Rᴳ?
66. ADDRESSING ISSUES ADDRESSING ISSUES How do you deal with problematic/toxic behavior? Address it where it happens. If it happens in stand-up address it with this group Talking about issues in private normalizes the behavior for others
67. MENTAL HEALTH MENTAL HEALTH Dealing with mental illness in the workplace can be a very uncomfortable issue. There are plenty of resources out there. Please educate to a level where you comfortable talking about this with your team.
68. MENTAL HEALTH MENTAL HEALTH There is a higher chance to be confronted with those concerns in a So ware Development environment as people are likely to be a position to somewhat comfortably share their struggles. One of the core questions that helped: "What is it that you need to stay productive?"
69. MENTAL HEALTH MENTAL HEALTH If this is something that affects you in any way, you are always welcome to approach me through whatever medium for a more in-depth discussion. I had a privileged life, and I got lucky, and I'm unhappy.
70. YOUR TEAM WITHIN YOUR TEAM WITHIN THE BIGGER THE BIGGER ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION
71. TRUST TRUST To do your Job well, you want people to be honest with you. It makes everything easier. If people trust you, you have to spend less time justifying things, reassuring people and trying to get folks on board with your plan.
72. TRUST TRUST For people to be honest with you, they have to trust you AND care enough to want to improve things. Avoiding the potential for conflict is always more comfortable and safer.
73. TRUST TRUST How do you get people to trust you? Be genuine Apologize when you make mistakes Explain your reasonings when people disagree. There is no shortcut, and it's not easy. Sorry.
74. FIRING PEOPLE FIRING PEOPLE Letting someone you worked with "go," or to not use a shitty euphemism, firing someone is one of the hardest things you will have to do in your new role.
75. FIRING PEOPLE FIRING PEOPLE So let me be very clear about one thing before we get into the nitty-gritty details. Once you sit down with someone and tell them, they don't have a job anymore.
76. FIRING PEOPLE FIRING PEOPLE At this moment: This is not about you. This is not about how you feel. This is not about how this stresses you out. Don't make your feelings their problem. It's emotionally manipulative and just plain a shitty thing to do to someone that just lost their job.
77. FIRING PEOPLE FIRING PEOPLE The fact that "You have lost sleep over this decision," no matter how true, doesn't matter now. Let's move into the other parts of this.
78. IT SHOULDN'T COME AS A IT SHOULDN'T COME AS A SURPRISE. SURPRISE. They should know been unhappy with their performance/attitude/whatever or that it's rough for the company economically already. They should know that there have been problems. If this is the first time, they hear about why they are "let go" you fucked up. It's not easy; I fucked this up as well.
79. COMMUNICATING COMMUNICATING DISSATISFACTION DISSATISFACTION You can think you have been very clear with someone and they heard someone fastly different. Maybe you trailed off your feedback talk with an optimistic, "but things will work out, " and they took that as an "I'm on the right track" and disregarded most of what you said before.
80. BEFORE THE MEETING BEFORE THE MEETING Read up on "letting people go" in the days before and make a plan. Usually, there are more than two people in the room. HR rep, your manager, someone else. Talk this over with them, especially if it is the first time you are doing this.
81. BE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT IS BE CLEAR ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING AND THE HAPPENING AND THE CONSEQUENCES CONSEQUENCES Do not sugar coat the situation. Have a prepared roadmap of what is happening once you leave the room.
82. AFTER THE MEETING AFTER THE MEETING Will they be handing in their badge/key/keycard right now? Did someone collect their stuff will they have to go back and collect it? How do you end the contract?
83. HIRING PEOPLE HIRING PEOPLE Another topic that can easily fill a full talk or workshop. There is a ton of literature out there In the end, YOU need to feel good about the decision Don't feel you need to follow all advice Being honest and genuine is half the job
84. COMMUNICATING PROGRESS COMMUNICATING PROGRESS Just like in the 1:1s with your team you will have people you report to Prepare: what you did what you've planned what impact did the changes have
85. GROWING AS A GROWING AS A MANAGER MANAGER
86. AM I A GOOD MANAGER? AM I A GOOD MANAGER? It's incredibly hard to find out. The saying goes "If you're asking yourself that question you're on the right track" but honestly, you might not even have started your journey — no bonus points for shallow self-reflection.
87. AM I A GOOD MANAGER? AM I A GOOD MANAGER? Before thinking about if you are doing good think about if you're ready to hear and believe that you're not. Work on that first.
88. DATA SOURCES DATA SOURCES You're in a position of power over the people reporting to you, Even if you have no personnel responsibilities. People will ask YOU how the team is doing YOU know better whom to talk and how to make things happen Before significant personnel decisions (Team moves, Hiring, Firing, Promotions) chances are YOU will be consulted in the process No trust, no honest/negative feedback.
89. FIND A MENTOR FIND A MENTOR The best feedback on your management style will come to you years later from people you worked with before. Until then, if you feel uncertain how to handle a situation or if you did the right thing try to find someone you trust and respect and ask them.
90. SELF-IMPROVEMENT SELF-IMPROVEMENT Salesforce has an openly available training program that also has a management course. * Yes, it's a Sales company. Yes, it's very US-American centered in its communication style. Yes, it's not what you as a developer are used to reading. Well turns out it's also interesting and full of ideas for your next 1:1 and your personal growth. https://trailhead.salesforce.com/trails/manage_the_salesforce_way
91. IS IT WORTH DOING? IS IT WORTH DOING? Hell yeah. If you are committed to improving and if you like making things happen with the team it's gratifying.
92. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Twitter: @_ _edorian Mail: tech@wallbash.com