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Building and scaling effective distributed teams Lindsay Holmwood
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About me Worked in and lead distributed software engineering teams for 7 years
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About me Lead teams with follow-the-sun coverage
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About me Currently at Envato leading distributed team of 15
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The journey 0. Fundamentals 1. Starting out 2. Growing the team 3. Scaling to the whole org
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Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
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No management buy in? Don’t even bother.
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Starting out
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Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
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Regular face to face catchups. Ideal: once a quarter
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Regular face to face catchups. Likely: once a year
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Establish rituals
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Multiple internet connections Dongle with lots of data
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Multiple internet connections Don’t skimp on quality (fast upload a must)
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Multiple internet connections Move to areas with NBN
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Multiple internet connections Have backup equipment
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Instant messaging Non-negotiable, primary comms method
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Instant messaging Your lifeline to your team.
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Instant messaging Scheduled do not disturb time
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Instant messaging Announce start/stop
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Ceremonies: Daily standup Rotate the facilitation responsibility
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Ceremonies: Retrospectives Discuss and refactor practices
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Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.
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Growing the team
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Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
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The basics Even more important!
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The basics Bring in coaches to observe and facilitate.
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Hack: Greet everyone to check
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Hack: Ask questions in the negative “Does anyone disagree?” not “Do we all agree?”
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Team design: Time zone coverage How many time zones? How much time zone overlap?
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Team design: Time zone coverage Add people in new time zones in pairs.
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Team design: Time zone coverage Beginning & end of day standups.
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Team design: Time zone coverage Record crucial meetings.
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Team design: Antipattern: Forcing everyone to work at exactly the same time
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Team design: Antipattern: Communication in physical spaces that excludes remoters
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Team design: Antipattern: Activities that exclude remoters (use of whiteboards) (in-person icebreakers)
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Google Quick Draw
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Team design: Defining question How would this decision make me feel if I was working from home?
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Leadership participation Show endorsement. Build empathy.
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Scaling to the whole org
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Inclusion Practices Technology Sponsorship
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What does it take to make distributed teams a first class citizen in the organisation?
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The executive and management working remotely at least 2 days a week.
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Guilds Share lessons learnt with other teams
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Feedback loops Keep refactoring your ways of working.
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Feedback loops “What got us here won’t get us there."
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Thank you! (and questions?)