Perspectives

in engineering:
3 ways to help
your team thrive
(in and out of the codebase)

411806-21

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Leading software teams is extremely challenging and rewarding.
There are many moving parts to keep fine tuned in order to deliver meaningful

solutions to those you serve. Most of what makes you as an engineering leader

successful is the collective abilities and creativity of your team. With help from

top engineering leaders from across the world, this guide unpacks how to create

the needed environment to help your team thrive in and out of the codebase.

The insights are derived from peers who understand what it takes to create

a high-performing engineering organization.

PART 1: Communication and collaboration

PART 2: Data-driven improvement
PART 3: Agility and adaptability

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
Part 1: Communicating
and collaborating

Software development is a team sport—watch any game of basketball and you’ll see

constant communication between the players and coaches. Communication is a necessary

aspect of a well-functioning team, whether on the court or in the codebase. It’s up to you

to drive communication in a positive direction, and implement the strategies and practices

that, over time, will lead to powerful communication and a team, as the saying goes, greater

than the sum of its parts.

We compiled the collective experiences and insights of leaders from around the world,

including Tech Lead Academy founder Patrick Kua; Dan Pupius, co-founder and CEO

at Range; Edwige Robinson, Senior Vice President of Network Engineering & Operations

(Central Region) at T-Mobile; Skullcandy’s CIO, Mark Hopkins; and Agile coach Dragana Hadzic.

Their contributions explore various aspects of communication and collaboration in engineering

organizations, from inter-team conversations to company-wide, alignment-building strategies.

Create continuous feedback Patrick discovered he was not even aware of the problem or

between all members of the team how to change it, and that conversation altered his trajectory.

The first time Patrick Kua took on a formal tech lead role, “What I have tried to do from that point on is build a culture

he jumped in without any real training—or any real idea what where feedback is continuous and more ad hoc,” he says.

he was doing. And he ended up overwhelming himself by “And that feedback doesn’t have to come from the person

taking on too much responsibility. He could have spoiled his in authority. It’s a continuous process amongst everyone.”

emerging leadership career. But his project manager helped This approach shifts away from the typical quarterly or semi-
him avert that disaster by offering him some frank feedback. annual review, which is both formal and too infrequent, to
It wasn’t about Patrick’s “bad” approach to managing, implement any changes incrementally or continuously. Patrick
but about how he could change the situation.

“What I have tried to do from that point on is build a culture

where feedback is continuous and more ad hoc, and that
feedback doesn’t have to come from the person in authority.
It’s a continuous process amongst everyone.”
Patrick Kua, Founder at Tech Lead Academy
 aims to offer feedback to team members every week or two. For to get feedback to and from,” Patrick says. “It’s really about
that continuous feedback system to work, he has to establish the personal growth from all perspectives.”
conditions for it, and develop systems to implement it.

“You have to first teach people how to give and receive

Build stand-ups in rounds to carve
effective feedback,” he says. “You can create that environment,
but if people aren’t prepared to give and receive feedback,
space for everyone to participate
they can get upset by it.” For many engineering teams, accountability and communication
happen in the daily stand-up. The format is remarkably similar in
The good news is that many engineers—and tech leaders—
most every organization: teams get together for a short amount
already know how to take in various forms of feedback.
of time and run through what each person did yesterday, what
“As engineers, they’re getting feedback constantly through tests,
they’re working on today and anything that’s blocking them.
code reviews and customer satisfaction impact,” Patrick says. “You
But Dan Pupius is in favor of ditching meetings as vehicles
see numbers move. And they’re all different types of feedback.”
for mere status updates. He holds that teams can derive
Often the best feedback doesn’t come down from above. As
much more value out of their stand-ups by building the
a result, Patrick creates opportunities for people on his teams
discussions in rounds. It’s a system that he finds creates
to create feedback for each other. Sometimes this happens
more breathing room and more openings for everyone on
serendipitously, but his role is to build the culture
the team to participate.
of continuous feedback.
“The purpose of our stand-ups is collaboration,” he says. “We
So he implements the visual representation of the “pair stair”
actually call it ‘collab time.’ I recommend naming meetings
for feedback within a team. Picture a spreadsheet with all the
based on the purpose or outcome you’re driving vs. basing it
team members listed along both axes. Mapping out pairings
off of the attendees or format.”
between people forms a stair.
These are some of Dan’s tactics for making meetings more
“Over the course of say a month or two, depending on how big the
efficient and valuable for his team:
team is, you set the expectation that everyone should be swapping
feedback with everyone else,” Patrick explains. “They should be
doing it on a weekly or bi-weekly pace. By the end of that time, they
should have given some piece of feedback to everyone else.”

Patrick creates that space but does not enforce it. It’s up to
his team members to pick out who they want to talk with, offer
feedback to and solicit feedback from. He suggests some useful
mechanisms for enabling this feedback: regular calendar invites
for slots of feedback or a recurring block of time each week.

“It’s up to you to work out who’s the most appropriate person

“The purpose of our stand-ups is collaboration,”

he says. “We actually call it ‘collab time.’
I recommend naming meetings based on the
purpose or outcome you’re driving vs. basing
it off of the attendees or format.”
Dan Pupius, co-founder and CEO at Range

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Start with a check-in round Keep discussion relevant to everyone

This first round can be an ice-breaker question, or simply One of the keys to keeping everyone engaged and included

people sharing what’s on their mind. Whatever the topic of in a stand-up is to keep the stand-up relevant to them. Such

discussion, the act of going around the team levels the playing stand-ups, in this sense, are ideal for small teams, because

field—everyone has already spoken up once, and research these meetings are only useful if team members are actively

shows that underrepresented groups are more likely to speak collaborating together (at least for the duration of the

up if they speak up earlier in the meeting. meeting, if not beyond).

“Plus, it helps us as humans,” Dan says. “It helps us “If there is a discussion that’s not relevant to everyone,” Dan says,

empathize with each other and provides a more accurate “then, yeah, those people should connect at another time.”

lens through which we interpret each other’s actions and Permitting a time for intentional collaboration reduces informal
behavior during a meeting. If we come in cold and start collaboration outside of the stand-up, Dan notes. “Creating space to
talking and then you’re a little bit short with me, I may encourage collaboration is essentially an inclusiveness practice. It
interpret that as you being upset with me, but maybe it’s forces you to have conversations or discussions in a formal setting
just that you’re super tired because you were up all night where everyone can benefit from it,” he says. “It’s not to say that you
with a sick child. The check-in round sets a really important shouldn’t have your informal communication; it’s just that by making
foundation for the rest of the meeting.” a space for formal communication, everyone can benefit from it and
it balances the information flow.”
Create a round-robin agenda

The second tactic is a round (or multiple rounds) of building

an agenda. Again, every person must speak each time Forge accountability and clarity
around—and if they don’t want to add anything, they still have to weather challenging times
to vocalize their “pass.”
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the ways many
Dan finds that people may pass on the first or second round organizations communicate and collaborate, but it could not
of round-robin agenda-building, but by subsequent rounds touch one of Edwige Robinson’s core tenets: whether her
they remember or choose to bring things up for discussion. team is co-located or working from home, they always have
Going around multiple times allows team members to build each other to lean on. “We keep each other accountable and
confidence to speak up, as well as giving them multiple focused by keeping the line of communication open and being
chances—whereas a quick “What topics are we going to clear on the actions required,” she says. “Only then can we
discuss?” is likely to raise only the most urgent ideas, or those move forward to deliver effectively.”
ideas from the most confident people in the room. “It creates
Edwige paves the way for her team to do real-time problem
space for people who aren’t as confident or don’t have as
solving in meetings, where everyone is encouraged to offer
much social presence,” he says.
feedback. For her, though, the key in team accountability starts
with owning her own errors to create a cascade of trust.

“We keep each other accountable

and focused by keeping the line of
communication open and being clear
on the actions required. Only then can
we move forward to deliver effectively.”
Edwige Robinson, Senior Vice President of Network Engineering & Operations (Central Region) at T-Mobile

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 “If people don’t want to
approach you, that’s a
complete failure because
you’re missing all kinds of
opportunities.”
Mark Hopkins, CIO, Skullcandy

“When I make mistakes, I won’t make excuses for them,” moments. We will remember the extra pauses, the extra
she says. “I apologize for them. Because my team trusts calmness and the extra thank-you note.” She believes that we
me, they will understand. And I will do the same when they might be transformed through challenging times to unveil our
are in the same situation. I will give them the benefit of my better selves—and a touch of extra kindness may well be what
understanding. A leader who is ‘never wrong’ never gets the helps our teammates weather times of uncertainty.
truth from others. Yet, when a leader timely apologizes for
being wrong, it’s a powerful catalyst to build or rebuild trust.”
Open doors between tech teams
Open, free-flowing communication is the base ingredient for
that intra-team accountability. Achieving such accountability
and the greater organization
without clear communication and alignment is difficult enough The communication between tech teams and the other groups

when business is running as usual. But during a crisis, it is in an organization—sales, marketing, executives, customer

paralyzing. Edwige leans on two strategies to adapt both success, you name it—often has to cross cultural boundaries.

strategic and interpersonal communication to stressful times, Not only is the lingo different, but the ways of thinking and

whether those are global or personal: problem-solving are sometimes entirely foreign. Nobody likes
having outsiders critique their work, and it can feel insulting to
• Over-clarify and over-simplify. “I over-communicate, over-
have non-tech savvy colleagues explain to software engineers
collaborate and over-align on the priorities that lead to the
and IT professionals what they need to fix.
creation of our products and services,” she says. “I simplify
the priorities, and then simplify them again, so everyone But Mark Hopkins and his team don’t see it that way. On the

understands what is needed right now. Too many details contrary, he welcomes anyone to challenge their decisions

can be overwhelming, so I keep people focused on what is and deliver feedback. To ensure the company understands

needed to support our customers.” this, he and his team make an effort to show their openness.

• Offer extra doses of compassion. Edwige makes certain to “We really want IT to be embedded within the business.” Mark

bring empathy and understanding to the table—for her team says. “If people don’t want to approach you, that’s a complete

members as well as for herself. “I make an extra effort to make failure because you’re missing all kinds of opportunities,

every interaction count,” she says. “I listen deeper to hear the so trying to be open and collaborative with the business is

unsaid. We will all remember who was there in the smallest something that I try to foster.”

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 In his experience, Mark finds that creating a collaborative aura as only one link in the overall product delivery chain can
around IT and engineering teams requires having and hiring have reduced visibility in the strategic or product direction,”
people who have diverse experience in aspects beyond the Dragana Hadzic says. “They need to be aware of how their
technical knowhow. tasks fit in the big picture.”

“I think what works really well is having a mix of team members She highlights how teams who understand the grander scheme
that come from different backgrounds,” Mark says. “You of their work feel connected to their company’s strategy, which in
obviously need technical skills, and there’s training and effort turn brings additional purpose to their work. The responsibility for
required to learn those skills. I’ve had very good luck hiring communicating this sense of purpose falls to leaders—both at the
technical people and teaching them about the business so upper tiers and on a managerial level.
they understand the business and develop a curiosity about
“Leaders play a big role, because good leaders support each
the business and how to apply technology to it. But because
other in sharing this understanding with their teams,” Dragana
of the path that I took, I know that it also works really well to
says. “The total success of an organization comes down to this
take up someone that worked on the business side that has a
synergy between delivery and strategy.”
desire to learn technical skills.”
Communicating this sense of purpose to teams requires more
By understanding other departments and how engineering and
than articulating the company strategy. You must also convey
IT teams plug into them, it becomes much easier to empathize
a strong understanding of how any particular team fits into
with the needs throughout the rest of the company and bridge
the entire chain of a product’s development, from concept
the divide between business needs and software solutions.
through to client use.

“It’s really about communication and it’s about collaboration,”

Link development teams Dragana says. “Everyone in that setup needs to be aware that
the connection between delivery and strategy is dynamic.
to strategy, and vice versa
There are usually a lot of underlying assumptions that need to
The relationship between a company strategy and a sense of
be validated. The landscape needs to be frequently revisited,
purpose is symbiotic. Delivery teams tend to succeed when they find
and everyone needs to be aware of what’s going on.”
motivation in the company strategy, and strategies tend to succeed
when they are something teams can actually care about.

Connecting development and strategy may come more

easily in smaller organizations. At scale, and especially when
particular pieces of development work are outsourced,
linking the two requires special attention. “A team operating

“The total success

of an organization
comes down to this
synergy between
delivery and strategy.”
Dragana Hadzic, Agile coach

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Part 1 recap:

Communication
is an ongoing challenge
Improving communication is an ongoing practice for development teams, and it’s up to tech leaders
to coax the best collaborative skills from their teams. The payoffs of clearer communication manifest
on every level, from an engineering team itself to its alignment with the company-wide strategy.

The five tech leaders we interviewed turn to these strategies and insights to achieve better
communication on their engineering teams:

Create continuous feedback between all team members by establishing

the safety to share freely, and developing systems to facilitate it on an ongoing
basis (like the “pair stair”).

Build stand-ups in rounds (such as doing a check-in round and building

an agenda round-robin style) in order to hold space for everyone’s participation
and to keep the conversation relevant to all involved.

Establish accountability by modeling as a leader that you can both make

mistakes and remedy them, and establish simplicity and compassion to clarify a
team’s direction—especially in challenging times (whether universal or personal).

Break down the walls between the tech organization and the rest of the
company to facilitate greater diversity of thought and stronger alignment with
business needs.

Connect developers to organizational strategy to better

communicate the company’s vision, motivating engineers by allowing them to
understand the bigger picture their work contributes to.

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Part 2: Data-driven
improvement

The term “data-driven improvement” is as close to ubiquitous in the realm of software

engineering as any other mantra. We’re a numbers-savvy bunch, and we love experimenting,

testing and measuring our work. We generally think of data as a really good idea.

But data-driven improvement is also like a modified version of a certain card in Cards Against

Humanity. (No, not that card.) Fill in the blank:

Step 1: Data. Step 2: ____________________________. Step 3: Improvement.

What exactly do we do with data to bring about that vision of data-driven improvement? How do

we take these raw metrics and convert them into a better world for engineers, better results for

organizations, better products for customers?

“With insights from several world-class engineering leaders, this section will give you a better

understanding of how to deal in data. We’ve collected the wisdom of Brenda Jin, founder and

CEO of Guanyin Labs; Mark Hopkins, CIO at Skullcandy Inc.; Scott Lewis, VP of Engineering

at APiO; and Amol Kher, VP of Engineering at Vida Health. From distinct perspectives, they

ultimately share experiences around a central core idea: that the use of data must align with an

organization’s vision to drive real improvement.

Improve performance by using data What matters, of course, depends on the organization and its
goals, and it can change with time. Brenda understands that
Prioritization is key to leading a high-performing team.
questions of prioritization need to be weighted on multiple
Identifying and fine-tuning an organization’s highest points
axes as leaders decide where to dedicate their teams’ time
of impact delivers clarity on what’s worthy of a team’s time,
and resources.
and what needs to be dropped—and the right metrics can cut
through the noise to offer that insight. “Do you tackle the tech debt today or lay the foundation
for tomorrow? Is it better to squash bugs, build tools or ship
“This question of prioritization has been really front-and-
features?” she asks. “There is a limited total amount of time
center in my mind because the priority of strategic decisions
and energy you can devote at work. Being able to align
that leaders have to make can be at such a large scale,”
your efforts with the company will ensure that your
Brenda Jin says. “With the insights that we’re able to do with
contributions have maximum impact.”
computing, we can just zoom in on exactly what matters.”

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 “With better data, we can
proactively identify which
initiatives or leadership
behaviors are highly
correlated with success.”
Brenda Jin, Founder and CEO of Guanyin Labs

Figuring out where a team’s efforts will reap the greatest Drive continuous improvement
dividends is just the first half of the equation. Delivering
with smaller changes
consistent performance in those efforts is the other.
Mark Hopkins understands continuous improvement as a
Brenda relies on her team’s priorities to set realistic
cyclical movement rather than a linear one. Rather than teams
expectations for their work. Everyone on the team knows what
progressing one step in front of the other, they always return
their goals are, and how to measure the incremental progress
to the same ideas and the same points to assess them over
toward those targets. As she puts it, “In order to be excellent
and over again. He and his team are always reevaluating how
at work, you’ll need to understand your team, and ultimately,
they’ve been doing and what small tweaks they can initiate to
your company.”
make an impact, regardless of how slight.
Most every team will deal with a lull in performance. In these
That’s right: small tweaks, slight impacts. He believes process
times, leaders often turn to the past to glean information
improvement is less about making big, far-reaching decisions.
about the difference between then and now. But Brenda
It’s about metrics, speed and tracking.
reminds us that the interpretation of performance data is
“The concept is to drive decisions with data, make quick
not a static thing—it can (and mostly should) be revisited
incremental changes and then evaluate what the impact is by
continuously.
looking at the data,” Mark explains. “This creates a flywheel of
“What many of us do today is look at employees at a snapshot
process improvement driven by information.”
in time and try to work backwards to figure out exactly what
He understands the temptation for leaders to go for
happened,” she says. “Leaders often rely on the metrics that
ambitious projects and bring in more drastic IT or
are already available. But nowadays, there are opportunities
development changes. But from his experience, the small
to enhance or aggregate data in new ways to gain insights
steps often make the big differences. He and his team opt
that can really isolate the key factors that support strategic
for making very subtle changes, measuring results as they
decision-making. With better data, we can proactively identify
come in, and pivoting as needed.
which initiatives or leadership behaviors are highly correlated
with success.” “We use this concept of driving decisions quickly with data,
making quick incremental changes, then seeing what the

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 impact is by looking at the data,” Mark says. Without such Learn as a team with metrics
data, decisions are discreet events that aren’t replicable or
Scott Lewis’ engineering organization at APiO has benefitted
measurable over time. So true change starts with seeing the
from evaluating the frequency of commits and story points
results. Their analysis provides new ideas that can be tested,
over the goal line. The initial reactions from the engineers
implemented and measured.
when he introduced these metrics were not atypical—they
This data-driven cycle creates the constant feedback to drive worried about their flaws being exposed to their peers and the
better results, and according to Mark, it brings the most value effects of Big Brother supervision.
to the business.
“But what it ended up doing was raising all boats,” Scott says.
“It’s a very quick and iterative process to develop systems and “They started looking at outcomes.”
put processes in place that deliver business benefit,” he says.
Now the culture at APiO is that everyone can learn from
“It’s much more fulfilling when you do something and you can
everyone else. Engineers check in with one another frequently
see the business value that it’s delivering.”
to offer support and code reviews. Interns come in with new
ideas that senior engineers pick up, and the senior engineers
help out the newest team members to help them get up to
Humanize your metrics
speed. Everyone learns from what the best engineers are
A danger inherent in being driven by data is that the data doing, and the data helps them understand how to replicate
replaces the human experience. That has never been the those good behaviors.
point of incorporating metrics into decision-making for any of
“The main thing that we as leaders need to always be
the experts we’ve spoken to. In fact, many of them take direct
cognizant of is how do we help them get to where they are
measures to ensure that the numbers enrich the development
trying to go, while at the same time benefiting our company,”
experience for engineers as a community, and for customers
Scott says. “But building people is more important than
and other end-users.
building companies. Build people, and companies build
themselves.”

“Building people is more

important than building
companies. Build people,
and companies build
themselves.”
Scott Lewis, VP of Engineering at APiO

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Aggregate data to see the big picture experience could have real-time visibility into which
developers and teams were affected by the new rate limits,”
One of the pitfalls of data-driven organizations is that they
she says. “Because we had this visibility, we were able to stay
simply have so. much. data. When Amol served as the VP
in sync as we deployed the changes while minimizing negative
of Engineering at Life360, his organization processed user
end-user impact. It would have been much harder to do if any
feedback from more than 25 million Life360 users. It would
of the business stakeholders had to pull ad hoc reports.”
have been impossible for his teams to take action on every
piece of that feedback. He knew full well that no one can Developing a strategy behind the metrics an organization
listen to all of it. is tracking and making them readily available, accessible
and understandable enables tech leaders to inform their
“You can create or put in systems pretty quickly to know
decisions and implement them quickly. According to Brenda,
if there are any emerging trends going on,” he says.
the right data allows leaders to see the issues at hand and act
“Systems that can help you get data about your users,
much faster.
customer service metrics, any sort of internal testing.
You’re not addressing feedback individually, but you’re “Data can help you discover the number one thing
seeing what the trend lines are. When fifteen people are that we can influence and change today,” she says.
taking the time to tell you that there must be something “Companies can course correct much faster if they can
going on, don’t dismiss it.” isolate issues at that level.”

Amol adds that teams should listen to all their channels

for customer feedback. Talking to customers doesn’t mean
focusing on any one single avenue. Twitter might be as
insightful as the app’s help feature, and other departments—
like customer service—can relay the input they receive.

“Form alliances with everyone else in the company, so

everyone’s focused on solving those problems,” he says.

Use visual metrics rather than unrefined data

With the inherent business need for data in setting and

measuring progress toward organizational goals, the
numbers need to be as consumable as possible. Metrics
have a story to tell. But humans, unlike computers, are visual
learners. Recalling her time at Slack, Brenda highlights how
her team used visual dashboards to deliver key information
in a timely manner.

“When we changed rate limits to API tokens, one of the first

things we did was set up a dashboard so that our business
partners across partnerships, product and customer

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Part 2 recap:

Data is what you make of it

Data is powerful. It can help organizations make more informed decisions. And the more data
available to you, as a leader, the more insights you can extract from it. For leaders who want to find
their weak points, data can spot-check their instincts and open investigations into deeper issues—if
they are truly willing.

“Data is only as good as our own biases,” Brenda reminds us. “In order to truly find gaps and blind
spots, leaders need to be as open to seeing those in the data as they are about finding them in their
organizations.”

Tech leaders must truly engage with the metrics they have in order to observe their own biases
at play. They will already be well on the way to constantly improving their own use of data in their
organizations if they observe these key ideas from the leaders we spoke with:

Improve performance by using data. The right metrics can help you
prioritize the highest-impact pushes, as well as to perform consistently in the short
and long term.

Drive continuous improvement with smaller changes,

instead of large, sudden ones. The incremental, well-tested changes will take you
further than the headline-grabbing, big-ticket implementations.

Bolster the human experience with data, rather than subjecting

it. Developers can learn (individually and collectively) how to improve their
performance and what new skills will have greatest impact. Teams can view
customer data in the aggregate to better understand the end-user experience.
And in any case, data made visual is more easily utilized by all stakeholders than
raw numbers.

Focus on more than just data, so you can align the analysis with
the organization’s strategy for success—whether that goal is improving an
engineering team, a product, a profit margin or a customer experience.

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Part 3: Agility
and adaptability

Recent times have required both agility and adaptability from the tech industry in measures

possibly unmatched since the dot-com boom (and bust). Yet these features have figured

prevalently in the world of software engineering for nearly as long as there has been

software engineering.

Like many buzzwords, agility and adaptability have lost much of another a-word: actionability.

Every organization wants to be nimble and flexible, but not every team has the knowledge or the

experience to advance them.

See how other top engineers are addressing agility, with leaders including: Scott Lewis, VP of

Engineering at APiO; Jonathan Rayback, VP of engineering at Evernym; Heidi Helfand, Director

of R&D Excellence at Procore Technologies and author of Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and

Wisdom of Changing Teams; Mike Rasmussen, Data Center Site Manager at Facebook; and

Nikola Milanovic, Solutions Architect at Apple.

They each discuss how their strategies for creating adaptability and agility stem from treating

engineers like people first, empowering them to shape outcomes, grow organizations and

accomplish their visions, whatever the circumstances.

Re-organize your team with purpose Heidi discerns five distinct reteaming patterns—the structural
methods for consciously making teams more adaptable:
Heidi Helfand had long heard the gold standard for effective
team building was continuity. It showed up in readings on agile • The One by One pattern: The simplest way to create a new

and scrum. Leadership coaches talked about it. Yet when she team is to add or remove just one person—even just that

assembled a coaching group at a startup company to make smallest of reteaming shifts creates a different team system.

teams more effective, she scrapped that philosophy. • The Grow and Split pattern: Teams that were once

“It would have run counter to helping our company thrive,” efficient can outgrow themselves, and leaders can break

she says. “As a company grows and adds people—especially those teams into faster, sleeker, more specialized units.

really fast—things need to adjust and change. Leaning • The Merging pattern: Two or more teams combining into a
into that change is important. Fighting that change is single unit is often intended to create greater flexibility and
counterproductive.” knowledge-sharing.

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 “If you’re inclusive with the design
of your reteaming and you get ideas
from people on the ground, you have
a greater chance of success,”
Heidi Helfand, Director of R&D Excellence at Procore Technologies and author
of Dynamic Reteaming: The Art and Wisdom of Changing Teams

• The Isolation pattern: Forming a team off to the side Take meaningful steps to create
and giving them process freedom is good for addressing
the right team
emergencies and spurring new innovation.
Whether teams are being reformed according to Heidi’s reteaming
• The Switching pattern: Developers moving to other teams
framework or simply adapting the existing team, the software
within the same company extends their lifespans at the
industry advances so rapidly and consistently that teams cannot
company and helps them grow, learn and find fulfillment in
remain any more static than their ever-evolving products.
their careers.
Nikola Milanovic, experienced in different sides of business
Heidi’s research rooted in these five patterns shows that the
operations, developed these three strategies for building
bulk of reteaming efforts spawn from an intrinsic motivation
adaptable teams.
or need. Some reteaming events, though, are deliberate
• Hire for soft skills to create an adaptive team:
top-down top-down affairs. In those cases, if they have sound
“I always put more emphasis on personality traits and
reasons for happening, they can work.
on the so-called soft skills,” Nikola says. “It’s easier to learn
“They’re not about going in there, reorging these people and
technical skills, to progress and learn competency, than
moving on without ever talking about how it went,” she says.
communication skills and other soft skills.”
“Reteaming education for leaders is important, because that’s
He looks at how potential hires approach solving problems
how we develop a capacity to grow and change—and learn
and communicating their thinking. Technical competency
from it.”
is important—and can show how well engineers approach
Utilizing feedback loops is key to what she calls humane
problem-solving and change throughout a career—but
reteaming. Feedback loops help identify the reasons for
technology can be learned. Interpersonal and creative-
change, and what problems teams need to solve. They also
thinking skills are harder to instill, and they are just as
demonstrate results. Heidi looks for feedback loops in three
important as technical knowledge to a cohesive, well-
places: the people, the workflow and the work itself.
performing team.
“If you’re inclusive with the design of your reteaming and
• Adapt new technology when there is a business case:
you get ideas from people on the ground, you have a greater
—when it makes sense: Product growth often requires
chance of success,” she says.
technological growth. It’s up to managers and other

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 “Most teams aren’t just measuring
lines of code anymore, but they are
continuing to measure output. That
completely misaligns the incentives.
It reduces alignment and shared
responsibility.”
Mike Rasmussen, Data Center Site Manager at Facebook

leaders to strike the balance between technological Set goals for outcomes, instead
adaptability and maintaining velocity from sprint to sprint.
of output
Engineers might want to learn new things every day—so
As a veteran engineering leader, Mike Rasmussen
their leadership needs to decide which new tech makes
understands DevOps as a broader cultural phenomenon. And
sense in the moment, and which doesn’t. “It’s not always
like other aspects of organizational culture, it can be shifted.
a good thing for developers to shift from technology to
He sees how a significant part of DevOps culture is measuring
technology,” Nikola says. “They end up going too wide
everything to understand if teams are moving in the right
and not going deep enough. So, a leader needs to have
direction with efficiency and productivity—but that often leads
developers’ career interests in mind, too.”
to teams being stuck in rigid drives to create productivity
Still, Nikola says, “We are in an industry where you cannot rather than products.
allow yourself not to learn and progress constantly.”
“So often companies implement OKRs and don’t have
• Welcoming all voices leads to more ideas and empowered product teams in DevOps,” Mike says. “Thankfully,
better results: Everyone on Nikola’s teams has the ability most teams aren’t just measuring lines of code anymore, but they
to contribute ideas, regardless of their developer status are continuing to measure output. That completely misaligns the
or tenure. And not just in an “anonymous suggestion incentives. It reduces alignment and shared responsibility.”
box” kind of way—these ideas often make it to the clients’
Mike’s solution to creating stronger agility is to value outcomes
consideration as an indication of the team’s commitment.
over output.
“We try to enable each team member to raise their voice
Let’s say that a team’s mission is to get a payload across
concretely and practically,” he says.
a river. A company expects output-driven results if they
Not only does this approach keep a diversity of thought provide the team with specifications for the bridge. Design,
active and thriving within a team, it also earns points with aesthetics, tolerances. The leaders likely want reports
clients and customers. Bringing new ideas to the fore when certain milestones are reached so they can measure
demonstrates to clients that the team is working with a sense of progress. On the other hand, a company allows
them, rather than just for them—which Nikola experiences outcome-driven results if it simply presents the team with
as a positive in building that long-term relationship that the mission: We need to get this payload across that river.
can last longer than any iteration of the product itself. How they accomplish that is up to the team.

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 “Engineers might build a rocket that launches across the river “We have gone back to basics,” Scott says, “in the sense
that’s way more effective than a bridge, or they might build a that we’re not in this high-flying world prior to the COVID
floating bridge that uses less resources,” Mike explains. “They slowdown. We have tried to stay lean because we don’t
might tunnel under the river, or they might build a zip line. It know where this [pandemic] is going. So we decided to
ultimately doesn’t matter to the business. They just want to work with what we’ve got, see where things go, and forge
get across the river. And if you save money and resources in new partnerships with financial institutions and distribution
doing it, even better.” channels. We’ve even delayed our Series A so that we don’t
get over our skis.”
Transitioning from output to outcomes is a mind-shift for many
leaders, because stakeholders are so often used to pulling This opportunity has enabled Scott to examine the practices
output-based levers. That’s how they feel they add value as within Engineering and make sure they’re really working to
leaders. support the team. Stand-ups are now remote, for example,
which is his chance to make sure they’re still adding purpose
But the opposite is much more true. Even (or especially) when
to the engineers’ week. Grounding the team in its foundational
the going gets tough, leaders need to lean back on DevOps
practices has helped them operate at peak efficiency, even as
principles and trust and empower their teams to deliver the
they have taken on a lean and frugal approach.
outcomes they want.
Revisit the org chart
“Most dysfunctions are the result of the leadership, not the
teams,” Mike says. “It’s on leadership to model vulnerability When everyone is working in an office, it’s easier for leaders to
and trust. Help yourself out by assuming positive intent. Your check in with individual engineers, see who’s working on what
teams are not trying to fail. They’re trying to succeed. Hold project and have on-the-fly meetings when the situation calls
them to a high standard, and show you expect results by for it. Going online strains many of the opportunities leaders
putting the ownership on them.” have taken for granted. Jonathan quickly realized that his
organizational structure needed refinements to better serve
his team.
Establish resiliency and flexibility
“Even though we’re technically a flat organization,
now to weather tough times I’ve had to develop some people into more leadership
The software development industry is already one of the roles, because I just can’t be aware of everything that’s
more versatile disciplines on the planet, with organizations happening all the time,” he says. “So, I’ve asked a lot
taking on all kinds of internal structures and distribution/co- of our senior developers to take on a sort of quasi
location models. When tough times happen, teams already engineering management role without anyone reporting
accustomed to responding to change are more capable of to them. It allows them to get involved in a little project
adapting to new circumstances. management and decision-making while being the senior

This philosophy is highly applicable for global tough times person in the room.”

like the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, but any smaller-scale By being creative with the structure of his team, Jonathan
tough time (from company finances to family disasters) calls has made room for senior engineers who want to explore
for some degree of resiliency from an engineering team, too. leadership responsibilities. But the forced change of a fully

Jonathan Rayback and Scott Lewis both offer insights into distributed team also opens up an entirely new pool of talent

how creating a little flexibility in a team can go a long way when recruiting.

when the going gets rough. “In the past, I’ve only wanted people in one of our cities. Now
we have a lot of flexibility to hire anywhere,” Jonathan says.
Bolster the basics

One new idea Scott has is actually an old idea: get back to Normalize digital collaboration

the core of what his team is and how it functions—even if that Communication is key to any successful engineering team,
looks different in these new post-2020 circumstances. and while in-person is still the best way to forge strong

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 relationships, the pandemic has altered that dynamic for Strengthen the remote culture for everyone
most co-located organizations for the foreseeable future.
A remote culture is more than methods of communication; it’s
Jonathan had long felt there was no substitute for being in
an entire worldview. The pandemic has forced Scott to realize
the same room, but over the past few years real-time digital
that his team may never return to a brick-and-mortar office.
communication has become more realistic. When COVID
The Engineering team has always been partially distributed.
created an immediate need, and yet his team’s collaboration
But now that everyone is working from home, he’s realizing the
continued unabated, his views on the matter shifted.
benefits of embracing a remote culture.
“Technology has gotten better and we have things like video
“We’re going to start looking for talent that doesn’t necessarily
conferencing, Slack and a new generation of developers who
have to be sitting nearby,” Scott says. “And we haven’t figured
have come up more comfortable in those types of media.
out those strategies yet. Everyone is going to have to figure
So my attitude has really modulated and come around 180
out how to draw great people. How are we going to change
degrees,” Jonathan says. “Yesterday, we couldn’t spell work
our perks to be available to people who work remotely? It’s one
from home. Today, we are living it and we had to commit to
of the big areas I’m trying to figure out myself.”
making it happen and just learned as we went.”
When Scott discusses “perks,” he refers to this idea: How can
Because Evernym is global, time zones and team schedules
an Engineering organization build a remote culture that works
are something that Jonathan and his team have been
great for everyone—that isn’t a lesser experience for anyone
navigating on the fly.
outside a co-located office? The pandemic has allowed him to
“For our offshore people, it’s required more flexibility. They see for the first time what it’s like to lead an entirely distributed
tend to start their days later now and work a little bit later. team, and therefore, how to do it even better.
I think they are naturally finding it more convenient to be
“This has given us the ability to see the shortcomings that
aligned with other members of the team,” Jonathan says.
the remote people were already dealing with,” Scott says. “It’s
given us new ideas for how to make it better for the remote
people and not just live with the inefficiencies.”

“Yesterday, we couldn’t spell

work from home. Today, we are
living it and we had to commit
to making it happen and just
learned as we went.”
Jonathan Rayback, VP of engineering at Evernym

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)
 Part 3 recap:

Adaptability is deliberate
Adaptability and agility aren’t magical coincidences. Leaders must facilitate their emergence
and development, which they can do by embracing these strategies and philosophies
presented by other tech leaders:

Re-organize your team with purpose, because every team and

organization will change whether we want it to or not. An awareness of what teams
need, and therefore how to help them change, will lead to more powerful outcomes.

Take meaningful steps to create the right team, including hiring

for the soft skills that are harder to learn than tech-based knowledge; adjusting
to new technology when it makes sense rather than doing so indiscriminately;
and opening doors and minds to input from all voices and perspectives in an
organization to yield more and better ideas.

Set goals for outcomes, rather than emphasizing output leads teams to
think and perform more creatively. These teams possess a greater freedom of
thought and process and thus create more unexpected, versatile solutions.

Establish resiliency and flexibility now, as it will help teams weather

the tough times ahead—whether those tough times are global or personal in scope.

Need to better understand

how your engineering team
is progressing?
Learn how you can get—and use—immediate insight
on how your team works by scheduling a demo of
Pluralsight Flow

Perspectives in engineering: 3 ways to help your team thrive (in and out of the codebase)