scaling dev teams with purpose
TRANSCRIPT
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Scaling Dev Teamswith
Purpose
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HelloHello, I’m Rob.
I’ve been at this stuff for quite a while now.
I’ve worked in small, medium and massive companies.
I’ve managed teams through high growth and necessary reductions.
The consistent management challenge: purpose.
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I work at Lost My NameWe make personalised books for children.
☞ Founded in 2012
☞ Number of books sold: 1.66m+
☞ Number of customers: over 750,000
☞ Number of countries: 178
☞ Created books for 97,827 different names
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Lost My Name
☞ 2012: founder and friends
☞ 2013: founder + 2 developers
☞ 2014: ~8 developers in 1 team
☞ 2015: ~20 developers in ~4 teams
☞ 2016: ~25 developers in ~5 teams
☞ We’re hiring!
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This talk is about creatingthe right environment so thatdevelopers feel connectedto your mission as your startup scales
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Scaling from original team to multi dev stream complexity
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Small is simple. Small is great.
☞ Everyone involved and empowered in decision making
☞ Instant feedback
☞ No constraints or legacy code to maintain
☞ Documentation is a waste of time
It’s a great time to be alive.
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Growth is fun.
☞ Every new person is AWESOME
☞ Quick to get started and master the codebase
☞ Individuals can still make big differences
☞ Growing the team is a buzz
☞ Decoupling begins
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Things always get more interesting at scale
☞ Dependencies
☞ Boundaries
☞ Hand-offs
☞ Knowledge sharing
☞ Roadmap alignment
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Developer Disconnect
Unfortunately the more you scale the more likely you are to encounter Developer Disconnect from a small number of people.
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The 4 elements ofDeveloper Disconnect➀ Defensiveness
➁ Disempowerment
➂ Detachment
➃ Drudgery
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Spotting developer disconnect #1: Detachment
“What’s the pointin doing that?”
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Spotting developer disconnect #2: Defensiveness
“It’s easier if Ido it myself ”
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Spotting developer disconnect #3: Detachment
“That doesn't affect us, it’s theother teams problem”
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Spotting developer disconnect #4: Drudgery
“Sorry I can’t help,I have to do [TEDIUS_TASK]”
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Spotting developer disconnect #5: Disempowerment
“Only [HERO_DEV]knows how to do that”
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Spotting developer disconnect #6
“Working here isn’tlike it used to be”
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We need to challengedisconnect by restoring
purpose
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Clarity from managers#detachment
☞ CTO/VP Engineering/Head Of */Product Lead ← do they have clear meaning in your organisation?
☞ Leaders should deeply understand development
☞ Carefully manage roadmap vs vision
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Break down silos#defensiveness
☞ No heroes for low bus factor
☞ Discipline meetups
☞ Cross functional squads around key deliverables
☞ Persistent teams with rotation
☞ Mini conferences / away days
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Automated build & deployment#drudgery
☞ Developers should code with whatever tools they choose
☞ BUT standardise build chain to get that code to customers, including server provisioning, deployment, CI, build and test
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Document hard to change things#disempowerment
☞ These are the key decisions in software history
☞ Usually accumulate most technical debt
☞ Document context
☞ Create time for alternatives and build backlog
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Pay down technical debt#disempowerment
☞ Make space in sprints and roadmap
☞ Developers want to feel they are improving the system
☞ Don’t be a feature slave
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SummaryFight developer disconnect by ensuring there’s purpose from above and below.
We can beat disconnect by1. Defensiveness → Break down silos2. Disempowerment → Document, Pay down tech debt3. Detachment → Clear leadership and intra-team comms4. Drudgery → Automate
But remember: you can’t take everyone with you.
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Thanks for listeningI hope that was useful.
Twitter: rwatts_LinkedIn: robertjoelwatts