Startup mode ON — MUST HAVE for every manager
I’m going to start from the very beginning — the spark, the idea that catches fire, the type that keeps you up at night. I had one about a year ago and despite my home duties (I had just become a new dad), I decided to convince my colleagues to make it happen. I prepared myself to sell this idea and a few weeks later we had a meeting. Things started to happen… These were the three most productive days in my life. No managers, no process, no hierarchy, just one vision, and a lot of focus.
Friday late afternoon…
No hierarchy and managers
Despite me being Maciek and Kamil’s team lead at our day job, we immediately had a mutual understanding who will be responsible for what. We removed all professional dependencies and preconceptions from our mind, and focused only on what should be done to deliver a product in three days. Equality was the key to achieving synergy (the same number of people can do more when they are acting as a team instead of individuals). No Managers, no designers, no developers, only people who understand what should be done before Monday…
No process
Process? No, thank you. We didn’t have time for process. Everything that was important was in our heads. Three people do not need facilitation. We achieved the mythical self-organized team which was able to solve all impediments on the fly.
Priorities, yeah MVP
Bartek: Hey guys what if we implement notifications, it would be sooooo cool
Maciek: Bartek did you finish your services?
Bartek: yyyy, no, but notifications…
Maciek: Shut up and go back to development, it’s not important for now and you just wasted 5 mins of our time!
Bartek: ….true….
Process….
Shared vision and one goal
One shared vision; to create a tool that can potentially improve informal communication in big companies. One goal; to create it as soon as possible and have a lot of fun. Bring to the word something that can be useful, learn, argue, compromise, build.
Focus
A ton of focus; during this time I had the pleasure of seeing the real potential of my friends. It was the first time we were properly focused on our tasks, where every minute was 120% productive. It was extremely fun to work without politics, metrics, time trackers, and sorry for saying this, other people. Just us, our laptops and tons of focus.
Passion
This was the main thing that brought all of us together in the same place at the same time. Passion, a feeling that drives you to do amazing things. Maciek and Kamil agreed to do this because they knew that they would be doing things that they are passionate about (JavaScript, Angular, UX, UI, Design, CODING, DELIVERING). Revolutionaries are the ones who want to change reality at all costs, they are not happy within their comfort zone, and believe me, they can do magic because they are passionate.
Monday morning….
Lesson learned — Managment and Agile
Now look on the Agile Manifesto.
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to changeThat is while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.
All of our actions and values that were important during this time, are almost covered by these 4 short sentences. Individuals and interactions; plenty. Communication in such an environment is extremely effective, it’s almost like telepathy. Working software; Oh yeah, that and ONLY that, constantly looking for win-win solutions and acceptable compromises. Customer collaboration; that’s why I wrote “almost” it was a startup so we didn’t have real customers. Responding to change; yes, maybe it’s not external change, but most of the time we had to struggle with technical obstacles that blocked one of the potential solutions. However, with good cooperation and communication, we were able to solve them almost instantly.
Let’s move to the Scrum guide:
“ …They are self-organizing…”, “….are cross-functional….”
In fact, such “configuration” in this type of environment is the role model of those two sentences. Our competencies were so complementary to each other, that it was almost impossible to stop developing at that time.
“What did I do yesterday that helped the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal?”
The bold part of the sentence is a game changer (sometimes it’s good to read the scrum guide one more time). It’s not about what you did! It’s about how you and your work contribute to the shared goal. This was exactly the case when we were working on our startup. Remember, the team is only as fast as the slowest member of the team. If the QA has too many things to test, help him/her and the whole team speeds up. Someone stuck on a tough algorithm, drop everything and try to solve the issue together. One Goal.
“ Scrum recognizes no titles for Development Team members other than Developer”
Common sense, isn’t it? When are people focused on one vision, who cares about the roles? We have one goal, to deliver one product, and our skill set is only the tool to achieve this objective.
Last but not least, lesson learned as THE manager:
People who share a vision and are focused on one goal, can literally do magic. They will become self-organised, independent and self-sufficient. Those who achieve this state will be like the Loch Ness Monster; everyone talks about it, but no one seen it.
Honestly, I’m a bit afraid of such teams, because as you probably know, those people don’t need managers, and I’m the one of them.
Bartek THE manager.
Ps.
I want to really thank Maciek and Kamil, without whom this lesson could not have taken place. Guys, you don’t know how much I learned from you. One more time THX!
Big thanks to Neil who helped me with English, and I don’t need to be worried that Quien Elizabeth will send to me MI6 because of my grammar
Ps2.
Unfortunately, we didn’t implement our brilliant solution in any real life environment but to prove that we worked on something I attached a YT video:
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