Patrick Kua - Cultivating high-performing teams in hypergrowth (Turing Fest 2019)

N26 is on a mission to build the bank the world loves to use. Not only is its customer base rapidly growing (from 450K to 3.5M in 2 years), but the product and tech team has almost grown 5x in that time, to more than 320+ people.

In this talk, Patrick will share lessons learned sowing the seeds and fertilising an environment to cultivate high performing teams in a hypergrowth environment. We will look at balancing structures to maximise autonomy and alignment, explicit trade-offs in centralised versus decentralised thinking and how we’ve managed to rapidly expand a team and still ship product at a rapid pace.

Transcript

1. Cultivating High 
 Performing Teams 
 in Hypergrowth @patkua TuringFest (August 2019)
2. The first bank 
 you’ll love @patkua
3. Banking, this beautiful @patkua
4. #leader #coach #architect #developer #life-long-learner #author #cto We’re hiring in Barcelona, Berlin, & Vienna & NYC! https://n26.com/jobs/ Chief Scientist, former CTO @patkua
5. thekua.io/evolarch thekua.io/twtl thekua.io/retrobook Chief Scientist, former CTO @patkua
6. Tech Lead Course Book Newsletter for leaders in tech http://thekua.io/twtl http://thekua.io/techlead-course Some of my creations @patkua http://levelup.thekua.com
7. Lessons Learned Our Solution Our Hypergrowth
 Challenge @patkua
8. Our Hypergrowth
 Challenge @patkua
9. @patkua
10. @patkua
11. @patkua
12. Hypergrowth Source: https://blog.drift.com/what-is-hypergrowth/ @patkua
13. Hypergrowth feels 
 like you’re building 
 the rocket as its flying “ @patkua
14. IN NUMBERS (Q2’17 to now) Customers 450K to 3.5M+ Employees 400 to 1300+ Offices 1 to 5 Tech Employees 1x to 6x @patkua
15. Start Up Scale Up @patkua
16. Our Hypergrowth
 Challenge Our Solution @patkua
17. Reactive Copy-Paste Strategic Alternatives @patkua
18. Project Aristotle High Performance @patkua
19. Trust @patkua
20. @patkua
21. “ You manage things; you lead people - Admiral Grace Hopper @patkua
22. My approach? Observe Orient Decide Act -John Boyd’s OODA Loop @patkua
23. Retrospectives @patkua
24. 1-1s @patkua
25. Where are the gaps? @patkua
26. T O M arget perating odel @patkua
27. T O M arget perating odel Where do we want to be? @patkua
28. T O M arget perating odel How do we want to work? @patkua
29. T O M arget perating odel A guide, not a recipe @patkua
30. “All models are wrong, some are useful” - George E.P. Box “ @patkua
31. Principles Scaleable Autonomy & Alignment Bright Future Sustainable Fast feedback Clarity & Flexibility @patkua
32. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua
33. Improve stability Support engineers Scaleable processes 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua
34. Before After 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua
35. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua
36. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18)
37. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18) Before
38. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18) Before After
39. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18)
40. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18) 1.2 (May ’19)
41. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18) 1.2 (May ’19)
42. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18) 1.2 (May ’19)
43. 1.0 (Dec ’17) @patkua 1.1 (Aug ’18) 1.2 (May ’19)
44. Elements Where are we? Why? “What’s in it for me?” Vocabulary New roles, processes & structures Next steps T O M arget perating odel @patkua
45. Our Hypergrowth
 Challenge Lessons Learned Our Solution @patkua
46. @patkua
47. Priorities Customer Impact Business Impact @patkua
48. Do Repeat Yourself @patkua
49. Fast enough @patkua
50. Hypergrowth Impact? Pace can be 
 overwhelming Concurrent Emergencies More stress @patkua
51. Hypergrowth Impact? Improvements very visible Improvements very visible Opportunities for people growth Multiple companies More to celebrate @patkua
52. Our Hypergrowth
 Challenge Lessons Learned Our Solution @patkua
53. @patkua
54. We’re hiring in Berlin, 
 Barcelona, Vienna & NYC! https://n26.com/careers Thank you @patkua