The habits of healthy (ML) Engineering teams

One of the interesting parts of leadership is managing a great team and not always knowing why it works so well. For many, myself included, this can come with a touch of impostor syndrome. The industry is full of articles on underperformance, warning signs for bad managers, or how teams fail. But there’s not as much talk about what makes a team thrive and what choices help build that kind of environment. I believe that “all strong teams are alike; each struggling team struggles in its own way” but in the last few years I haven’t really taken the time to write down what I think makes a “healthy, high-performing team” or which are the pillars that I try to apply regularly to create one. This is my humble attempt.

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1. The habits of healthy (ML) engineering teams LeadDev Barcelona Meetup - 10th December 2024 Massimo Belloni - Senior Engineering Manager, Bumble Inc
2. Intros Senior Engineer Manager - ML @ Bumble Inc _Massimo Belloni_ Machine Learning Engineer (󰏢) - lived and worked in Rotterdam (󰐗), London (󰏅) and Barcelona (󰎼). Started 5 years ago managing data science and machine learning teams, now wider engineering leadership. @massibelloni /massibelloni massibelloni@gmail.com
3. 🌈🌟🦄🥰🤝💖 Healthy Team 🌈🌟🦄🥰🤝💖
4. How do you recognise one? _Morale_ As simple as it gets. High energy and motivation to work together, drives creativity and resilience. _Impact_ Ultimate measure of results. It shows when solutions meet real needs, drive change, and create lasting value for the business. _Mission_ Clear definition of what’s keeping teams together in the format they have. _Trust_ It’s earned through transparency, reliability, and consistent communication; stakeholders and team members align effortlessly
5. Behaviors _Results_ Mission Trust Impact Morale _Repeatable_ _Controllable_ _Predictable_ _Consistent_
6. Knowledge 📖 _Great teams know the “why” not just the “how”_ What you build matters more than how you build it _Tip:_ Limit projects; focus deeply and commit fully.
7. Self prioritisation 🏗 _Trust your team to make smart choices._ Processes are tools, not goals _Tip:_ Don’t try to enforce scrum for ML projects!
8. Ownership 💪 _Be a thought leader, not just an executor_ Thinking beyond the assigned task _Tip:_ Empower engineers to take roadmap decisions
9. Psychological safety 🧘 _Transparency, vulnerability and empathy._ Leading teams is dealing with humans. _Tip:_ Policies and ways of working don’t create a culture alone.
10. Psychological Safety Domain Knowledge Self prioritisation Self prioritisation Ownership
11. Vanilla productivity metrics Hours, lines of code, sprint points Going crazy on retention Turnover is your friend! In-person collaboration at all costs Great teams appreciate it even without a mandate
12. “All strong teams are alike, each struggling team struggles in its own way”
13. Thanks!