A few things I’ve learnt working at ustwo
(Update: there is now a Japanese translation of this post)
Last November, after 6 fantastic years together, I left ustwo. Working at the Shoreditch studio, seeing the company shape change over time, and being surrounded by such talented people has been a life changing experience.
Having said that, I decided to follow the goal I’ve set myself for a couple of years ago: come to work and live in Japan. And as I’m excitedly going to start my next adventure very soon, working in the heart of Tokyo at Goodpatch, I’ve decided to put down and share a few insights about what I’ve learnt during my period at ustwo.
1. Have a people-first approach
The digital industry moved from considering employees as resources, used by the business to fulfil its goal, to thinking about them as individuals that are rather the very fabric of the business itself.
People are the engine that makes a company run, and people’s motivation is the fuel that keeps the engine pushing. As intrinsic motivation is more powerful and long-lasting then external motivation, we also moved from hiring managers to having facilitators: from telling people what to do and by when, to allowing them to be in the best condition to make an assessment of the what needs to be done, and perform in autonomy.
We’re lucky enough to live in an era where all our basic needs are covered. But we also work in a competitive industry where companies fight for talent and are willing to fulfil people’s higher aspirations to retain them.
When I read Daniel Pink’s Drive, the idea of Purpose-Autonomy-Mastery strongly resonated. Give people the opportunity to fail, while supporting them into avoiding mission-critical mistakes. Give their ambition a voice, lead them to be leaders. Surround yourself with talented professionals, create an environment where they can thrive, and trust them to perform the best job of their life. Along with some failures, great positive surprises will arise too.
2. Welcome diversity and be inclusive
This point is very much linked to the previous one. A productive working environment is one where people just need to focus on doing their best and where they feel valued and part of the big picture, no matter their gender (if any), race, religion, political view and so forth.
In ustwo, everybody made an incredible effort to put inclusion at the core. Diversity is not an easy topic to talk about, as it could go down into touching people’s emotional layer. That’s why is fundamental to have an ongoing discussion on the topic, and keep on constantly checking with the minorities their engagement.
Being non-judgemental and inclusive is not only good from a human, philanthropic point of view: diversity is a value for the company and its business. Different points of view allow for more creative solutions, and generally leads to better outcomes than in teams where everybody share the same mindset (which is the same reason why it is good to have a troublemaker in a brainstorming session). Diversity also enables better understanding and empathy for users coming from different backgrounds. And with people from 25+ nationalities, like ustwo has, comes multiculturality, of which one side effect is smoother collaboration with international clients.
3. Embrace the industry, not just your role
When I moved to London from Frankfurt in 2010, my goal was to work in a web development company and become a more experienced software architect. I ended up joining what 6 years ago was mainly considered a design studio. Did I fail my purpose? Perhaps. The reality though is that what I really wanted was to have a more abstract and generalist perspective on projects and products. That’s what I ended up doing at ustwo.
We live in a period where the digital industry needs not only smart and talented people, but more hybrid / fluid professionals with a true appreciation and empathy for the different disciplines involved in the design and development of a product.
I’ve seen people moving from a design role into a product lead one. Sometimes just for a few weeks or months, to come back to their original role enriched, more experienced and able to incorporate the fresh learnings into their old duties. It’s not the defeat of I-shaped over T-shaped people, but I definitely see the value in stretching one’s reach outside their core competencies.
4. The importance of culture
There are incredibly talented people out there. However, not all of them are made to work together. Commitment and drive might not be enough — it’s important to make sure the right mix of people is in place for them to stick together and hold to each other when the going gets tough.
A company is like an individual person — it has a background, a personality, values, and a vision ahead. It has a culture. A company’s culture is the thing that will attract and retain people who fit into it, and having a good culture is the thing that will attract and retain the most talented people around.
Whenever I ran job interviews, the purpose of the first meeting was to check the cultural fit of the candidate: are them somebody who believes in our values? Are we going to get along, as human beings? Do I get good preliminary hints that I could entrust this person to carry the cultural flag of the company sometimes soon?
Shape the values and define the vision together, and the people you work with will be the first ambassadors of the company.
5. Product mindset and collaboration
Before joining ustwo, I was a technologist who cared for the craft of software and was passionate about the quality and cleanliness of code. I still care about that — it makes a difference between a good and a great digital product — but I learnt that technology itself lives as function of what ultimately creates value for the user.
During a fast-paced product discovery, it’s fundamental to set a goal for the current phase and keep on asking yourselves: what do we want to take out from this sprint? What’s the thing we want to learn / validate? How do we get to that piece of validated information as quickly as possible?
Likewise, during the development of the first deliverable product, choose carefully the features to include based on their user value: an extra, unneeded story could easily lead to extra development time, extra bug fixing, and extra effort to remove the feature later on, in a cascade of time (and money) wasting events.
Close collaboration of all the disciplines involved in the product development enables fast communication and therefore fast alignment on the goal. I absolutely value having designer and developers working jointly on the same story. And this approach has an extra benefit: technologists, who tend to be the last ring of the chain and engage less with the end users, will be more involved in the creative process and appreciate how their work is actually directly impacting users.
6. Innovation and change take time
I’m a bit of a logical person and at times it happens that when I talk with somebody, explaining rationally a new concept, I give for granted that the other person will have understood; no other iteration is needed. Reality is different, and I am indeed the first one who needs multiple chats to completely absorb something new.
If education — as much as I don’t like this word, I’m going to use it — requires some effort to bring up to speed just a single person, it takes even longer for a team. And if the goal is to change your organisation, much more time than that. It took months for ustwo to be ready to embrace the above-mentioned designers and developers collaboration in the same sprint and on the same stories. For clients who want to fully embrace Lean, Agile and be proficient in product development, it might take years of clashes and projects that “could have been better” until finally feeling that the two sides on the same page.
Slowly bring the other party outside of their comfort zone. Lead by example showing in a practical manner the benefits of innovation. Be empathic when you meet resistance: our stakeholders have stakeholders too. Constantly reiterate the message. As somebody told me: if it doesn’t feel like you’re over-repeating yourself, you’re just not repeating enough.
It’s been a blast. So long ustwo!
