How to Build a Kick Ass Team
Celebrating a recent milestone inspires a moment of reflection.
How did we get here?
Digital Blue Foam is currently practicing social distancing. In normal times, our team works together collectively from Singapore, Dubai and India for several reasons. But these are extraordinary times. Ultimately, with the DNA of an agile team, the current transition has been relatively smooth.
Despite the crisis, we recently celebrated an important milestone which inspires a moment of reflection. Hopefully these lessons will be helpful for you too as you build your agile team.
1 / Hire only effective people
Game-changing solutions are built by talented and self-motivated people who can form self-organizing teams
2 / If not us, then who?
Throughout history, from Napoleon to Buckminster Fuller, a naïve mindset has helped the best questioners and most fearless innovators to take on the biggest challenges [1].
3 / Disagree openly
The back and forth of discussion helps to clarify different perspectives and makes it easier for everyone to share views openly.
4 / Customer collaboration
Strive for daily communication between customers and developers.
5 / Adapt
Rather than plan too far in advance, deliver working software and updates continuously (Think days and weeks not months!)
6 / Simplicity
Simplicity is the Law. Maximize the work not done [2].
As John Maeda once wrote:
“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”
7 / Stay in your lane
As Lavar Ball once said[3]. Keep looking forward, not backward. Focus on your users, not the competition and everything will take care of itself
8 / Surprise
Design Surprises into your product to make it special for your users. This can elevate the everyday or banal into a more engaging or pleasant experience.
Next Steps
No one can say for certain what the near future will bring. However, learning how to build successful agile team to navigate the waves has been equally rewarding and challenging.I look forward to revisit this post in a few months with fresh eyes and new experiences.
N O T E S
1 An inspiring question posed by Mick Ebeling, a designer who led the effort to develop a low-cost eye-tracking device that allows artists with ALS to draw using only their eyes.
2 The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda is an excellent resource on this topic
3 We do not endorse Lavar Ball or Big Baller Brand.
