John Peebles - People: Your Most Agile Ingredient

We spend a lot of time talking about how to better manage technical teams using processes, methods, prescriptions and other rules of thumb. We spend very little time talking about the largest and most important ingredient of any agile team - the team and people themselves. Drawing from ten years of experience leading and growing technical teams (from teams of 1-2 people to the organic growth of a technical team of over 100), my talk will focus around key skills and characteristics managers and team members need in order to succeed. Methodologies like Agile and Scrum are important, but nothing will fix a dysfunctional team. This talk will cover the following: - what is a team? - what does a good team look like? - hallmarks of a good team - how to lead a software or technical team

Transcript

1. PEOPLE:  YOUR  MOST  AGILE  INGREDIENT     John  Peebles              @johnjpeebles  
2. MOTORCYCLE  RACING  AND   SOFTWARE  DEVELOPMENT  
3. VALENTINO  ROSSI  
4. JEREMY  BURGESS  
5. HONDA  RC211V  
6. 80%  RULE  OF  MOTORCYCLE  RACING   2002,  2003:  Honda   2004,  2005:  Yamaha  
7. CHOOSE  ONE   Great  Team,  Crap  Business  Model   Great  Business  Model,  Crap  Team  
8. IN  A  SOFTWARE  COMPANY     TEAM  IS  EVERYTHING  
9. PROCESS  AND  METHODOLOGY  ARE   IMPORTANT,  BUT…   “The  average  programmer  reads  less  than  one   technical  book  a  year.”    –  Steve  McConnell     “The  average  programmer  or  technical  lead  never   reads  about  team  building  or  team  preservaMon.”    –  John  Peebles  
10. A  LITTLE  ABOUT  ME   (We’re  hiring!)   Places  I’ve  lived:   www.GetAdministrate.com   Where  I  work:  
11. THINK  BACK  TO  UNIVERSITY  
12. A  GREAT  TEAM  CAN  CHANGE  THE  WORLD   FantasMc  products   Unbelievable  outcomes   Size  is  almost  irrelevant   (There  are  some  excepMons)  
13. TEAM:  YOUR  BEST  CHANCE  FOR  SUCCESS  
14. -­‐  JOHN  CARMACK,  ID  SOFTWARE   "I  actually  have  been  learning  quite  a  bit   about  so[ware  development,  both  on  the   personal  cra[sman  level  but  also  paying   more  a7en8on  by  what  it  means  on  the   team  dynamics  side  of  things….It’s  about   social  interacMons  between  the  programmers   or  even  between  yourself  spread  over  Mme  
15. -­‐  FRED  WILSON,  UNION  SQUARE  VENTURES   We  made  the  classic  mistake  that  all  investors   make.  We  focused  too  much  on  what  they  were   doing  at  the  8me  and  not  enough  on  what  they   could  do,  would  do,  and  did  do.  I  am  proud  that  our   por^olio  is  full  of  companies  where  we  saw  the   vision  before  other  investors  did  and  backed  a  great   team.  But  we  don't  always  get  it  right.  We  missed   Airbnb  even  though  we  loved  the  team.  Big  mistake.  
16. AGILE  AND  LEAN:  BUILT  ON  THE   ASSUMPTION  OF  GREAT  TEAMS   Ever  seen  Agile  in  a  Large  Corporate  Environment?  
17. HALLMARKS  OF  A  BAD  TEAM   No  clear  goal   Constant  fundamental  disagreement  on  approach   UnproducMve   Poor  communicaMon   High  AdriMon   Not  fun   PoliMcs:   No  meritocracy   SoluMons  that  don’t  fit  problems   Sacred  cows     Lack  of  transparency   Needing  leadership  for  dispute  resoluMon  
18. IF  YOU  WERE  STARTING  YOUR  OWN  COMPANY…  
19. MANAGEMENT   By  Context   By  Philosophy   By  Values  
20. MVP:  MINIMUM  VIABLE  PROCESS   Examples  of  Minimum  Viable  Process:     Source  Control,  Tests,  DocumentaMon     Good  process  should  be  an  accelerant.   Instead  it's  o[en  a  distracMon  or  limiter.    
21. SUCCESS  WITHOUT  PEOPLE  IS  EMPTY  
22. THE  PROBLEM  WITH  DEFINING   GREAT  TEAMS  IS…   Every  Mission  Statement  Ever  
23. HALLMARKS  OF  A  GREAT  TEAM   A  Common  Goal   Trust   Respect   High  Standards  (A  sense  of  being  elite)   ProducMve   Things  feel  easy   Everyone  has  fun   Nobody  leaves   Great  communicaMon   High  Responsibility  (Ownership)  
24. GREAT  TEAMS  STAY  TOGETHER   Pay  cuts   Product  is  secondary   “Work  with  X!”  
25. HOW  TO  FIND  A  GREAT  TEAM   Ask  around  (referrals)   Highly  polished,  transparent,  company  exterior   Almost  without  excepMon:    Small  Companies  
26. HOW  TO  BUILD  A  GREAT  TEAM   You  must  be  a  good  leader   Learn  by  doing   Recognize  the  hints  of  leadership  skills   You  must  have  authority   Extremely  difficult  in  a  larger  organizaMon   This  will  be  painful,  and  slow  
27. HOW  TO  LEAD  A  GREAT  TEAM   With  your  team:   OpMmisMcally  set  your  goals   PessimisMcally  evaluate  and  set  the  plan   Always  show  your  work   Search  for  disagreement   Play  the  devil’s  advocate   Be  the  dumbest  person  in  the  room   Be  funny   Be  calm  
28. -­‐  CHRIS    BESWICK,  ADMINISTRATE   “All  the  pain  and  suffering  is  the  world  is   your  fault...  only  like  any  true  evil   mastermind  you  have  your  slightly   incompetent  minions  do  the  leg  work.”  
29. HALLMARKS  OF  BAD  LEADERSHIP   PoliMcal   No  respect  for  scale   Needing  to  be  involved  in  every  detail   Uninterested  in  people   Unable  to  listen,  not  facts  based   Unable  to  meet  people  on  their  own  level  
30. HOW  TO  PRESERVE  GREAT  TEAMS   Protect  the  Team   Invest  in  the  Team   Inspire  the  Team   Listen  to  the  Team   2nd  Law  of  Thermodynamics  applies  to  teams  
31. ASSESS  YOUR  ENVIRONMENT   Can  you  do  this?  
32. LIFE  IS  TOO  SHORT  
33. RESOURCES   Peopleware  –  Demarco  and  Lister     Reference  Guide  on  Our  Freedom  and   Responsibility  Culture  –  Reed  HasMngs    hdp://www.slideshare.net/reed2001     Smart  and  Gets  Things  Done  –  Joel  Spolsky     Thanks!  @johnjpeebles