Building Impactful Teams

Effective teamwork is crucial to getting things done, and making these teams as impactful as possible amplifies what you can achieve. There are many aspects to successful teams - from hiring good people, facilitating communication and fostering a healthy culture. In this talk we’ll explore the logistics of building and growing great teams, based on experience from working in a fast paced startup and seeing it grow over 18 months from 50 to 320 people.

Presented at Women of Silicon Roundabout 2018

1. Building Impactful Teams Emma Guy @emmaguy
4. Team #1 ‘All engineers in the whole company’ ~12 people @emmaguy
5. Team #2 ‘Android team’ 2 engineers, 1 product manager @emmaguy
6. Team #3 ‘Product team’ Multi discipline, ~10 people @emmaguy
7. Team #4 ‘Product squad’ Multi discipline, ~5 people @emmaguy
8. Teams at Monzo
9. Are cross functional @emmaguy
10. @emmaguy Subdivide into focused squads
11. @emmaguy Can be formed as needed
12. Relentless focus @emmaguy
13. Own a metric @emmaguy
14. @emmaguy Have a lot of autonomy
15. Building the team
16. Initial phone call Take home exercise Onsite @emmaguy
17. Will they be great at this job? Will they thrive? @emmaguy
18. Hiring great people is really hard @emmaguy
19. Make the process as close to the job as possible @emmaguy
20. Open exercises are difficult to evaluate @emmaguy
21. Consider how you ask the question @emmaguy
22. Calibration of answers is tricky @emmaguy
23. People are biased @emmaguy
24. Hire inclusively @emmaguy
25. Refine the process @emmaguy
26. Set clear expectations @emmaguy
27. Culture
28. @emmaguy “We don’t do that here.” http://thagomizer.com/blog/2017/09/29/we-don-t-do-that-here.html
29. @emmaguy Concise, to the point Non-judgemental Firm, but polite
30. Transparency @emmaguy
31. Feedback @emmaguy
32. Willingness to take risks “How can we do this in half the time?” @emmaguy
33. Psychological safety @emmaguy https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/
34. Can I take risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed? Can I be who I am? @emmaguy
35. Diversity & Inclusion @emmaguy
36. Diverse teams build better products @emmaguy
37. “Hey guys” @emmaguy
38. If I do not relate to being a “guy”, this term actively excludes me every time it is used @emmaguy
39. @emmaguy
40. Conclusion
41. Invest in hiring @emmaguy
42. Embrace change @emmaguy
43. Be mindful and empathetic @emmaguy
44. Thanks! @emmaguy