Communication to Community
Why a tight tech team starts with good communication.
Software Developer. What springs to mind? A born tech prodigy, computer whizz, furiously typing lines of green code day in and day out? Never sleeping? Running high on energy drinks and low on social interaction?
It’s a role that many see involving strange bugs, pseudo-english, and zero team communication. But it’s really a role that consistently demands the most effective communication possible. Take Clipchamp for instance. The exchange of information and ideas between Clipchamp’s tech team members makes up a large and crucial portion of their daily grind. And understandably so. Solid communication in tech can take a team of individuals performing to their job description to a thriving community striving towards a common vision.
“Solid communication in tech can take a team of individuals performing to their job description to a thriving community striving towards a common vision.”
Facilitating a Smooth Sailing Workflow
A vigorous team of developers manage countless version control system tool elements like pull requests, merge conflicts and feature branches, amongst other tasks. The streamlined development team workflow requires an all hands on deck approach to communication.
Periodic updates on both task progress and barriers to task progress serve as the general upkeep of the ship. Individual check-ins within a team setting keep the direction and momentum of projects and maintain crew focus. The Clipchamp development team carries out daily standups which allows for faster problem solving and a better coordinated workflow. Such regimented activities certainly prevent the team from feeling all at sea.
Aside from regular team updates, general communication within tech teams is simplified by team messaging applications. Online messaging enables team members to communicate quicker and at their own pace so as not to disrupt productive work. Applications like Slack provide additional features such as message archive and search, guest accounts, screen sharing and app integrations like Google Drive file management.
Compact channels of communication in a tech team reduce workflow friction and set work in full sail.
“Compact channels of communication in a tech team reduce workflow friction and set work in full sail.”
Successful Pivots Require Pack Direction
The popular tech and lean startup mantra “fail fast, fail often” can only be actualised with communication. In order to recover and pivot quickly from failure, teams must collectively process several elements. Post mortem meetings allow teams to discuss the incident’s causative factors, how it was handled, and how fast it was resolved. Deconstructing a failed project enables the team to develop improvements to prevent future failures and shorten their resolution time.
Similarly, retrospective meetings facilitate reviews of previous sprints and subsequent courses of action for future sprints. The team investigates how previous sprints were conducted and determine modifications to ineffective processes for upcoming sprints. Retrospective meetings promote team agility, benefit the clarification of project goals and get everyone on the same page.
Communication in times of failure helps guide the pack to reach greater heights without loose ties.
“Communication in times of failure helps guide the pack to reach greater heights without loose ties.”
Teaching and Reviewing Strengthens Team Bonds and Perpetuates Knowledge
Communication in tech teams not only leads to quantitative results but creates closer bonds between individuals and furthers knowledge and capability. Code reviews not only improve the code quality but encourage trust and respect between team members. They stimulate new ways of working and improvements in individual processes. Documentation which communicates the structure of a code base perpetuates knowledge and reduces bad practice. It speeds the process of understanding and promotes respect between coworkers.
Educational sessions additionally strengthen individual and team knowledge, performance and trust. Clipchamp conducts meetings in which team members have the opportunity to present a topic of their choice that they believe to be beneficial and teach it to the team. This activity contributes to a continuous educational atmosphere and breaks any barrier to learning.
Between talking face to face, presenting to your crew, or messaging online, communication is a must for all teams in the tech industry. It seems painfully obvious, right? But it takes more than simple and direct conversation. Standups and general maintenance communication in teams facilitate smooth sailing. Post mortem meetings and retrospective meetings allow teams to recover from failure quickly and teaching and conducting code reviews help gain trust and improve quality of work. We’ve seen the benefits of making use of these mechanisms at Clipchamp. They’ve been helping our team master this fundamental aspect of collaboration — we’re sure they can help yours too.
Clipchamp is the world’s first browser-based video tool suite. We are changing the way people share video by making video compression, conversion, editing and recording fast and easy. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
